[Alex Oster]

Am I to understand that ricassos were never more than unsharpened sections of blade close to the hilt? Never trimmed with langets or used to describe the half swording sword's mid blade grip?

Are langets only on the blade's face, and not on the edge?

What about seax's and falcata spines? Are they ever documented with enshrouded spines?

I'm just trying to firmly set these terms straight in my head again and find pictures of examples.

[Darrin Hughes]

Hi Alex. As I understand the term a langet is not a part of the blade at all. As you are familiar with the Conan swords; on the Atlantean, the langets would be the extensions of the guard which run down either side of the ricasso section of the blade. So the langets do run down the edge not the face of the blade.
As for historical examples, these seem to be far more a feature of pole-arms. The langets are the strips, or sections, of metal which are used to secure the business end, whether it be axe-head, hammer, spike, etc, to the shaft.
If anybody does know of any historical examples of swords with langets running down from the hilt, it would be interesting, as I can't think of any off-hand.

Hope that is some help,
Cheers,
Darrin.

[J Willett]

"If anybody does know of any historical examples of swords with langets running down from the hilt, it would be interesting, as I can't think of any off-hand."

Mortuary swords commonly have langets, they seem to act as a kind of spacer or shim on some examples like this one:

http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/displayimage....amp;pos=38

The langets on these swords are not always extensions of the guard they can be L shaped and separate from the rest of the hilt components. In this case they perform at least 2 functions:
1. spacing out the grip from the basket
2. spacing the blade tang from the slot in the basket.

This makes the basket easier to fit to the blade and keeps the whole construction "tight" when in use.

This is my mortuary hilt sword (modern reproduction) that uses separate langets in it's construction:

[Chad Arnow]

[Dan Dickinson]

[Darrin Hughes]

Chad.
Of course, you are right about the claymores, and Mr. Willet also with the Mortuary swords. I would like to plead tiredness as I'd just finished a night shift, but in all honesty I just forgot. As neither of these sword types falls within my particular area of interest, they don't tend to sit at the front of my brain. As far as using the Conan sword as an example goes though, I would say it is valid, as a langet is a technical term, and so can apply to a fantasy item or historical piece. The position is different, as you say, edge rather then face, but the terminology remains the same. This is why I tried to make the distinction when I asked about historical examples.
One thing that I would ask. Are the langets on Claymores purely decorative? As I mentioned before, with pole weapons the langets do serve the purpose of helping to stabilise the weapon, an actual part of the construction. I can't see that this is the case with Claymores, as they seem to be just extensions of the guard, with no connection to the blade. To go back to the Conan swords, this would be just like the skulls on the Father's sword, which serve no real purpose other than to look good.

Cheers,
Darrin.

[Alex Oster]

I guess I am just trying to get a better grasp overall on the terms through photos if I could.

Thanks to the replies though.

My thoughts on the seax was exactly that. I thought I remembered one with something covering the spine, but I'm not that familiar with them.As I said, it could have been on a falcata or something else.

[Darrin Hughes]

Now I come to think about it, a number of middle eastern/central asian swords have this extension running down from the guard as well, although I still can't see what purpose it serves. I really should try to engage brain before I start typing

Just as an aside, I have some pictures of an early Magyar Sabre which I was hoping to have a reproduction of made at one time. Due to recent changes in the law, this has had to be shelved until I find out whether I can legally go ahead with the project. However, one interesting feature is a piece of metal which extends down the length of the blade for a short distance. This is not a piece of the guard, but is actually folded around and over the base of the blade. I believe this is referred to as a forte, not a langet, but as one of Alex's other questions was about 'enshrouded blades' I thought I'd include it.

Cheers,
Darrin.

[Nicholas A. Gaese]

I can second that. It appears to be common on later century Khandas in India and on some swords the "langet" even extends up to the false edge. heres a few pics of the variety.

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[Nicholas A. Gaese]

Other Khanda pics.