Posts: 1,757 Location: Storvreta, Sweden
Wed 01 Jul, 2009 12:29 am
Danny,
In their time of use, they were pretty common. Surviving today, less so perhaps. You do see them in swiss collections however. It is a common thing to see depicted in the swiss chronicles.
In Landesmuseum in Zürich, there are several examples.
I would not say the blades fit neatly in the
Oakeshott typology, although you can see similarities: they are twists on the same basic design concepts.
You see long & slim double edged blades, almost looking like type XIX blades, there are shorter ones that are petty broad (like the example you showed at the top of the thread) and there are even very broad and single edged examples.
For those shorter broader ones, it seems blade length was about 55-60 cm.
Longer & slimmer examples run up to 70 cm in blade length.
The single edged examples have an outline like a type XVIII, but a thin triangular section. A false edge running a third of the length from the point is not unusual. Width at base can be 55-60 mm. There can be a grove or shallow fuller along the back. They have the same hilt as other Degen, only the pommel is often slightly asymmetrical. Look at some big single edged Baselards for comparison. The pommel part is almost like a spur, or perhaps you can see the pommel as slightly bird shaped: one side protrudes more than the other.
Sometimes the guard is a fairly substantial bar of iron, sometimes the wooden hilt only has a thin iron sheet metal reinforcement toward the blade.
I have got the impression that the guard is often fitted so that it slips over the blade from the point and is fastened with two small lugs that go through the wood and is peened down.
If you look for this feature, note that the cut our for the wood in the guard is often as wide or wider than the blade width. That is a clue for this type of slip on construction. A kind of remnant from a knife type construction, rather than a development of the cross guard of a sword.
The pommel is often a thick band of iron bent into a crescent or C-shape. It is also rather common to have a thin sheet of brass or bronze between the iron parts and the wood. This is has a very decorative effect.
Blade type ad cross section vary along some themes. There are diamond shaped ones, that tend to be more pointy. They look like small and narrow type XVIII blades. Hollow ground bevels are common. You also have those that look almost like small type XIX blades. The typical decorative groves of the ricasso on XIX blades are absent, but instead you can see set ups of shallow groves or fullers. These blades are not so pointy, but have a small spade shaped point.
The shorter, broader ones are more varied in their shape. Lenticular sections as well as more complex ones can be seen.
These short swiss swords seem to fulfill the same function as the later Katzbanlger: a handy weapon for close quarter fighting. Somehow I see them belonging to the tradition of the ancient European fighting knife (and the utilitarian short sword from seen in various forms in different time periods).
The name for these is Swiss Degen. Degen is a word that means dagger, but came to mean slim cut and thrust sword in later periods.
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