Why do some swords have SUCH LONG HANDLES?

Today, let's look at what an incredibly long grip, or hilt, does and doesn't tell you about how a weapon's used. Hi folks, Matt Easton here, scholar gladiatoria. So, I was having a look at this interpretation of a nagamaki, which is kind of, some people would argue it's not, it's a long hilted katana. But anyway, let's not get into the weeds on that. And I was also thinking about these large two-handed swords, Weihanders, Montantes, Spadone, they go by various names. And also, I was looking at Chinese swords, such as this Dao here. Now, we'll come back to that in a second. Now, often when you look at books on weapons, when we find a very long hilt, people will immediately describe any type of long hilt, used like this, as being primarily for two-handed use, which is often the case, but not always. We'll come back to that in a second. But also, fundamentally, I think most people assume it is for greater leverage and greater reach. And that can be true. However, it's far more nuanced and complicated than that. For a start, there's often an assumption that a long gripped sword like this is inherently a bigger weapon, and would have a longer blade. But for any of you who know about Chinese and Japanese swords, and indeed things like Burmese Dao as well, you will know that's not always the case. So with a typical Japanese sword of the, let's say, 15th, 16th centuries onwards, you often find that actually the blades on these aren't very long, compared to Western swords. Even if we take something like a typical infantry officer's saber, or one of these, in this case, a fencing saber, these often have, if I use inches for the purposes of this, these often have, let's say, 32 to 34 inch blades. Whereas that would be very long for a Japanese katana. It would even be pretty long for a tachi as well, an early tachi. So the typical kind of length of a katana is usually between about 27 and 29 inches. A 29 inch blade, or a nagasa, on a katana is considered really quite long. You might even call that an Okatana by the time you get to 30 inches. And yet 30 inches for a European military sword is not a very long blade at all. If anything, it's slightly on the short side. So these aren't inherently long swords, and yet they have long grips. Now, I'm not going to try and argue that this isn't predominantly for a two-handed grip in the case of Japanese swords, because it clearly is, because Japanese swords are predominantly used two-handed. So in this case, the long grip there is primarily for two-handed gripping. However, not only, because these swords were often used in one hand. For example, on horseback. Yes, you can ride a horse and use a sword two-handed, but very often you'd be holding the reins or doing something else with the other hand, and using this sword in one hand. Equally, you might be using a wakizashi in the left hand, or just nothing in the left hand. You might be grabbing someone by the hair and using your sword one-handed. So there's all sorts of reasons why Japanese swords, and indeed European long swords, are often used one-handed. But they still have a long grip. So in that case, what's the long grip there for? Well, of course, we have this specialist term, hand-and-a-half sword, which actually quite succinctly kind of describes these types of swords. And you could put katanas, for example, we'll get to other swords in a second, you could put katanas into that category, because they are swords that are often used in two hands, but sometimes, for example, if you need to use your left hand, or you're riding, or something like that, they're used in one hand. And in that case, what is this superfluous length of grip, and in some cases pommel, certainly in the case of European swords, pommel, what is that doing there? Well, quite simply, it's acting as a counterbalance. So in this case, when we're using it in one hand, and some of these swords were probably used in one hand more often than they were actually used in two hands, and certainly in case of the lighter bastard swords, this isn't one, this is quite a big one, incidentally, in that case, that extra length, number one, it's primarily there as a balance point, but secondly, it can be used for hooking and trapping. Now, if I switch over to the medieval and renaissance European Langmesser for a second, these are knife-hilted swords, as most people watching this channel would know. However, they tend to have an extra length of grip to them, which is beyond what is really necessary to grip them. But equally, it is not normally, it is in the case of large two-handed ones, but in case of the one-handed ones, it is not normally long enough to really quite get all of your hand onto. So could you choke up with your left hand and at least get a couple of fingers over this and use this two-handed? Yes. However, was that ever done? Very, very rarely. These were mostly used one-handed, and we've got the treatises showing the use of these one-handed in various different ways, and they are primarily one-handed swords. So why do you have that extra length there? Well, number one, it's definitely to do with balance, because you, especially in the case of these, you don't have a pommel. And of course, that is also true, just trying to find the right sword there, of Japanese swords. By having, because you don't have a pommel, by having that extra bit of length at the end there, that helps balance the weight of the blade and create, bring the centre of gravity essentially back towards the hand. That is also true