Sabre

Sabre
French sabre of the sailors of the Guard, First Empire.
Type	Sword
Service history
Wars	Napoleonic Wars, American Revolution, American Civil War, Franco-Prussian War, World War I, Polish-Soviet War
Production history
Produced	c. 1800 – present
Specifications
Blade type	Single-edged or double-edged, curved bladed or straight blade, pointed tip.

The sabre or saber (see spelling differences) is a type of sword optimised for delivering a cut or slash, usually with a curved, single-edged blade and often a rather large hand guard, covering the knuckles of the hand as well as the thumb and forefinger. However, sabres with a simple crossguard, including many examples of the Tulwar and Shamshir, or no guard, the Caucassian and Cossak Shashka, are also found.

The length of sabres varied, and most were carried in a scabbard hanging from a shoulder belt known as a baldric or from a waist-mounted sword belt, usually with slings of differing lengths to permit the scabbard to hang below the rider's waist level.

Though single-edged cutting swords existed in Ancient and Early Medieval Europe, such as the Greek makhaira and the Germanic seax, the true sabre was developed in Turkic Central Asia in the 9th century, or possibly earlier. All sabres are descended from the earliest Central Asian forms, being introduced into other areas through invasion by, and other interactions with, peoples originating on the Eurasian steppes, such as the Bulgars, Magyars and various Turkic peoples. The South Asian sabre, the talwar, also spelled tulwar, had a medium-curved blade and a hand guard. The Middle East also developed their own kinds of sabres, like the shamsher, scimitar, and pulwar, to name a few. Middle Eastern swords were curved much more sharply than Indian swords.

However, Sabre-like curved swords have been in use in Europe since the early medieval period (some early examples include the falchion and the Byzantine paramērion). The oldest well-documented "sabres" are those found in 9th- and 10th-century graves of Magyars (Hungarians) who entered the Carpathian Basin at this time. These oldest sabres had a slight curve, short, down-turned quillons, the grip facing the opposite direction to the blade and a sharp point with the top third of the reverse edge sharpened.