To whom it may concern:

I've been reading the repro weapons review section and i don't understand why your experts continually use the word "tip" in place of the real descriptor, "point."

I enjoy your reviews but this makes me question the expertise of the reviewer especially when it comes to the subject of handling.

please advise,

Phillip

How would you suggest we deal with unusual swords such as two handed swords which sometimes actually had multiple points / barbs, but only one tip?

Dear Sir:

I'm sorry but i don't understand the question.

please clarify and re-post and or provide an example.

kind regards,

Phillip

Philip,
A few things:

1) Our authors (myself included) have never tried to pass ourselves off as experts. We're volunteer hobbyists with a passion for learning and for sharing what we know with others. The only thing we know for sure is that we don't know all there is to know. When you claim expertise, you often stop learning. And that's missing the point (bad pun intended). :)

2) Tip is defined by Webster's as: The end of a pointed or projecting object. So that fits the usage just fine. Webster's lists "tip" as a synonym for "point."

3) Respected makers use this term.

4) We've published dozens of articles and over a hundred reviews, many of them using this terminology over the past few years. There has never been confusion over the term that people have brought up.

5) In our Beginner's Glossary of terms we define the "Point" like this:

Quote:

Point A term referring to the sharp tip or end of a sword blade at the opposite end of the hilt

Most people see the two terms as pretty much synonymous. In this hobby, many terms are used relatively interchangeably.[/i]

Phillip,

For my reference and enlightenment, could you provide some background information as to why the term point should be preferentially used over tip in this context?

From a layman's perspective, I don't understand the technical difference.

Another significant problem is that many swords do not have any "points" at all if by "point" you mean an acutely tapered piercing shape. An executioner's sword has a tip, but no point. A number of early medieval sword types--those famous dedicated cutting blades--have relatively rounded tips. I think it would be very misleading to refer to those shapes as "points". But every blade has a "tip".

As well as all of you have answered, I still suspect the original post was something of a trolling.

Cheers

Some of us started differentiating between tip and point, several years ago, while describing parts of the sword. The tip is the entire geometric section which might be described "where it curves to the point". The point itself is just that, a point right at the end of the sword, and/or right at the end of the tip.

The tip might be 2 inches long. The point, is just a point. Hard to measure a point.......

The tip of many swords can be used for cutting {quite often referred to as tip cutting}, and it is also the leading part of a blade in the thrust.........

I wonder, then, what we might call those blades which have a single continuous taper along the entire length of the blade. They'd have to be called either long tips on hilts, or pointed swords without tips (as opposed to tipped swords without points)... :p

Yeah, we probably do need to formalize the difference eventually.
But for now, despite Mr. Karnezis' objections, I'm "Still Tippin'"! :cool:

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I'm curious if the original poster's terminology is influenced by a focus on classical fencing.