Types of Swords: 24 Blade Families, What Each One Does, and How to Tell Them Apart
Sword names are a mess, and it is not your fault for finding them confusing.
The problem is that swords get named by three different systems that do not agree with each other. Some are named for where they came from — the Viking sword, the Roman gladius. Some are named for how they are held — the longsword, the hand-and-a-half. Some are named for what they do — the thrusting estoc, the cutting falchion. A single blade can qualify under all three, which is how the same weapon ends up with three names and how two completely different weapons end up sharing one.
This guide sorts it out. It covers 24 blade families grouped by where they come from, but it starts with the framework that actually lets you identify any sword you are looking at, whether or not you know its name.
The three questions that identify any sword
Before the names, the geometry. Almost every sword ever made can be placed with three questions.
How many hands does the grip take? One hand means a shield, a buckler or a second weapon occupied the other. Hand-and-a-half means the grip is long enough for a second hand when you want the leverage. Two hands means the sword is the whole system. Grip length tells you this at a glance — roughly 4 inches for one hand, 6 to 9 for hand-and-a-half, 10 or more for two.
Is the blade straight or curved? Straight blades thrust well and cut adequately. Curved blades cut well and thrust badly. The curve concentrates force into a shorter contact patch and lets the edge slice rather than chop, which is why cavalry across almost every culture ended up with curved blades — a rider's cut lands with the horse's speed behind it, and a straight blade tends to stick.
Is it edged, pointed, or both? A blade that tapers sharply to a needle is built to find gaps. A blade that keeps its width most of its length and ends in a rounded or clipped tip is built to cut. Most swords compromise, and where a sword sits on that spectrum tells you what its owner expected to fight.
Answer those three and you have narrowed any sword on earth to a handful of candidates.
Quick reference
| Type | Hands | Blade | Built for | Typical overall | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arming sword | One | Straight, double-edged | Cut and thrust | 36–40 in | Europe, 11th–15th c. |
| Longsword | Hand-and-a-half | Straight, double-edged | Both, versatile | 40–51 in | Europe, 14th–16th c. |
| Bastard sword | Hand-and-a-half | Straight, double-edged | Both | 40–51 in | Europe, 15th–16th c. |
| Broadsword | One | Straight, broad | Cut | 38–42 in | Britain, 17th–18th c. |
| Claymore (two-hand) | Two | Straight, double-edged | Cut | 52–58 in | Scotland, 15th–17th c. |
| Zweihänder | Two | Straight, double-edged | Cut, formation-breaking | 60–70+ in | Germany, 16th c. |
| Estoc | Hand-and-a-half | Stiff, edgeless or near | Thrust, anti-armour | 44–52 in | Europe, 14th–16th c. |
| Falchion | One | Single-edged, widening | Cut | 32–38 in | Europe, 13th–16th c. |
| Messer | One | Single-edged, knife-hilted | Cut | 30–40 in | Germany, 14th–16th c. |
| Rapier | One | Long, narrow, stiff | Thrust | 42–52 in | Europe, 16th–17th c. |
| Sabre | One | Curved, single-edged | Cut, mounted | 36–42 in | Europe/Eurasia, 17th–19th c. |
| Cutlass | One | Short, broad, curved | Cut, close quarters | 28–34 in | Maritime Europe, 17th–19th c. |
| Gladius | One | Short, straight, tapering | Thrust | 24–33 in | Rome, 3rd c. BC–3rd c. AD |
| Spatha | One | Longer, straight | Cut and thrust | 30–40 in | Rome, 1st–6th c. AD |
| Xiphos | One | Straight, leaf-shaped | Thrust and cut | 24–30 in | Greece, classical |
| Kopis | One | Forward-curving, single-edged | Chop | 26–32 in | Greece, classical |
| Falcata | One | Forward-curving, single-edged | Chop | 24–30 in | Iberia, pre-Roman |
| Viking sword | One | Broad, straight, fullered | Cut | 33–40 in | Scandinavia, 8th–11th c. |
| Seax | One | Single-edged, broken-back | Utility and cut | 14–28 in | Germanic, 5th–11th c. |
| Katana | Two | Curved, single-edged | Cut | 37–42 in | Japan, 14th c.– |
| Wakizashi | One | Curved, single-edged | Cut, indoors | 20–28 in | Japan, 15th c.– |
| Naginata | Polearm | Curved blade on shaft | Reach, sweep | 60–90 in | Japan, 8th c.– |
| Jian | One | Straight, double-edged | Thrust and cut | 30–38 in | China, 7th c. BC– |
| Dao | One | Curved, single-edged | Cut | 30–38 in | China, ancient– |
| Scimitar (family) | One | Curved, single-edged | Cut, mounted | 32–40 in | Middle East / Central Asia |
Lengths are overall, including hilt, and describe the historical norm. Individual pieces vary widely — reproductions in our own sword catalogue run from 14 inches to 95.
