Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Single-edged blades with a ridge

bookandswordblog · Today, 05:54 AM

As part of a project on kopis and machaira swords in the ancient Aegean, I am thinking about cross-sections and swords designed for low-carbon unhardenable steel. Its not generally appreciated that these swords had ridges not fullers if they were more than a simple wedge-second. The fullers are more typical of war knives from Iberia. I have archaeological drawings but little data on distal taper and most ancient swords are too rusted to precisely measure anyways.

So I am trying to collect types of single-edge blades from the last few hundred years that often have a thickened spine or a ridge along the blade close to the back edge. The three that come to mind are:

- many Ottoman yataghans and kilij
- many peshkabz daggers from the Persianate world
- some nineteenth-century sabres from western Europe like Prosser's pipe-backed blades for the British Army

Am I missing any single-edged weapons that tend to have a T-section or -+--- section?

Today, 05:54 AM	#1
bookandswordblog Member Join Date: Mar 2026 Posts: 2	Single-edged blades with a ridge As part of a project on kopis and machaira swords in the ancient Aegean, I am thinking about cross-sections and swords designed for low-carbon unhardenable steel. Its not generally appreciated that these swords had ridges not fullers if they were more than a simple wedge-second. The fullers are more typical of war knives from Iberia. I have archaeological drawings but little data on distal taper and most ancient swords are too rusted to precisely measure anyways. So I am trying to collect types of single-edge blades from the last few hundred years that often have a thickened spine or a ridge along the blade close to the back edge. The three that come to mind are: - many Ottoman yataghans and kilij - many peshkabz daggers from the Persianate world - some nineteenth-century sabres from western Europe like Prosser's pipe-backed blades for the British Army Am I missing any single-edged weapons that tend to have a T-section or -+--- section?