Paternosters on blades

[fernando]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

... Burton, who was a well known scholar of the sword, seems to have used varying degrees of license in his landmark reference on the history of the sword...

Funny thing, i have just read a blogger out there precisely suggesting that, concerning this subject, Burton was certainly giving wings to his imagination.

I'm inclined to think that Burton ran across this somewhere and invented an explanation to suit himself, though it's possible that the blade could have even been called a "Paternoster blade" before he saw it. A number of things are called "paternoster" because they're seen as analagous to beads on a string, and certainly the illustration shows rows of dots. To a Victorian observer, it may have seemed likely that the word implied some real connection with prayer.
(Courtesy Chris Laning)

On the other hand, i would accept that depressions of a determined type on a sword blade may be regarded by some as paternoster or rosary, just like many other implements bear the same name, though not with an intrinsic religious implication; only by the looks of it.