One-handed European swords
Arming sword
The default European sword for roughly four centuries. Straight, double-edged, around 30 inches of blade, with a simple cross guard and a pommel heavy enough to balance the blade behind the hand. It was carried alongside a shield, which is why it is short enough to use with the off-hand occupied. Knights wore one as a sidearm the way an officer later wore a pistol — not the primary battlefield weapon, but the one always on the belt. If you picture a generic medieval knight's sword, this is almost certainly it.
Broadsword
A word that causes more confusion than any other in this list. Historically a broadsword is a specific thing: the basket-hilted military sword of 17th and 18th century Britain, with a broad straight cutting blade and a cage of steel bars protecting the hand. It is not a generic term for any large medieval sword, though it is used that way constantly in games and film. If someone hands you a "broadsword" with a simple cross guard, they mean an arming sword or a longsword.
Falchion
Single-edged, and unusual in that the blade often gets wider toward the tip rather than tapering. That puts mass out where the cut lands, which makes a falchion hit far harder than its size suggests — closer to a machete's mechanics than a knight's sword. Medieval European, common from the 13th century, and frequently depicted in the hands of infantry rather than nobility. The forward weight makes it tiring to fence with and devastating to be hit by.
Hand-and-a-half and two-handed European swords
Longsword
The most versatile sword Europe produced, and the one with the deepest surviving body of technique — the German and Italian fencing manuals are almost entirely about this weapon. The grip takes one hand comfortably and two when you want leverage, which is the whole point: you can shield up, or you can commit both hands and generate enormous control. Blade straight, double-edged, tapering to a point capable of thrusting into gaps in armour.
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Bastard sword
The same weapon as the longsword, and the naming is genuinely historical rather than a modern muddle. Épée bâtarde meant a sword of uncertain parentage — neither properly a one-hander nor properly a two-hander. Some sources reserve it for examples at the longer, heavier end of the longsword range. If you are choosing between the two labels, treat them as the same family and pick on blade length and grip rather than on the word.
Claymore
Scottish, and it refers to two different swords. The earlier and better-known is the two-handed Highland claidheamh-mòr — 15th to 17th century, over four feet, with quillons that slope sharply forward and end in distinctive quatrefoil terminals. The later one is a basket-hilted single-handed broadsword, which is what Scottish regiments actually carried into the 18th century. Both are correctly called claymores. If someone means the giant one, they mean the first.
See claymores → — 36 in stock
Zweihänder
The largest sword ever carried into war, and a genuine specialist tool rather than a bigger version of something else. German, 16th century, carried by the Doppelsöldner — double-pay men whose job was to break up pike formations by getting inside the pike line where a five-foot sword becomes an advantage. Note the parierhaken, the parrying hooks partway up the blade: the lower section was left unsharpened so the sword could be gripped there like a short polearm.
Estoc
A sword that has largely given up on cutting. The blade is stiff, narrow, often diamond or square in cross-section, and sometimes has no edge at all. It exists because by the 15th century plate armour had become good enough that cutting at an armoured man was close to pointless, and the answer was a weapon rigid enough to be driven into the gaps at the armpit, groin and visor. Frequently used half-sworded, one hand on the blade.
Thrusting and curved European swords
Rapier
A civilian weapon, not a battlefield one, and that shapes everything about it. Long, narrow, stiff, built almost purely to thrust, with an elaborate hilt of rings, bars and shells because in a duel your unarmoured hand is the closest target. Emerged in 16th century Spain and Italy alongside a culture of formalised personal violence. Long in the blade — often over 40 inches — because in a straight-line exchange, reach decides the matter.
