![]() ![]() Beginning most likely with the Ulfberht forge – the 10th century equivalent of a sword factory or firm – bladesmiths discovered how to refine steel to the point that they could make a blade out of a single bar, rather than having to use the time consuming (albeit beautiful) process of pattern welding. The first period of Oakeshott’s typology began in the wake of a technological revolution that began in Germany. And it all begins as the age of longships faded away and a new feudal order emerged. Oakeshott’s typology is a journey through time and the history of Medieval warfare, from the Viking Age to the Renaissance, from raiders to armored knights to the sword masters whose work still inspires historical fencers today. As development in armor made one type of sword blade obsolete, bladesmiths would make another to take its place. The swords of the Middle Ages were precision weapons, built to function on a battlefield against the armor of its day, and defeat it. One cannot truly understand the development of swords without understanding the arms race – no sword was ever developed in a vacuum. It also tells a story – a chronicle of an arms race centuries ago that pitted armorers against bladesmiths in an ongoing battle to push military technology to its limits. ![]() Ewart Oakeshott’s (1916-2002) typology is far more than just a means for cataloguing variations on the Medieval sword. ![]()
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