Sword Sunday #8 - The "knife" you brought to a sword fight.

In the age of history where the arming sword and the polearm were the dominate weapons on the battle field, and while the crossbow and the yew longbow were reintroducing generals to the ability to kill en mass and at range, the niche role personal defense was calling on blacksmiths and weapons masters in the great cities of central europe for a weapon meant to protect those who could afford it against an enemy who likely could not.

Today, the weapon (actually a class of them) is called the "messer", which is also the German word for "knife".

It was an an evolutionary step down the path that had started centuries before with the Seax knife of the Celts and Germanic tribes of England and europe. The Saex ( Old English word for "knife") was a strong blade with one edge and the weight to carry a deliberate blow through into vital organs in a fight, or through animal hide for butchering. Where the swords of the knights and other warring classes of europe would follow, and evolve from the roman gladius, the seax would inspire its own linage of single edged fighting weapons, including the powerful cleaving blow of the Falchion.

But as the calendar moved from the 12th century to the 13th, the needs of the continental European gentry, the well to do non-nobles, included a need for a personal defense weapon fit for close combat, and able to best the type of armor or weapon one might encounter in a Paris ally, or a Bavarian back road at night.

How and why the specific elements of the messer came to become the accepted traits of the weapon in central europe are facts largely (but not entirely) lost to history. None the less, by the end of the 13th century, the standard had been established for what was meant when a men of money but no title walked up to a blacksmith or merchant and asked for a messer.

Fighting with a Messer and a "Hungarian shield"
(Gladiatoria Fechtbuch fol. 55r, mid 15th century)

The messer could be up 30 inches long, with many having straight backs, but some being curved. Many of the surviving examples include overall lengths that range from between 20 and 30 inches, with blades that run up to 24 of those. The weapon was solid, but not necessarily heavy, often times coming in at 2 or 2 1/2 pounds, comparable to both the contemporary military arming sword, and many of the later 'rapier' type swords of the renaissance.

The name 'knife' was not incidental or ironic. The messer shares several design features with knives. Most notably is the single-edged blade and the slab tang, where two woods blocks would be pinned in place for the handle. This was in contrast to a  single-piece wood-handle with a metal round tang pulled through and locked in place on most sword types. Messers, unlike most swords, usually did not have pommels to counter-balance the blade, but rather used the mass of the handle and hilt to keep the center of balance back towards the hand.

In these respects, the messier can easily be seen as somewhat distant second cousin to the modern butcher's knife in design and ascetic.

The messer's hilt was also a unique design for its day and region. Starting with a broad cross hilt mounted to the blade, and pressing against the handle's blocks. Some later examples would fold down along the front of the grip, shielding the fingers from slashes or strikes. Another characteristic was a protrusion coming off of the face of the guard. In some examples, its a short 'nail-like' rod, and in others its a more detailed arm, or lip that folded over to protect the back of the wielder's hand. This design would prove to be one of the predecessors to the basket hilt, and later the elaborate guards of high end rapier of the 15th and 16th century.

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Centuries later, the civilian weapon would evolve into the Kriegsmesser, or 'war knife', a much larger weapon famously used by, among others, the Landsknecht mercenaries of the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries.

The messer was part of the curriculum of several Fechtbücher (fighting manuals) of the 14th and 15th centuries, including that of Johannes Lecküchner (dealing with the langes messer), the Codex Wallerstein, Hans Talhoffer, Paulus Kal and Albrecht Dürer. [summary from Wikipedia]

Where the messer was a one-handed and powerful personal weapon for the businessmen or gentry rich enough to own it but not pay for personal body guards, the Kriegsmesser was a towering two-handed weapon of war, with a blade that could easily reach 35 inches, and an overall length of 44" or more in some cases. The added length of the blade gave it reach over almost any one-handed sword, and the longer handle let two hands grip it, affording it devastating power behind each blow. The longer weapon carried with it more mass, and examples of the Kriegsmesser that survive today can weight as much as three and a half pounds, still lighter than the more famous Scottish Claymore, but  when employed in an age when armor use was on the decline, it was still more than powerful enough to cleave limbs, open bodies, or split skulls open wide. 

Ultimately, the messer, and its later evolution the Kriegsmesser were not bested by armor or better sword designs, but we were pressed largely to antiquity as better weapons came into common use. By the end of the 16th century, the place of gunpowder on the battlefield was established, and even the best armor was proving to be useless in the face of rapidly improving muskets. Armies were built around the gun now, with sword quickly becoming secondary weapons, and then status symbols for the leaders, and later officers. The Messer's guard and sometime curved blade would be echoed in the officer's 'backswords', and later sabers of the high European colonial period. 

Forged in Fire, Season 6, featured a final design challenge of a messer style sword, and the final test is a good demonstration of the weapon's killing power and reach. 

#Swordsunday is intended as a fun and educational series of posts for the enjoyment of readers.

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