Sabre
Curved, single-edged, and the answer that cavalry arrived at almost everywhere independently. From horseback the curve does two things: it turns a chop into a draw cut that slices as it passes, and it keeps the blade from binding in the target as the horse carries you past. European sabres descend from Eastern European and Central Asian patterns and became standard cavalry issue across the continent by the 18th century.
Cutlass
A sabre shortened for a world with no room. Broad, curved, single-edged, rarely much over 30 inches, with a solid hand guard. That length is not a compromise — it is the point. On a crowded deck, among rigging and low beams, a long blade is a liability, and a heavy short blade doubles as a tool for cutting rope and canvas. Naval issue across European powers from the 17th century.
Ancient and classical swords
Gladius
Short, straight, and responsible for more of Roman military success than any other single piece of equipment. Around two feet of blade, tapering to a strong point, designed for the thrust from behind a shield wall in tight formation where there is no room to swing. The Romans were explicit that the point beat the edge: a two-inch thrust to the torso kills, a spectacular cut to the arm often does not.
Spatha
The gladius's longer successor. Originally a cavalry sword — a rider needs reach a foot-soldier does not — it gradually replaced the gladius in the infantry too as Roman tactics loosened. Straight, double-edged, around three feet. Its real importance is what came after: the spatha is the direct ancestor of the migration-era sword, which becomes the Viking sword, which becomes the arming sword. Most of the European swords above descend from this one.
Xiphos
The Greek hoplite's sidearm, used when the spear broke. Straight and double-edged with a distinctive leaf shape — the blade widens past the midpoint before sweeping to a point — which puts mass toward the tip for cutting while keeping a point that thrusts. Short, generally under 30 inches, because like the legionary the hoplite fought shoulder to shoulder behind a shield.
Kopis and falcata
Both curve forward rather than back, and that inversion is the whole idea. A forward curve puts the centre of percussion well ahead of the hand, so the blade falls into the target with the mechanics of an axe while retaining a point. The kopis is Greek, the falcata Iberian, and the two are close enough that the falcata is often described as a Spanish kopis. Roman writers recorded genuine alarm at what falcatas did to shields and helmets.
Northern European swords
Viking sword
Broad, straight, double-edged, and usually carrying a deep fuller down the centre of the blade — a groove that removes weight from where it contributes least, leaving a sword that is lighter and quicker than its width suggests. Pommels are lobed, brazil-nut or tea-cosy shaped depending on period. These were expensive, named, inherited objects; the majority of Norse fighters carried spears and axes, and a sword marked status.
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Seax
The single-edged Germanic blade that gave the Saxons their name. It spans an enormous size range, from a belt knife to something approaching a short sword, and the characteristic form is the broken-back: the spine runs straight then angles down sharply to meet the edge at the point. Everyday tool as much as weapon, worn horizontally at the belt, and by far the most commonly found blade in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian graves.
Japanese swords
Katana
Curved, single-edged, and worn edge-upward through the belt — which is not a detail but the design premise, because it allows the draw and the cut to be one motion. Blade traditionally 60–73 cm. Classical construction laminates hard high-carbon steel over a softer core so the edge takes a keen edge while the spine absorbs shock without shattering, and the visible hamon line is the boundary between the differentially hardened zones.
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Wakizashi
The katana's companion, 30–60 cm of blade. Worn together the pair forms the daishō — literally "large-small" — which was the visible mark of samurai rank. The practical reason for the shorter blade is architectural: Japanese interiors are low and tight, and a katana is awkward indoors. Custom in many periods required the long sword be surrendered on entering a house while the short one stayed on the belt.
Naginata
A polearm rather than a sword, included because it is constantly mislabelled as one. A curved single-edged blade — recognisably sword-like, and mounted on a shaft of five feet or more. The reach is the point: it was used against cavalry, where the sweep can take a horse's legs, and it became strongly associated with the women of samurai households as a weapon for defending a home against armoured intruders.
Chinese swords
Jian
Straight and double-edged, in continuous use for over two and a half thousand years, and traditionally called the gentleman of weapons. Light, balanced close to the hand, and demanding — jian technique emphasises precision, deflection and point control rather than power, which is why it took years to learn and became associated with scholars, officials and martial refinement rather than the rank-and-file soldier.
