Scimitars

Why the blade curves

Put an edge on the outside of a curve and something useful happens. As the blade moves through a target, the point of contact slides along the edge instead of staying in one place. You get a slice rather than a chop, and a slice cuts deeper for the same energy because the edge is doing a longer stroke through the material than your arm is doing through the air.

That is worth most on horseback, which is where these swords come from. A rider cannot stop and set his feet. He passes a target at speed, and a curved edge trailing behind his hand carries the cut through without the blade wedging and pulling his shoulder out of the saddle. A straight blade in the same situation buries itself and stops. Every mounted tradition from Persia across to northern India worked this out, which is why the same curve shows up under three different names.

The curve costs something too. A curved blade thrusts badly, because the point is off the line of your arm and any push tends to slide off rather than drive in. Several of these carry a clipped or false edge at the tip to claw some of that back, and the shamshirs simply accept it. They were never intended to be pointed at anyone.

Where the width sits along the blade matters as much as the curve. A blade that flares out toward the last third puts mass where the cut lands, which is what the Arabian and talwar forms do. A narrow crescent of even width, like the shamshir, gives up that mass and gets speed and reach instead. Both are on this page and they feel completely different in the hand.

The scimitars in this collection

Thirteen pieces in three families, all in the same steel at the same hardness. What separates them is profile, hilt and how the weight is distributed.

Arabian scimitars

Four swords, 33 to 37 inches overall with 27 to 31 inch blades. These are the broad ones. The bellies flare through the last third and finish in a clipped or upswept point, and the fittings are brass with cross guards and either a hooked or a domed pommel. One is left in hand sanded satin with the forge marks still visible on the flat, which is the only piece here that shows its own making. Two carry long fullers under the spine. Grips are hardwood or rosewood, riveted through with brass.

Talwars

Five swords, 34 to 38 inches overall with 28 to 32 inch blades. The talwar is the Indian answer, and the tell is the pommel. Instead of a cap or a hook, the grip ends in a flat disc that faces back toward your forearm. That disc stops the hand sliding off under a hard draw cut, and it also means the grip is short and you hold it firmly rather than loosely. Three of the five carry a knuckle guard running from the quillon block to the pommel. One is an all steel Indo Persian hilt with a domed disc pommel and a chased brass throat on the scabbard. The rest run rosewood or blackwood grips with brass quillons.

Shamshirs

Four swords, 36 to 39 inches overall with 30 to 33 inch blades. The Persian form and the most extreme curve on this page. The blade is narrow, of even width from ricasso to point, and it bends in a single continuous arc so that the tip sits well off the line of the grip. There is no belly and no clipped point. Quillons droop forward, pommels hook back, and the grips are a single piece of rosewood, walnut or carved hardwood. One is cut with a vine scroll by hand. These are the fastest swords here and the least useful for anything except a drawn cut.

Hilts, knuckle guards and scabbards

Brass dominates. Cross guards, quillons, pommel caps, scabbard throats and chapes are mostly brass, with three pieces in steel instead. Knuckle guards appear on three talwars and nowhere else. Scabbards run from a plain fitted leather blade sleeve on the cheapest piece up to basketweave tooled leather with brass throat and chape, tooled leather over wood, and one wooden scabbard with brass fittings at both ends.

Lengths, hilts and scabbards across the range

Every figure comes from the specification panel of a piece on this page. These are forged and ground by hand, so read them as what to expect rather than a guarantee to the millimetre.

Every blade in the table is 1095 high carbon steel hardened to 54 to 58 HRC. There is no second steel on this page, so the choice is entirely about shape, fittings and finish.

Sizing and how they handle

Blade length here spans six inches, which does not sound like much until you hold both ends of the range. A 27 inch blade on a 33 inch sword is quick and close, easy to move indoors and easy to hang anywhere. A 33 inch shamshir on a 39 inch overall length has real reach and needs room behind you before you draw it.

Balance matters more than length on a curved sword. The broad bellied pieces carry their mass forward, which makes them feel heavier at rest and hit harder when they move. The narrow shamshirs sit closer to neutral and change direction faster. Neither is better. They were solving different problems for people on different horses.

Grips on the talwars are noticeably short, because the disc pommel is meant to trap the base of your hand rather than let it wander. If you have large hands, expect the talwar grip to feel tight and the shamshir grip to feel more natural. That is how they were made, not a fault.

