Katana- Japanese for "long sword". Common word used to desribe the nihon-to sword used by bushi (samurai) in ancient japan. This is the curved sword.
Ninja-to- straight bladed sword used by ninja. shorter than a katana.
Dao- Chinese curved saber. commonly called the kung fu broadsword, although i see this as being inaccurate. (see my page on this sword)
Rapier-single handed sword. European in origin. commonly has a long slender blade designed for thrusting.
Claymore- a real mans weapon! scottish great sword!! has distincitive downsloping guard ending in quatrafoils. Also used to describe the basket hilt variety.
Tsuba- I use this word alot, its the japanese word for guard on katana.
Saya- Another word youll hear me say alot. This is the japanese word for scabbard.
Hamon- Japanese word for temper line (see below)
Temper line- Metallurgical pattern that appears on a blade that shows the separation between different steel hardnesses. its alot more complicated then that actually. Just know this is often on japanese swords to allow the edge to be harder than the body of the sword.
