[Low-Tech] Material or quality

[DanHoward]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I think that was the reason for the evolution of the broadsword to rapier to smallsword. A tiny shaft of metal shoved through your guts will kill you just as dead as a sharpened car door. So it often ended up with whoever stabbed fastest.

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

My impression is that that sword development was caused by changes in armour fashion. A rapier isn't worth anything against an armoured foe, but as armour went out of fashion, so did broadswords.

There is no such thing as a sword "evolution". The kinds of swords used on the battlefield have changed very little for thousands of years. No sword can cut through armour and the only sword that can stab through armour are specialised weapons such as the estoc/tuck. Whether armour was common or not had little influence over which swords were chosen by soldiers. If you chose a sword to fight someone in armour then you were likely to lose. Polearms were king on the battlefield. A sword is just a sidearm, like a pistol in modern warfare.