Eating Knife

A blunt knife, intended just for eating, but which could be used as a very makeshift weapon. Versions are avialable in wood and silver.

Dagger

A simple knife, as probably used for eating as for fighting. Also called a Dirk. Playmobil has done a variety of different colours for this knife over time, and some slightly different hilts and so forth.

Poiniard

A narrow bladed knife, suitable only for stabbing and not cutting. Examples of such blades are poiniards and stillettos. Some of these blades were just murder weapons, others were used by artilliarymen who used the long narrow blades as measuring sticks, cutting rulers into the edges.

Hunting Knives

A large knife, such as the popular bowie knife of today. While these make good weapons they are mostly intended for cutting meat, dressing hide, and other havy duty tasks.

Machette

A very large knife, almost a sword, of the type the would be used for clearing vegitation and tree branches. Such chopping weapons can be distinguished from shortswords by their lack of a stabbing point and the fact that they have only one sharp edge.

Shortsword

This is a very generic sort of weapon, there was never such a thing as a 'shortsword' but swords of this size and general shape were used from the Hellenistic period onwards.

Broadsword

The Broadsword is the main weapon of the Medieval period in Europe. Sometimes weilded one handed and sometimes two, it remained in use till the 15th or 16th century.

Flamberge Broadsword

A Flamberge sword is one with a wavy blade. These swords actually have the look of two-handed Flamberge blades used by the German Landsknecht Mercenaries in the 16th Century.

Rapier or Smallsword

The Rapier is the sword that replaced the Broadsword through the 16th Century and onwards. Originally it had a blade capable of slashing attacks, later it becomes sharp at the point only. The Rapier has a prominant basket hilt to protect the hand.

Saber / Cutlass

The Saber is a curved broadsword with a light basket hilt designed to be used from horseback. It is essentially the same sword as the Muslin scimitar from the 14th Century, but was popular in the 16th-18th Centuries in Europe. A small saber with a cruder hilt is called a Cutlass and was commonly used by pirates.

Gladius

The Gladius is the Roman shortsword used by the Legions in the Imperial period. The gladius has a short wide blade intended for stabbing, and suited the Roman style of infantry line with large shields.

Katana

The Katana is the standard weapon of the Japanese Samurai. It is sharpened on one side and has a sharpened tip, though it is rarely used for thrusting. Instead the style focusses on slashing blows, usually with the sword held in two hands.

Scimitar

The Scimitar is the Arabian/Muslim version of the Saber. Used by the Muslim armies during the period of the Crusades it is later considered to be typical of Arab horseman.