The Cutting Edge
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The Cutting Edge It was one of the most crucial discoveries in ail of civilization—finding a natural, common material that could be sharpened to eut, chop and slice, and one that would retain that edge even after use. Simple stone knives, points, and hand axes are perhaps the oldest tools found among Paleolithic artifacts, nearly 100,000 years old. By the beginning of the following Neolithic Age, about 10,000 B.C., the skill of artisans in creating sharpened stone implements increased dramatically, including the major advance of attaching a handle to the blade. Most stone blades— usually made from flint—were only 3 to 5 inches (7.5 to 13 cm) long, though some up to 2 feet (60 cm) long hâve been found. Knives made of bones, shells, obsidian (volcanic glass), and bamboo and other woody substances began to appear in the eastern Mediterranean, the East Indies, and middle America. (The sharpness of some ancient bamboo and obsidian blades rivais that of steel blades!) The edges were sharpened by rubbing the implement in the hollow of a stone—a method still used by aborigines in central Brazil, New Guinea, and Australia. With the discovery of copper, bronze, and iron from 7000 to 3000 B.C., toolmakers acquired vastly improved materials for creating blades. Most métal blades were carefully hafted to conserve the valuable métal, and their edges were sharpened by hammering (peening), since filing or grinding would hâve also wasted métal. By 1500 B.C. bronze cutting blades were used from the British Isles ail the way to China. A "sword" consists of a métal blade that can vary in length, breadth, or shape. During the Bronze Age (around 3000 B.C.), the "sword" and "dagger" became differentiated. Smiths created long leaf-shaped copper or bronze blades, bearing hilts that were merely a handle-shaped extension of the blade. As people became more skilled at working metals, improved techniques for forging blades developed in Europe, India, and China. Bronze blades were cast in one pièce in a stone mold, normally in the twoedged, leaf-shaped configuration. Intended primarily for cutting, thèse swords hâve been found in excavations throughout Europe. Used during Homeric times, such bronze blades were called ziphos or akinakes by the Greeks; they can also be seen in paintings on Hellenic vases. The Romans taught the early Britons how to work their native iron. By about
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1000 B.C., iron swords were forged similar to bronze blades with an obtuse point and two cutting edges, though the iron was at first too soft a métal to be used as a thrusting weapon and bent easily. Chinese swordmakers spread the craft of making iron blades to Korea and Japan by about 300 B.C. Throughout the world, swordmakers faced the same problem—a blade hard enough to hold a razor-sharp edge very often shattered when used against a combatant wearing armor, yet an unbreakable blade made of softer métal frequently bent. Swords also had to be light enough to use in battle.
The sharpness of some ancient bamboo and obsidian blades rivais that of steel blades. T h e
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