[Radovan Geist]

Hroarr has published an interesting article on wooden swords from Crete - http://www.hroarr.com/sword-staff-the-sword-of-the-poor/ - not training weapons like wooden "dussack" in Meyer´s manuscripts, but actual fighting weapons with cutting edge.
Btw. grip design of one of those swords pictured there reminded me a wooden knife I had seen last summer in museum in Mostar, which was found in Neretva river when they were re-building the bridge.
And now the question - do you know about other wooden sword/messer/sabre like weapons being used in Europe? Not for training, but for fighting. The article is mentioning that they were in use in the Byzantine Empire (of which I, regrettably, know only a little), so any concrete examples would be appreciated too.

[David Clark]

Fascinating! I never knew that there was a European tradition for wooden swords.

[Hector A.]

And now we know what people probably used against each other before bronze...

"Just because it hasn't been found doesn't mean it didn't exist " (heck + 2000 years and we wouldn't even be finding iron and steel swords in the ground, let alone wood)

I would be very interested in seeing what kind of damage a wooden swords edge can deal on tissue, I'm guessing the thicker more cut oriented designs can probably cut fairly deep into an arm and nick or break the bone, doubt it can chop an arm however.

How thin do you think you can make a wooden edge, and how resistant would it be. Something like 0.4mm sounds about right.

Now what came first broken rocks or wood? We know South American's used wooden paddles with broken obsidian as weapons, and written accounts say that jaguar warriors could cut horses necks off with them ( i doubt it, but a little exaggeration makes reading history a lot better haven't you noticed?).

[Tom King]

A friend of mine in the past made a few cutting sharp wood knives and such out of resin impregnated wood. If memory serves, they actually worked pretty well.

In the link, that top sword looks very similar to a traditional shaska. I wonder what woods and finishes they used to make these cutting wood swords. Personally I'd think thick cross section, thrust oriented swords with carefully fire hardened points would have been the way to go, kind of like a tuck, but thats just me