Trivial point, but I’m uneasy with our use of the term ‘distal taper’ as a distinct and different taper from ‘profile taper’. Taper means getting smaller at one end. Distal refers to the end away from the centre or point of attachment (opposite of proximal). On a typical western sword (e.g Type XII, XIV, XV, XVII, XX), as well as what we currently more normally refer to as distal taper, the profile tapers distally. OK, I accept that it has become adopted by usage, and language is a constantly changing thing and wrong becomes right if we repeat it often enough, etc. etc., but this usage that we have adopted in our small field is making a distinction as to what ‘distal’ means (by applying it only to thickness) that is at odds not only with the original meaning of the term, but also with its usage in other areas. It also seems to be unnecessary jargon. Could we not just say ‘thinning’ for what we now call distal taper and ‘narrowing’ for profile taper?
Think I’ll crawl back in my shell now.
Regards to all
Geoff

Ironically, I was just having a debate with my brother a while back about his field (communications) coming up with unnecessary jargon. :confused:

To be honest, I never bothered to look up the word, and just went with what other people had used. I don't know that it is really worth the effort to change the usage now, but you are right that thickness is a more accurate descriptor. If you think about it, profile can actually mean a side view, so that might be a better term for what we now call distal taper. Then you would need a new term for that, of course. I don't think there is going to be any luck changing this, even if everyone agrees it should be changed.

I looked up distal and didn't find any definitions different from what you posted, so I'm curious of how it got applied the thickness of a sword blade. Does anyone know why we use the word distal in the manner we do? I know I first saw it in a Museum Replicas Limited catalog, but I don't know that they coined the term.

-Grey

Interesting post. Perhaps the term came from how the blade tapers in thickness from the proximal end (where it's attached to something) to the distal end of the blade. Of course the width of the blade tapers towards its distal end in many case, too. Why we decided to call that profile taper is a mystery to me. :?:

We can't just say "thickness," though, because we'd have to quantfy that: the thickness at which point(s). Distal taper (or whatever you choose to call it) is really a rate or percentage and comes from mutliple measurements.

Interesting to ponder, though...

A lot of common English words, such as "profile," "side," "top," "thickness," "width," etc., are ambiguous when applied to a blade as it is not obvious how people orient such a blade in their minds. Though thickness vs. width, according to their strict definitions, can only be used in one way when describing a blade, it is not *guaranteed* that a beginner will correctly identify the dimension referred to by "thickness."

I don't think that profile could ever be used to refer to the thickness. Profile denotes a side view; the definition of side is "either of the two surfaces of a flat object," according to dictionary.com, so it seems clear that the blade flats are the "sides" of a blade, and not the blade edges.

The choice of distal does seem to be imperfect, but I can't think of a better choice and I feel as if it would just confuse matters further to attempt to coin a new term. As long as "profile" can only be used one way, and we use distal specifically in comparison to profile, our meaning should be clear.

I just got unfortunately involved in a stupid argument over the necessity of such jargon at "another forum." It is jargon, yes, but there doesn't seem to be any more elegant way of handling the matter.