I was having a discussion in another forum about sabers. One guy claims that if a cavalry saber is not edged then it ceases to be a saber and it is a sword. I claim that sabers became more and more straight throughout the years until their main purpose became only thrusting.

1786, clearly curved
http://www.militaryheritage.com/images/1796%2...abre_1.jpg

1821, not so curved anymore
http://www.militaryheritage.com/images/1822%2...abre_1.jpg

1897, is it curved at all?
http://www.militaryheritage.com/images/1897%2...0sword.JPG

1908... I don't see a curve! :wtf:
http://www.militaryheritage.com/images/1908_1.jpg

But then, can the 1908 pattern sword still be called a saber?

saber "single-edged sword," 1680, from Fr. sabre "heavy, curved sword" (17c.), alteration of sable (1640), from Ger. Sabel, probably ult. from Hung. szablya "saber," lit."tool to cut with," from szabni "to cut." The Slavic words (cf. Rus. sablya, Polish szabla "sword, saber") are perhaps also from[hungary]; Ger. It. sciabla seems to be directly from Hungarian

Retrieved from: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=saber.

Hello

The sabre is originated (in Europe) from the single edged variants of the straight avar swords (like the one of Kubrat in an other topic from yesterday). In the 7. Cent. came the "protosabre" with the first bulgarians into Europe. These sabres had nairly narow or slightly curved blades, almost like the weaponst of the nomads in 9-10 th C. (like the Attila-sword in Vienna)

In the 11-13. Cent. became the sabre more and more curved (pecheneg, kipchak/kuman, oguz (seldjuk, ottoman), mongolian sabres).

In the 15. Cent the greeks, south-slavs, romanians, albanians, venetians (f.e the stradiots) and hungarians begun to use the ottoman kilidj (and/or seif?), and created their own saber-types. (not to forget the russian, cosac and polish variants of turkic and tatar sabers) These wera all (both stronger og slightly) curved blades.

In hte 18th Century (with the creating of the first husar and ulan regiments) became the saber popular in middle and West Europe, too.

(in 1711 the Habsburgs beated II. Ferenc of Rákóczi, many of his officiers emigrated, on the other hand the hung. hussars of the Habsburgs renegated into the french armyin 1635, 1688 and in the early 1700's - f.e the Rattsky and Bercsényi regiments in France)

And in the Napoleon wars came the mameluk sabre. But in the second hallf of the 19th Cent. the sabre became really more and more straight.

Zoltán

Hector,
I skip the whole debate and just call them swords. :D If you are looking specifically at British military swords, then you will find that in the official language describing the various patterns uses the term "sword", and the describes the designs to which makers must adhere. The language and specifications become more specific over the course of the 19th century, especially when compared to the infantry officer sword regulations of the 1780s and 1790s (which are quite vague).

The patterns of the 1820s mark the beginning of the slightly curved swords (or sabers, if you will ;)) shown in your Military Heritage links. The P1821/22 swords being the first British regulation patterns with the compromise cut and thrust blade. The P1897 has a straight thrust oriented blade with very little cutting edge (1/3 to 1/2 of the blade is actually blunt and has a dumbbell or I-beam cross section). The P1908 has a single edged thrusting blade. I think it is up to you whether or not you would want to call them sabers. I probably would not, but some people call the US M1913 cavalry sword a saber, so I am not sure there is really a hard and fast rule.

One thing that bugs me is the need to differentiate between swords and sabers. All sabers are swords, but not all swords are sabers, at least in my opinion. :)

Jonathan

The specific definition of a saber will vary greatly depending on shape, usage and even which language you happen to be speaking. In Swedish, a straight cavalry backsword can be called either "palasch" or "sabel" depending on at which point in history it was issued. So, it can be kinda confusing.

My personal, highly generalized definition is: All curved swords are sabers, but not all sabers are curved.

To add more consternation are the well meant but rather individual descriptions by author and collector George C. Neumann. A passel of short straight swords are labeled by him as short sabers. Not to be confused with his labeling yet more swords (straight and curved) simply as hangers.

Cheers

GC

Hi Zoltan ,

Nice overview you have there :) but I dont 100% agree on this part:

Henrik Zoltan Toth wrote:

In the 15. Cent the greeks, south-slavs, romanians, albanians, venetians (f.e the stradiots) and hungarians begun to use the ottoman kilidj (and/or seif?), and created their own saber-types. Zoltán

There is picturial evidence in the form of Serbian fresco from Pec that the "Yugoslavs" were quite aware of the weapon in the pre-ottoman conquest era :

[ Linked Image ]

Picture of Saint Michael from St. Demetrios church in Kosovo and Metohija cca.1322-24. Mind you the area was quite heavy on Cuman/Kipcak presence already (as most of medieval balkans , where they served as mercs or semi-vassals, hence we could speculate the possible origins of the awarenes for the weapon). Yet , giving the piece into the hands of St Michael shows that medieval Serbs probably regarded the weapon highly.

Of course it would be foolish to assume that Ottomans held no influence over the popularization of the said weapon. However, as you cleverly pointed out the various EE nations gave a unique twist to their sabers and didnt only make dull copycats as it is sometimes assumed. A fine example of this are the 15th century Hungarian sabres , that hold both european-schiavonesca as well as nomad (or ottoman) heritage:



[ Linked Image ]

Such sabres seem to also feature in heraldy as early as 1466 :

[ Linked Image ]
(Coat of arms of a Hussar by the name of Péter)
Note the substantial pommel on the upper piece , that seems to be similar to the early hungarian katzenkopf type, also found on the schiavonesca-type arming swords.

The OP question "what is and what is not a sabre" , has also been raised on the vikingsword forums : http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=10881 , in particularl the 11th post adresses the issue :

Quote:

the definition of the sabre is; a sidearm with a long curved blade and a asymmetric grip often bent towards the forward quillon, which has no pommel as a sword but can have a pommel cap instead. (Heribert Seitz Blankwaffen 1 p 183)

Cheers,
Samuel