The pommel sits at the near end of the sword, at the top of the handle. It acts as a counterweight to the blade so the sword doesn’t feel heavy in the hand. In general, heavy blades are matched with heavy pommels, and light blades with light pommels—or sometimes none at all. This isn’t a strict rule, however. For instance, many military sabres have no counterweight at all, so that cutting motions are harder to stop.
The Handle
This is the part you hold. It is sometimes called the grip, but technically the grip refers only to the leather or wire wrapping found on some handles. So … every sword has a handle, but not all handles have grips.
The Guard
The guard is the metal part that protects the hand, and is sometimes wrongly called the hilt. The guard is merely whatever is between the handle and the blade, and can be as simple as a flat cross piece or as complex and ornate as the 17th century cage hilt rapiers.
The Hilt
Everything that isn’t the blade. Therefore the hilt is the combination of pommel, handle, and guard. When you see a sword in a scabbard, the blade is hidden, and everything else that is visible is the hilt.
The Blade
The essential part of a sword, as opposed to the hilt. The blade is the length of steel that actually does the cutting.
The blade of a sword has two parts. The blade proper is the part that is visible. But what you can’t see is the rest of the steel which continues through the handle and then into the pommel. That part is called the tang. For most blades, the tang is much narrower than the exposed blade, and the site of the abrupt narrowing is called the shoulder. The hilt rests on the shoulder of the blade.
The blade proper is the visible cutting portion, loosely divided into three sections:
Forte (near the hilt)
Middle
Foible (near the tip)
Generally, a fighter must use the foible to attack and the forte to block. Some blades have grooves running lengthwise which are called fullers. Fullers allow the blade to be both lighter and stronger (and has nothing to do with the wound created. There is no such thing as a “blood groove” for swords or knives. That is pure folk etymology—also known as hokum.
Some of the thinner sporting blades may have a tip that has been blunted with a wider flat “nailhead”, referred to as the button, which may or may not be covered in rubber or leather for additional safety. Stage swords never use a covered button.
Note: The terms blade and sword are often used interchangeably, which causes confusion when ordering equipment. If you ask for a “blade,” you may receive only the bare length of steel—with no way to hold it.
The Sheath/Scabbard
A sheath or scabbard serves two purposes:
To cover the blade, protecting it from moisture and preventing accidental injury.
To allow the sword to be worn.
A sheath is made of soft material (leather, cloth, etc.) and is flexible. Most knives are kept in sheaths. A scabbard is rigid—made of steel, wood, or plastic—and may be covered with a softer material. Most swords are housed in scabbards, which remain firm even when empty.
