Sword transition

[master of the puppets]

No real haste on this one. Just found myself wondering, when did western european armies trade off straight swords for sabers. Or did naval always carry them and it just became an infantry thing too.
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[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Well, sabres did evolve from scimitars and eastern curved blades. While I'm not terribly well versed on this subject, I would imagine that they simply came to the west as a slashing weapon was needed instead of a bludgeoning weapon - I can say from personal experience that a medieval broadsword is a lot heavier than a sabre. Without armour, there wouldn't be much use for it anymore.

[Joeokar]

Well, sabres did evolve from scimitars and eastern curved blades. While I'm not terribly well versed on this subject, I would imagine that they simply came to the west as a slashing weapon was needed instead of a bludgeoning weapon - I can say from personal experience that a medieval broadsword is a lot heavier than a sabre. Without armour, there wouldn't be much use for it anymore.

I rarely if ever post but... http://www.thearma.org/essays/weights.htm go here read this.

[Innocentius]

Just like Joeokar already demonstrated with the link to thearma, swords didn't weigh very much at all, so that was hardly the reason. From personal experience, I can tell neither broadswords nor sabres are very heavy at all

The question in the topic was when, though. Falchion's were popular already in the 12th century, so curved swords have always been around (likewise, straight swords have always been around in regions often assoicated with sabres, such as the Middle East). The abandonment of the rapier and lightsword in favor of the cutlass and sabre (mostly used by the cavalry, since the infantry had bayonets by this time) happened sometime during the period 1750-1850. It's hard to get any more precise than that I'm afraid.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Just like Joeokar already demonstrated with the link to thearma, swords didn't weigh very much at all, so that was hardly the reason. From personal experience, I can tell neither broadswords nor sabres are very heavy at all

Must be my examples then, as my claymore (Medieval) is heavier than my rapier.

[Furious Mental]

Well a claymore would be, it's bigger.