Back of the blade

>>33921244
I've never heard of that strategy.. weren't most swords in Europe double edged blades??

Bumping for interest

>>33921266
It's a tactic for single edged and double edged blades. It's called Mordhau - you were intended to grasp the blade in a manner where it was away from the crease of where your fingers meet your palm, and it was meant to be a grip tighter than a virgin's little boy-pussy. It was often done with leather gauntlets, and strikes from Mordhau would be done in a manner that struck with the crossguard of the weapon rather than the hilt.

If you haven't heard of it, you clearly haven't invested research into longswords.

>>33921266
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwuQPfvSSlo

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One word SHASKA

>>33921244
the pommel or guard would be weighted or at the very least concentrate all the force to one spot. hitting with the back of the blade woulld be exactly as effective as using the front on an armored opponent.

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The point of the mordhau wasn't to get a blunt impact, the point was rather to invert the sword's balance.

A sword has its centre of mass quite close to the hilt. This make sit easier to move the tip around for the wielder, darting around to find an opening, and accelerating as you attack or move to defend. But it goes both ways, it's easier for anything else to affect the motion of the tip end as well, so when it hits something that something can stop it more easily, it lacks inertia. Against flesh this is more than compensated for by the sharp edge making it so you don't need much inertia, but it becomes an issue against things you cannot cut, like sufficiently thick armour.

A mace or warhammer on the other hand has the centre of mass near the head, and thus a lot of inertia regarding how the head moves. Harder to get going (if all else equal), but harder to stop as well, both for you if you miss, and for whatever you hit id you don't.

So if you have a sword, but need inertia, what do you do? Simple, you turn it over so you hold the part far away from the centre of mass, and strike with the part close to it. Simple striking with the back does not give you this effect, it merely makes your sword act as if really dull, and in some designed will be a very good way to break the blade. (Residual stress from the heat treatment making the blade tougher when you apply a load pressing against the egde, but mroe brittle when the load is applied to the spine.)

Well, simple in theory at least. In practice you need time to flip your sword around, most swords designs will handle quite poorly (even by the standards of war hammers and the like) when thus inverted, and most blades won't provide a very good grip either. As popular as this technique (and it's just a specific technique) is as a way to show that you know your shit when it comes to medieval swordsmanship, it may have been a technique with a rather narrow niche, and little utility in general.

>>33921332
The edge should concentrate the blow even more if you strike with it (in a line, but a very narrow one, and as the target is almost certainly very curved, the contact length will usually be short), to say nothing of a thrust with the point.

>>33921291
>you were intended to grasp the blade in a manner where it was away from the crease of where your fingers meet your palm

No need to avoid touching the edge. Unless you've honed it to surgical standards (rather mroe fragile than you'd like for combat) simply pressing the edge into your skin shouldn't cut. It's when the blade starts slipping that you loose fingers, or if the blade is slammed into you with a decent amount of speed.

You can perform a limited test of this by attempting to cut a steak just by pressing your knife into it. Just keep in mind that skin should be far more resistant than bared meat. Fresh piglet skin would probably be ideal.

>>33921266

they had lots of single edged blades, because a single-edged sword doesn't cost as much or require the same kind of quality to be effective. Also, they more or less ended up using single-edged blades by the 17th or 18th century anyway.

>Simple striking with the back does not give you this effect, it merely makes your sword act as if really dull, and in some designed will be a very good way to break the blade.
Not even a little bit? If all the weight is at the head than wouldn't it have a slight amount of heft to it?

>>33921400
So basically, it was the batoning of the time.

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>>33921404
>because a single-edged sword doesn't cost as much or require the same kind of quality to be effective

How on Earth did you reach that conclusion?

>>33921415
Am I misunderstanding something? A sword doesn't have a head.

But assuming I am understanding you correctly, no, not really. Hold the hilt here and you can strike with edge or spine, the centre of mass is in the same place relative to your grip and the target regardless, so the inertia (or lack thereof) will be the same. Perhaps if you went full lab grade with measurements you might be able to spot some difference in some swords since the centre of mass might not lie perfectly along the centre line, but the difference should for all practical applications be utterly irrelevant.

It's when you hold at the striking part and hit with the hilt that the centre of mass is moved relative to you and the target, greatly increasing the inertia in the blow, and with that the capacity for it to inflict crushing damage.

I recall in Saber Strokes of the Pennsylvania Dragoons in the War of 1861-1865 the author references several instances where they caught Confederate Infantry in the open, ran them down and struck them about the head and shoulders with the flats of the saber to force surrender. This resulted in serious bruising and concussions, probably a cracked skull or two. While they did have the weight of the horse behind the blow I suspect they were making an effort not strike with full power since the point was to take prisoners.

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>>33921485
I probably shouldn't say much as I haven't tried batoning, but it does seem like a decent comparison, yes. The internet seems to love it, but frankly, if that's what you'll be doing then you should probably just have brought an axe.

>>33921244
You could concuss someone with a blunt side of a sword, but it's going to be bad at the job, it's not designed for it. If you flipped the sword around, there's going to be a better, more weighty percussive bit that is the crossguard or pommel

>>33921244
Mordhau wasn't a real battle tactic, it was intended for judicial duels.

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>>33921804
Judicial duels?

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>>33921244
only in fucking anime

>>33921400
>blade starts slipping that you lose fingers
Yeah, I think that might be a bit of a problem in the hurly-burly of combat. I don't why why people bother to mindlessly say this when in any case anybody with a longsword would be wearing gloves at the very least.

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>>33921244
During knife play, if the blinded and gagged sub isn't reacting to just the flat end of the blade, you can run the back of the blade across a delicate part of his/her skin, which will make them think you actually cut them for a second or two and give a cute reaction.

If female, the throat and spine typically suffice, if male I'd recommend the shaft of his feminine penis, testicles shift too much and could get cut.

>>33921291
I have not invested research into longswords. Never really got into melee weapons.

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>>33921291
It's called half-swording not "Mordhau" I have no idea where you got that gay shit from.

>>33922617
Half-swording is what you do in your pic, where they choke up on the blade to get better point control when stabbing joints and gaps in armor.

Mordhau is when you flip the sword over and beat somebody with the crossguard/pommel.

>>33921400
>The edge should concentrate the blow even more if you strike with it
Its not about concentrating the force, its about balance. A mace that weighs 2kg will hit harder than a sword that weighs 2kg because of how the weight is distributed. maces are heavier at the business end, swords are heavier near the hilt. The idea behind the mordhau is by grasping the sword by the blade and striking with the crossguard, you essentially turn your sword into a warhammer.

>>33922522
>4-chan

>>33921932
Also called trial by combat.
Various combinations of weapons and armour permitted depending on crime in question and social status of persons involved.