Fig. 130.—Malay Krís.
Fig. 131.—Wave-Edged Dagger.
Fig. 132.—Saw-Tooth Blade.
Fig. 133.—Main-Gauche.
OF THE EDGE.
In the Sword the edge is usually straight. The principal exceptions are the following. The wavy, cutting surface appears in the ‘flamberge,’ to which flame gave a name[442]: it is nowhere better developed than in the beautiful Malay krís (crease). The object seems to be that of increasing the cutting surface. The wave-edged form is well shown in an iron dagger (end of fourteenth or early fifteenth century) of the Nieuwerkerke Collection: similar weapons, taken from the Thames, are found in the British Museum, and they abound in Continental collections. Often the waves are broken into saw-teeth: this apparently silly contrivance is found on a large scale in Indian sabres; its latter appearance farther west is on the precious saw-bayonet, a theoretical multum in parvo equally useless for flesh and fuel. Of somewhat similar kind is the toothed edge, which is found in Arab, Indian, and other Eastern weapons. The deepest indentations are in the so-called Sword-breakers (brise-épées), mostly of the fifteenth century. It is not easy to explain, except by individual freak, the meaning of the toothed or broken edge which appears in a dagger of the fourteenth century (fig. 137). Lastly, there is the hooked-edge, spur-edge, or prong-edge, whose projections are generally found in the flammberg (flamberge) proper, or two-handed Sword of wavy contour. The hooks are either single or double, and the evident intention was to receive the adversary’s blade. As a rule the hollow of the half-crescent is towards the point: some project horizontally, but very few are reversed or hollow towards the hilt, as that shape would lead the adversary’s blade to the forearm.