Whenever I think of falchions I cannot resist thinking immediately of the much discussed 'Conyers falchion' in Durham Cathedral in England. This is the form I describe primarily with the straight back and hugely widened cleaver type blade. Claude Blair describes this on p.83 of his "European and American Arms" as of c.1260-70 (illustrated fig. 21).
Frederick Wilkinson ("Edged Weapons", N.Y.1970, p.32) notes, "...these swords seem to have appeared during the 13th century; they were single edged weapons loosely related to the old Saxon seax or scramasax, with a blade initially fairly straight. In order to increase the cutting power the blade widened near the point in much the same way as the 'seax'. The blade was later modified and from a short distance from the point the back edge of the blade was cut out to give a slightly hooked appearance to the end of the blade. From the late 14th and early 15th centuries the blade became more curved, and in the late 16th-early 17th c. many infantry, particularly in Northern Europe carried a slightly curved falchion".
These heavy and most slightly curved examples illustrated in Wilkinson (fig. 22 and 23) both noted as early 17th c and both German, as well as another English (fig.74) c.1620 same slight curve in the blade.These also feature the so called "clipped point" that became well known later on 18th c. German sabre blades and many straight cavalry blades of 18th c. (in this case I am thinking of British dragoon swords c.1760-70's).
In "Lore of Arms" by William Reid (Gothenburg,1976, p.40-42) the author notes that curved swords were common in Eastern Europe in the middle ages, but in the west "...the only medieval form known is the falchion. By c.1200 some soldiers were carrying a sword with a short broad blade, single edged, widest towards the point and with a more or less convex cutting edge. The surviving examples can be classified as having either a blade which resembles the Levantine 'kilic' or a straight back".
It would appear that the earliest form of falchion was of the 'Conyers' type, with distinctly straight back and widened convex curved cutting edge. In "The Archaeology of Weapons" ( 1960,p.238), Ewart Oakeshott adds to his description of the Conyers falchion, the single edged sword which is known as the 'Thorpe falchion' (Castle Museum, Norwich). This is an example that seems more in line with the later examples as it is "...very similar to a sabre blade. How this blade form developed is not clear; we rarely see it before about 1290, and it seems to have no direct kinship, like the Durham type,with the old Norwegian long sax. It may have developed under an Eastern European influence, for it is very closely akin to the Sword of Charlemagne-the Hungarian one-in Vienna, a type which had been in use in Eastern Europe since the 9th c.Whatever the origin of its particular form, as a falchion it is still a descendant of the sax, the Greek kopis and the ancient Egyptian khopsh, and its form remained in use from the early 14th c. till the mid eighteenth, with modifications, while the Durham (Conyers) form is seen no more after about 1300."
This 'Thorpe' form is basically straight, single edged and with the clipped point (often termed false edge). This is the blade form described in the later falchions mentioned from Wilkinson (op.cit.).
The reason I have put together this data on falchions is that it is important to note the concurrent use of both straight heavy swords as well as developing forms of cutting or slashing swords, with the form evolving in the west the falchion. It is noted that in Eastern Europe and in the Islamic sphere that both straight swords and sabres were used, and we have noted that even among the early nomadic tribal groups both straight forms and developing curved blades were used. The evolution of the curved blade was likely extremely subtle as the single edged blade was given features that would correspond to the dynamics of its use, primarily of course optimum cutting potential.
The early falchions reflected such change in looking essentially the same as the knightly broadsword, with simple cross hilt and a straight black blade that simply widened on the cutting edge for improved cutting power in chopping type cuts.
Best regards,]
Jim
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