Back Sword
Advanced Weapons & Accoutrement term
Definition
- A seventeenth-century cavalry broadsword, with single or basket guard. The blade was flat, broad and single-edged, which distinguished it from the more common two-edged cavalry broadsword.
- The weapon used in a species of sword-play popular in the eighteenth century, especially amongst those whose social position hardly admitted their wearing and using the smallsword. The weapon was basket-hilted, the right edge only sharpened and the point rounded, not sharp. In the second half of the century, the popularity of the sport declined and was largely replaced by prize fighting with the fists. Backswordsmanship lived on, however, in the slightly different form of Single Stick?.
Explanation
See Also
Broadsword
Smallsword
Single Stick?
