I’m starting a new hobby, sword collecting. Now I have seen daggers as long as 24 inches but in my book that is more like a sword. Or daggers are not classified by length?
Help…
Well, a quick AskJeeves search found this quote from the Encyclopedia Brittanica…
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short stabbing knife, ostensibly the diminutive of the sword, though in ancient and medieval times the distinction between a long dagger and a short sword was often obscure. From approximately 1300 the European dagger was consistently differentiated from the sword; in the 16th century a school of fencing developed in which a specially designed dagger with a large guard was held in the left hand and used for parrying.
Its convenient size made the dagger inconspicuous to wear and easy to draw, giving it advantages over the sword in many situations. The types include the wavy-bladed Malayan kris, the short, curved kukri used by the Gurkhas, the Hindu katar with its flat triangular blade, as well as innumerable others.
So, I’d say that, rather than size, the differentiating characteristics of a dagger are: short, stabbing, works one-handed in the left hand, inconspicuous to conceal, and easy to draw.
I won’t bother with cites. I’m sure someone will pop in with them if you really need them.
It’s a loose definition. In general a dagger is a short stabbing weapon, with two cutting edges. (A knife has one cutting edge). It is lighter and shorter than a sword, which is a double-edged cut and thrust weapon. Traditional daggers are more defensive than offensive, so they should be easily concealable, and only require one hand to wield.
Since it’s subject to interpetation, there aren’t any hard and fast rules, but I’d guess the following would work pretty well:
1 cutting edge, one-hand, 1"-8" - knife, or small dagger
2 cutting edges, one-hand , 6"-12" - dagger
2 cutting edges, one or two hand, 12-24" - a really large dagger or short sword
anything larger - a sword
Well it depends. Namely it depends on what people called it. If they called some unreasonably small thing a sword, it is generally considered a sword. If they called it a knife or dagger, it is called a knife or dagger. Generally swords in once place and time are longer than knives/daggers in that same place and time, but even that isn’t a hard and fast rule. evilhanz has given a fairly good rough guide.
All information is taken for The Compendium of Weapons, Armour & Castles by Matthew Balent.
From the section on knives. (Matthew classifies daggers as knives).
From the section on swords.
Knifes (daggers) 50cm or longer
50cm Bhuj
50cm Bundi Katari
50cm Cinquedea
50cm Kindjal
50cm Kundi
50cm Kundi Tranchang
50cm Kukri
50cm Kummya
50cm Main Gauche
50cm Moplah
50cm Parazonium
55cm Haladie
60cm Pahua
60cm Panabas
60cm Parang Ginah
70cm Parang Latok
Swords 50cm or shorter
40cm Ama-Goi-Ken
40cm Sica
50cm Bandelaire
50cm Baselard
50cm Bilbo
50cm Kamashimo Zashi
50cm Kapee Dha
50cm Ken
50cm Kris
50cm Opi
All sizes are approximate. Any one type can vary greatly in size. The sizes listed here are generalizations and should be taken for a rough norm certainly Krises both much larger and smaller are known to exist.
I hope this helps.
A dagger is a thing that will get the living hell beat out of you by two cops for carrying it. :eek:
A sword is the thing that has those two cops calling in the SWAT Team to beat the hell out of you/kill you. :eek: :eek:
So, yeah…there are advantages to daggers. If you can call it that.
A dagger is a thing that will get the living hell beat out of you by two cops for carrying it. :eek:
A sword is the thing that has those two cops calling in the SWAT Team to beat the hell out of you/kill you. :eek: :eek:
So, yeah…there are advantages to daggers. If you can call it that.
If you stab someone and it goes all the way through it’s a sword, otherwise it’s a dagger.