of lots of other Asian types of swords, for example, the da. And to some extent, that's true of the langmesser as well. Yes, they can sometimes have a little cap at the end to protect the organic material of the grip, but that's not really for any balancing purpose, or barely anyway, anyway. Really, that extra length there, a bit like holding a stick, if I just grab a stick, most people, unless you were going for maximum reach, if you're using a stick, you'll usually leave a little bit sticking out of the back end to give it a bit of a better balance in the hand. And it's the same thing with the langmesser. However, as I mentioned, hooking and trapping, if we look at the langmesser treatises, often, if you've bound someone's blade here, and you come round the back of their wrist or hand, or even the back of their blade, you can use that back end there for locking and trapping. Now, if we look at treatises such as Fiore de Liberi, we also see that done with the longsword. So while the longsword, within that context, is usually used two-handed, sometimes we will momentarily come and use the sword one-handed, and while we're doing something else with the left hand, it could be grabbing someone's arm, it could be pushing them, it could even be punching them, whatever, often the back end of the sword will loop over their arm, or round their blade, in order to do traps and disarms and things like this. So in that case, that extra length of grip, while it might be primarily there for gripping the sword two-handed, it can be used in a whole bunch of other really interesting ways. And indeed, all of these techniques that we can find in European treatises could be done with a Japanese katana, and in fact we do find techniques in Kenjutsu which do use the tsuka, or grip, do use it for trapping, locking, kind of across the throat, across the arm, all sorts of things, all sorts of techniques that can be done with the back end of the sword here, other than just gripping it. So now we come to the Chinese Dao, and in fact you could apply this to the Jian as well, because both Jian and Dao in China tend to have longer grips than is, strictly speaking, necessary. So as you can see here, I can put one hand, and bear in mind that I'm certainly larger than the average Ming Dynasty Chinese person, I can put one hand around this very nice sword, incidentally from LK Chen, I can put one hand around it, and I have got enough hilt sticking out of the back to put an entire second hand onto. And in fact this is as long as some Japanese katana hilts, some period antique ones. So yes, I could use this two-handed, and was this ever used two-handed? Well I believe that we do find it in some Chinese traditions, yes. However this is primarily a one-handed sword. So we have to conclude that just like in every other culture and tradition and bit of history, when we've got this extra bit of hilt here, it's usually for purposes of an extra bit of counterbalance, but can also be used for trapping and locking around the back of things, arms or necks or whatever, in additional techniques. But, there is another factor, which I think often gets overlooked. And that is that whether you're talking about medieval and renaissance Europe, or whether you're talking about feudal Japan, very often in war the people using these swords and holding these swords one-handed weren't wearing, or weren't having, bare hands. They were often wearing some form of hand protection, which we find for example in Japan, we find in the Ming Dynasty in China, we find in the Middle East, in places like Persia and Mamluks in North Africa, and obviously in medieval Europe. And if you have any form of glove or gauntlet, even if it's just mail, aka chain mail, it could be some form of lamella, or plates inside fabric, or indeed obviously plate gauntlets, as soon as you put them around the hilt, it takes up a lot more space on the hilt of the weapon. So much so, in fact, that when people wear gauntlets, they often find a standard size longsword hilt actually quite difficult to grab and hold two-handed. Now, putting that aside for a second, if you're holding it one-handed, you inevitably need a bit more length on the hilt than you would have done in earlier periods, particularly with plate gauntlets in Europe. Once you get plate gauntlets, you need a bit of a longer grip in order to fit your hand onto the grip. So sometimes the additional grip length is purely because of the hand protection which is used with those swords in war. Now finally, I want to just talk about why some swords have some absolutely ludicrously long grips on them and the advantages that those can offer and disadvantages, incidentally. So first of all, just to say, that generally speaking, if a sword has a blade which is really no longer than a one-handed sword or a typical one-handed sword, not including rapiers, so something like this katana here, this only has around a 27, 28-inch blade, even though I might be using this two-handed, I don't need an awful lot of length on the hilt because that blade is so light and so short that I can easily manoeuvre it around without the need of a huge amount of grip length or leverage, if you want to view it in those terms. Now, if I go to a much longer blade, so this would apply to things like Odachi, Nodachi, and indeed any sort of Nagamaki or anything like that, if I have a particularly bigger blade, it could be heavier or longer or both, then inevitably it's going to be more manageable if I have a greater lever to control it and move it around. So