What Are Reverse Blade Sabres?

By Mike Cohn


Everyone knows what a sabre looks like "it is a long piece of steel with a sharp cutting edge; and some swords have a double cutting edge "each side is sharpened to a fine cutting point. Reverse blade swords are dissimilar from standard single cutting edge swords in that the cutting and blunt edges of the weapon are reversed.

With a conventional sword, the side that is utilised to strike the contestant is the pointed side "the idea is to cut and injure the contestant. With reverse blade blades, the side which strikes the opponent is the blunt one and besides discomfort and bruising, tiny in the way of major injury is probably going to occur.

Using reverse blade epees for training purposes permits the trainee to hone hattori hanzo sword fighting skills with risking any injury to the person he's practicing with. Since reverse blade swords can be on any design, they are superb for getting accustomed to the weight, balance and feel of the standard sabre "the reversed blade makes little difference to how it handles. The first documented historic reference to the use of reverse blade epees is of the Sakaba sabres of Japan. The word Sakaba isn't used to outline a particular sort of sword but refers back to the fact that the blade is reversed.

Sakaba swords were used in not just epee coaching but for all types of martial arts. Since the swords cloned the feeling of a regular sabre, the user would be in a position to train and use it with the same proficiency as he would with a normal sword. And though the probabilities of major injury were little, a blow from a reverse blade sabre was painful enough to make the trainee realize the injury he could sustain if hit by a standard sabre.

Though no clear records remain, it is thought that these reverse blade swords might have been used by Samurai soldiers in real fight situation when they wanted to incapacitate the enemy but not kill him "perhaps for later interrogation.

The acclamation for Japanese anime where warriors are often shown as using these reverse blade epees in warfare has made them widely known, especially among kids. They are in established use today as training tools since modern worries about safety make them the perfect practice weapon.




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