Steel and hardness

Every blade here is plain 1095 high carbon, hardened and tempered to 54 to 58 HRC. On a long curved blade that is the sensible range. It is hard enough to hold an edge through real cutting and soft enough to bend and come back rather than crack, which matters when the geometry means a cut can land off the true line and load the blade sideways.

1095 is not stainless. It has no chromium and it will rust if you leave it wet or leave your fingerprints on it. That is the price of a steel that sharpens easily and takes a keen edge. If you want the full picture, read steel and hardness, and Damascus versus high carbon steel if you are wondering why nothing on this page is pattern welded.

Fullers, finishes and forge marks

Five of these carry a fuller, a long hollow ground or forged under the spine. It is not there to let blood out. It removes steel from the middle of the blade where it contributes least to stiffness, so the sword gets lighter without getting floppy. On a curved blade the fuller has to follow the arc, which is harder to do cleanly than on a straight one.

Finishes split three ways. Mirror polish shows every line of the curve and every fingerprint you leave on it. Brushed satin hides both and is the easiest to live with. Hand sanded satin with the forge marks left visible is the honest one, and on the piece here that carries it you can see the hammer work in the flat under raking light. None of these is better than the others. They are just different amounts of maintenance.

Sharpening a curved edge

Do not put a curved blade flat on a bench stone and push. You will grind the middle of the curve, miss the ends, and end up with a blade that has three different edge angles along its length.

Work the sword instead of the stone. Hold the blade steady and run a small stone or a rod along the edge in short sections, rolling your wrist to keep the stone square to the edge as the curve changes. Follow the arc. Fifteen strokes on a section, then move along and overlap the last few. It takes longer than a straight blade and there is no shortcut. The guide on sharpening a curved blade covers the wrist movement in more detail.

Care and storage

Wipe the blade after every handling, and pay attention to the inside of the curve where a cloth run straight down the blade will skip. Then a thin film of mineral oil, applied and wiped almost dry. A blade that looks wet is holding dust, and dust holds water.

Do not leave the sword in its scabbard for months. Leather stays slightly acidic after tanning and it holds humidity against the steel, so a snug scabbard through a damp season will hand you back a spotted blade. Hang the sword and stand the scabbard beside it. The wooden scabbard on the 38 inch talwar is a little kinder in that respect, but the rule still applies. The knife care guide covers oiling and rust removal properly.

Engraving

Most pieces here can be engraved after they arrive in the United States. On a curved sword the flat above the ricasso and the pommel are the usable surfaces, since a name laid along a curve rarely reads well. Names, dates and short rune lines all work.

Text engraving is 19 dollars, a symbol is 39 dollars and a family crest is 49 dollars. Elder Futhark is a phonetic alphabet rather than a cipher, so names are transliterated by sound and there is no rune for the letter C. Engraving is permanent and an engraved piece cannot be returned, so read the spelling back to yourself before you order.

Where these come from and how they ship

Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. The pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival.

Because the curve is forged rather than cut from a pattern, no two are exactly alike. The arc varies a little, the fuller wanders slightly, grain in a rosewood or walnut grip is never repeated and tooled leather is worked by hand. These ship in a long box that someone needs to be there to take in.

How to choose

Pick the family first. If you want the sword that looks like the word scimitar, take a broad bellied Arabian piece. If you want the one that cuts hardest, take a talwar with a flared belly and a knuckle guard. If you want the one that looks best on a wall, take a shamshir, because a narrow crescent 33 inches long is a shape nothing else on this site matches.

Then look at the scabbard, because it is half of what you are buying and the difference between a plain leather sleeve and a basketweave tooled scabbard with brass at both ends is most of the price gap. Prices here run from 385 to 615 dollars. Finish comes last, and brushed satin is the easy answer if you do not want to be polishing something every week.

Browse related categories

• Sabres, the European curved cavalry blade
• Cutlasses, short and heavy at the belly
• Falchions, the medieval single edged chopper
• Arming swords for the straight bladed alternative
• Scabbards and replacement sheaths
• Sword stands and display mounts

Guides worth reading first

• What is a scimitar and where the name comes from
• How to sharpen a curved blade
• How to buy your first sword
• Display sword versus battle ready

Curved blades on the club floor

Curved swords are still fenced today through the sabre, and our HEMA sabre trainers are the blunt versions made for it. The HEMA sabre guide is the place to start reading. The Sturvang sabre trainer has a three bar guard and a rolled safety tip.