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Originally Posted by David
I have heard lore that poisons were used on blades, but have yet to see any qualified evidence of this. Anyone have more information or verification of this?
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I cannot add to this, but also find it most interesting. The lore of poison blades is known in medieval Europe and most certainly probably in many other cultures and times, but as noted, there seems to be no hard evidence of any such practice.
With poison arrows, obviously this is well confirmed, however with the potential of these failing to inflict any sort of grievous injury (unless direct hit on vital spot) the necessity of secondary threat seems well placed
With an edged weapon, especially a sword, such accent as poison seems redundant .
Is it possible that the presence of deadly elements such as arsenic, which I understand were often used in forging and etching of blades (in Borneo, Indonesia and Malaysia) might have become imbued in the lore of these weapons?
It seems in reality that these would lose or alter their properties in such processes as forging, but simply the knowledge of their presence might have led to such allusions.
I did read somewhere that some sort of 'paste' using various toxic venoms was used on blades, but again, this seems another form of psychological oriented myth.