How much did medieval swords weigh

I had some run ins with a few willing but misinformed people, who asked me (I am a reenactor and full contact sword fencer) how heavy a sword is... Well they didn't ask me: They told me it is impressive that I can wield a sword that weighs 40 pounds (it was a Bastard sword).

Following is an excerpt from an article about exactly that. I do have a follow up question though, because it baffled me that people actually think a sword of any kind can weigh 20 kilos, where do they get that stuff?

"Medieval swords in general were well-made, light, agile fighting weapons equally capable of delivering dismembering cuts or cleaving deep cavities into the body. They were far from the clumsy, heavy things they're often portrayed as in popular media and far, far more than a mere "club with edges." As another source on arms affirmed: "the sword was, in fact, surprisingly light·.the average weight of swords from the 10th to the 15th centuries was 1.3 kg, while in the 16th century it was 0.9 kg. Even the heavier bastard swords which were used only by second-grade fighting men did not exceed 1.6 kg, while the horse swords known as 'hand-and-a-half' swords weighed 1.8 kg on average. When due allowances are made, these surprisingly low figures also hold good for the enormous two-hand sword, which was traditionally only wielded by 'true Hercules.' Yet it seldom weighed more than 3 kg." (Funcken, Arms, Part 3, p. 26)."

Source: http://www.thearma.org/essays/weights.htm#.XLaI5BlNY0N

In A Nutshell

They don’t call it heavy metal for nothing. Those human slicing sticks of the Middle Ages were weighty, awkward weapons, right? Wrong. The average medieval sword weighed only 1–1.5 kilograms (2.5–3.5 lbs).

The Whole Bushel

Movies and just plain bad scholarship have done their best to reinforce the myth of the heavy, club-like medieval sword that took great strength to wield. But next time you’re at the gym (and no one’s looking), pick up one of those pink rubber-coated dumbbells on the end of the rack. That’s how much the typical medieval European sword weighed—about 1–1.5 kilograms (2.5–3.5 lbs). Which makes the European longsword not much heavier than the Japanese katana, which is still renowned today for its light weight.

Even the larger “hand and a half” and two-handed swords (think Braveheart) didn’t weigh much more than 2.25 kilograms (5 lbs).

Time and again, though, movies portray these well-crafted implements as crude, illogically heavy weapons. From the lumbering sword fights in First Knight to Antonio Banderas’ character in 13th Warrior complaining a Viking sword is too heavy, filmmakers seem convinced medieval craftsmen weren’t capable of making something awesome without really overdoing it.

Given that sword makers had been practicing their craft for over 2,500 years by the time the Middle Ages rolled around, we should be surprised if they hadn’t developed reliable methods for making lightweight, sturdy weapons. A heavy sword would’ve been disastrous for the medieval man-at-arms who did almost all of his fighting in the summer. If a man was going to survive the couple hours or so which made up the medieval battle, he needed a sword which wasn’t exhausting to swing.

Being so light, it should be obvious that a sword would be rather ineffective if wielded like a crude club. If a swordsman were to be effective against an armored opponent, he needed to deliver a carefully placed slash or thrust. The edge-to-edge style fighting and parrying seen in almost every movie would have dulled a sword’s cutting edge or, worse, broken the sword. Also, the continual improvements in armor-making would have rendered hacking blows nearly useless. As a result, fencing manuals from the Middle Ages depict a very different style of fighting than what is popularly imagined. It’s probably best summed up as, “stab ’em, don’t hack ’em.

Show Me The Proof

Association for Renaissance Martial Arts: What Did Historical Swords Weigh?
Association for Renaissance Martial Arts: A Brief Introduction to Armoured Longsword Combat
Daily Life in the Middle Ages, Paul B. Newman
The Hundred Years War: A Wider Focus, Part 1, edited by L. J. Andrew Villalon, Donald J. Kagay

Medieval swords are regularly portrayed in the media as ungainly, cumbersome tools that are most effective in the hands of brawny men.  But, was that the case in reality? Think about it. Why would soldiers carry weapons weighing upwards of 30 lbs when the speed of movement was paramount in the melee of the medieval battlefield? The wide, exaggerated sword swings depicted on the screen are exactly that – exaggerated. 

So, why the misconception? It could be that what we see today is based on existing ornamental swords and armor that are heavy and bulky. Also, there is a lack of documented proof or references that list the weights of different swords. Not that there are none. The famed Wallace Collection Museum in London lists dozens of medieval sword specimens of which few, if any, exceed 4 lbs. In fact, there are two-handers that weigh much less than 3 lbs.

In the words of leading sword expert Ewart Oakeshott: "Medieval Swords are neither unwieldably heavy nor all alike – the average weight of any one of normal size is between 2.5 lb. and 3.5 lbs. Even the big hand-and-a-half 'war' swords rarely weigh more than 4.5 lbs." Oakeshott was an expert on European swords with hands-on experience of thousands of weapons. His collections at one time or another included swords from the Bronze Age to those of the 19th century.

So, medieval swords were light, convenient and far from club-like. They were well-constructed fighting weapons capable of dismembering appendages and inflicting deep, fatal cuts on the battlefield. These weapons grew lighter as time went on, but even the blades from the period 10–15th century weighed on average 2.8 lbs, while in the 16th century the average was around 2 lbs.  Hand-and-a-half swords, among the biggest of all such weapons, weighed less than 4 lbs while the monster two-handed sword, the heaviest of them all, rarely exceeded 6.6 lbs.

The 16th century featured parade swords that weighed more than 9 lbs but there is no evidence to suggest that these weapons saw any real battle action. That would make little sense as lighter and more effective combat models were available then.  Also, parade swords did not carry much of an edge and, besides the unfeasible size, possessed poor balance. 

Check out some excellent replicas of medieval swords.

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