that's the first thing. And obviously that's one of the reasons that generally speaking, we don't get swords with blades as big as this on short hilts because you need the long hilt in order to be able to manoeuvre and move the thing around with any degree of dexterity, which I can't do in here because of the ceiling limitations, obviously. So the length of the hilt or grip or lever is to some degree, to a very large degree in fact, related to the length and mass of the blade and therefore being able to control it in a realistic fighting scenario. However, to finish off, there's often a factor that gets overlooked. When we start to get swords that are really, really big like this one here, or indeed when we get into the large Japanese two-handed swords or Chinese as well, you're starting to put yourself into a category whereby these aren't typical sidearms anymore. These aren't something you just walk around with and pull out as a secondary weapon after you've finished using your bow, your gun or your halberd or whatever. These start to become primary weapons because you have to carry them either in your hand or wear them in such a way that you can't really carry another large weapon. So if these are primary weapons then they're not usually, or they're very often no longer contending with typical swords. And we shouldn't really compare them with that. They're starting to contend with things like this, with poleaxes, halberds, glaives, partisans, spears, all of those things. Now, if they're competing with polearms there are two reasons why you would want, well, there's more, but there's two main reasons why you would want a really long grip, a.k.a. lever. One is the forces involved in dealing with those weapons. If someone is swinging a halberd at you and you're attempting to beat the incoming attack away or parry it, you need your hands spaced far apart to be able to resist those sorts of forces. Just the same as you would have on a poleaxe or any other polearm, if you have your hands close together then your parry or guard or deflection will collapse whereas if you put the hands far apart you're now much stronger. But there is a final reason which I think often gets overlooked unless people are specifically studying the treatises and the martial arts systems related to these weapons. And that is, the functional reach of a weapon isn't only the blade. So in the case of a sword, your reach with a weapon isn't only how long the blade is. A video game might think it is, but it's not like that. In reality, although a katana has a relatively short blade, in fact, that is not the limit of my reach. The limit of my reach with it is actually that. There are techniques and ways of cutting and countering with these swords where you can absolutely cast the weapon out with the hand that is at the back of the weapon. In fact, there are techniques where you actually slide it up to the back of the weapon. And at that point, although I've only got a, let's say, 27-inch blade, I've now added another 6 inches reach. So now, instead of being a relatively short but very quick blade, this is now, when I need it to be, actually a very far-reaching but less balanced blade. Now, if we apply that to the giant two-hander, in the case of these giant two-handers, it means that, yes, while this might be a longer blade than average, if I'm now sending out a cut or a thrust, it could be a thrust or a cut, with the back of the weapon, I have now got a really formidable reach, a reach absolutely equivalent to the reach of polearms. Which means that if I'm contending against someone with a spear or a glaive or anything like that, naginata, it means that I could target their hands, for example, or even their leg or their head, with a cut from a very, very long distance away by gripping the bottom of the grip. So these excessively long grips, or what look like excessively long grips, not only do they give you advantages of leverage, but they also give you one-off sniping attacks from an incredibly long way away. And in fact, this is something we explicitly see, in Degrassi, for example, taught with the giant two-handed sword, particularly with thrusts, whereby the entire weapon momentarily can be thrust out with the back hand, which means that you can reach as far as a spear. So I hope that rambling run through the idea of the length of grips has maybe given you some other things to think about. It's not always a simple equation of, oh, if you've got a longer blade, you need a longer hilt. It's not always a situation of, that's a two-handed sword, that's a one-handed sword, because sometimes one-handed swords have longer grips, and sometimes two-handed swords have relatively short grips. It also relates to the protection you're wearing. It relates to the techniques that you use with hooking and such like. It also relates to balance, especially using the sword one-handed when you're on horseback. And of course, the longer grip you've got, the longer you can actually reach with that weapon momentarily, if you're prepared to hold the back end of it and yoink it back again. You're fairly vulnerable to follow-ups, but so long as you skewer the person with that one attack, you've got an immense reach with it. Anyway, I hope that's given you some new things to think about. I have been Matt Easton. I will, of course, continue to be. And I'll see you back on the channel really soon. Cheers, folks. Thanks for watching. We've got extra videos on Patreon. Please give our Facebook a like and subscribe if you haven't already. Cheers, folks.