So you decided to start a movie sword replica collection cause a room full of iconic swords make you look macho cool in front your friends and the girl next door (hell yeah!), that is until the girl next door starts throwing questions at you about sword features. There are many movie sword replica collectors who don’t know much about swords. Not to say a collector should have the PhD kind of knowledge, but just enough to appreciate and respect the make of a sword. Alright, it makes you look smart and sophisticated on top of avoiding embarassing situations.

So what should an enthusiastic collector know at least? Some basic sword terminology would be good to start with. For easier understanding, we have Anduril Sword of the King as our model. A typical sword is made up of 2 main parts – the blade and the hilt as labelled below.

Let’s begin with the blade section. At the tip end of the blade is the point, easy right? Then comes the central ridge which runs from the blade point to the fuller. Now the fuller is the groove that runs along the blade and there’s a widespread misunderstanding that the fuller is what many refer to as "blood groove”. It’s best if you know the actual facts from the beginning - the fuller’s function is not to lead off blood contrary to all the hype in sword-and-sorcery novels. The real structural function of the fuller is to strengthen and lighten the blade the same time. If you’re from an engineering background, you’d realize it has a similar concept to the I-beam structure used in construction. Spoils all the fantasy hoohahs right?

Next comes the sharp length of the blade called the edge and it’s designed for one purpose only - cutting. A sword can be single-edged or doubled-edged. The Anduril is a doubled-edged sword meaning both edges of the sword are sharp. A common Japanese katana is single-edged with one sharp edge and the other rebated (blunt). So far so good?

Now let’s continue with the hilt section. The part of the hilt that borders the blade is the cross-guard. It serves 2 purposes - the first is mainly to prevent the user’s hand from sliding to the blade during a thrusting strike, the second is also to protect the user’s hand but from an enemy’s sharp blade. The grip part of the hilt as its name implies, is where the hand grips firmly onto the sword. Finally at the end of the hilt comes the pommel. Sound familiar? In French, “pomme” means apple making it easy to remember, at least for those who know French.

So there you have it, a quick walkthrough on some of the basics of sword terminology. Please keep in mind that the terms posted above are by no means exhaustive. There are numerous sword designs out there each having unique features and parts not mentioned here (wait till you read about the Japanese katana terminology). So do come back to this blog to check out new posts on other sword replica designs.