Talk:Shortwings/@comment-67.140.216.113-20161221021102/@comment-25936766-20170921140827

Ugh......more classification of swords. Let me point out the biggest issue: It is a shitstorm of inconsistency and pettiness with far more terms than are needed, with many of them actually referring to the same shit.

For example, "Great swords" are just Longswords, of the kind that you can wield with 2 hands....which is basically all Longswords.

Now, looking at Daggers and Knives (what's the difference anyway?), there's 2 things to note:

1) There's such thing as a "Long Knife" and a "Shortsword".

2) Knives that are too long by dagger standards (like, say, 1-2 feet long), sometimes are considered "(Short)swords" instead.

This is especially the case for pretty much every sword from the Iron Age, since they didn't have the High-Quality Steel that was needed to make the longer swords of the Middle Ages. For example, the Xiphos is 50-60cm long. The Kopis was 48-65cm long.

Of course, there were still cases of it in the Reinnassance and beyond, like with the Cinquedea (45cm long) and the Facón (Whose length varied from 25cm to 51cm sans the hilt).

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But basically, the problem is that when a knife is too long, is hard to say for certain whether it's just a Long Knife, or a Short Sword. That means that "Classification of Swords by Blade" doesn't work here. So, we should go for the 2nd Criteria: "Classification of Swords by usage".

Swords weren't only classified by their design, but also by the way they were wielded, which adds another layer of confusion into the mix. For example, the Zweihander is a 2-handed sword, but it was wielded in a way that resembled polearms more than swords.

So, how does Russel wield them? Does he wield them like daggers or swords? IMO he used them like daggers, he even threw them (for whatever reason).