Quote Originally Posted by Wigferth Ironwall
As far as swords go I'm afraid you are sadly mistaken. No sword has ever been used to crush helms, it simply isn't possible
One point here: just because you may argue that the "barbarian" swords were not meant to crush helms doesn't mean that no swords ever were designed to meet this end.



The Falcata was not an unusually large sword, nor was it unusually heavy (although it certainly wasn't light); but it was specially designed ao that all of the weight would be brought down on one point, in a single downward slash. A sword like this would almost certainly be specialized to slice through armor like butter, and yes- smashing helmets (not to mention shields) was probably part of the goal.