On Swords, Blades and the Song of Swords

[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Ze'Manel Cunha

The schiavonas I've handled have had longer blades, from two to three hands longer than the one handed jians I've handled, and most schiavonas are a couple of inches longer than the two handed jians, unless you mean something else by jian, or by schiavona...

Even the standard backswords are over a hand longer than the one handed jians.

I think you'd be better off denoting what the blade length for your nomenclature is.

After all, if I set schiavona blade lengths as between 36" - 42", one handed jians as 25" - 31", and two-handed jians as 30" - 36" and you have completely different numbers in mind, we'll be talking at cross purposes.

The 'Jian' in Martial Arts is long enough to get Reach 1,2 on a thrust. That's longer than the vast majority of Jians I've seen or heard about, but I didn't write Martial Arts.

Most real jians would actually be Cut-and-Thrust Swords in these stats, i.e. have Reach 1. In GURPS rules terms, a schiavona (or jian or any other similar sword) might be an Edged Rapier, Jian or a Cut-and-Thrust Sword, depending on whether the GM feels that it ought to have Reach 1,2 on both cuts and thrusts, Reach 1,2 only on the thrust or Reach 1 on both attacks.

My personal feeling is that to get Edged Rapier stats, a weapon needs a blade of 40"+ or so. For Jian stats, a blade of 33" to 40" seems not far off. Blades shorter than that, but broad enough for a reasonable cut use the Cut-and-Thrust Sword stats (otherwise they'd be an Edged Light Rapier).