Dao
The jian's counterpart and the general of weapons: single-edged, usually curved, thicker-spined, and issued to soldiers precisely because it is easier to learn. One edge means you can brace a hand on the spine; the curve favours the cut; the weight forgives imperfect technique. Many forms exist — the broad niuweidao, the liuyedao, the two-handed zhanmadao — and together they were the standard Chinese military sidearm for most of recorded history.
Middle Eastern and Central Asian swords
The scimitar family
Scimitar is a European umbrella word rather than a real weapon type, and it is worth knowing what sits under it, because the distinctions are real to the cultures that made them.
The Persian shamshir is the deepest curve of the group — dramatically radiused, tapering to a fine point, almost purely a draw-cutting weapon. The Turkish kilij carries a yelman, a flared and often false-edged widening near the tip that adds mass exactly where a cut lands. The Indian talwar is a shallower curve with an unmistakable disc pommel that stops the hand sliding off. The Arab saif is shallower still and closer to a sabre.
All emerged in a military culture built around cavalry, which is the common thread and the reason for the shared geometry.
How to tell the commonly confused ones apart
Longsword or bastard sword? Same family. Bastard sword tends to describe the longer, heavier end of the range. Do not agonise — check grip length and blade length instead of the label.
Broadsword or longsword? Look at the hilt. A basket of steel bars means a genuine broadsword. A simple cross means a longsword or arming sword, regardless of what the listing calls it.
Claymore or zweihänder? Both are large two-handers. The claymore's quillons slope sharply forward and terminate in four-leaf shapes. The zweihänder is longer still and has parrying hooks partway up the blade with an unsharpened section below them.
Katana or wakizashi? Blade length alone. Over about 60 cm is a katana; 30–60 cm is a wakizashi; under 30 cm is a tanto. The construction is otherwise the same.
Scimitar or sabre? Both curve back. Sabre generally means the European cavalry pattern; scimitar means the Middle Eastern and Central Asian family. A pronounced flared tip suggests a kilij, a deep even curve a shamshir.
Sabre or cutlass? Length and guard. A cutlass is markedly shorter, broader, and has a heavier hand protection — built for a crowded deck rather than open ground.
Gladius or xiphos? The xiphos has the leaf shape, widening past the middle before it tapers. The gladius tapers more evenly from the guard to a long point.
Frequently asked
What are the different types of swords? Swords divide into three broad families by geometry: straight double-edged blades built for both cutting and thrusting (arming sword, longsword, viking sword, jian, xiphos), curved single-edged blades built for cutting (katana, sabre, scimitar, dao, cutlass), and specialised thrusting blades built to defeat armour or win duels (estoc, rapier). Within those, individual types are named for region, era or function — and often all three at once, which is why the same blade can carry several names.
What are five types of swords? Five that between them cover most of the design space: the longsword (European, hand-and-a-half, straight, versatile), the katana (Japanese, two-handed, curved, cutting), the gladius (Roman, one-handed, short, thrusting), the rapier (European, one-handed, long, duelling), and the sabre (curved, single-edged, cavalry). Learn those five and you can place most others by comparison.
What is the difference between a longsword and a broadsword? They are separated by about three centuries and a completely different hilt. A longsword is a 14th–16th century European sword with a straight double-edged blade and a simple cross guard, gripped in one or two hands. A broadsword is a 17th–18th century military sword with a broad cutting blade and a basket hilt enclosing the hand. The popular use of "broadsword" for any large medieval sword is a modern invention.
Which type of sword suits a beginner? A single-handed arming sword or a shorter longsword, for a practical reason: both are light enough and short enough to handle safely in limited space, and both have enough surviving technique that there is somewhere to go with them. Very long two-handers and heavily curved blades are less forgiving of imprecise grip and edge alignment.
How many types of swords are there? There is no fixed number, because classification depends on how finely you split. Broad families number around two dozen — the ones in this guide. Count every named regional and period variant and the figure runs into the hundreds.
Every sword described above exists in our catalogue as something we actually forge. If you want to see the geometry rather than read about it, start with the full sword collection — 469 pieces across every family on this page — or build your own and choose the blade profile, steel and length yourself.
