Light-"sabers"?

[Boba Fett]

I always wondered why do we call the "energy-swords", lightsaber?

I mean it has nothing to do with sabers.

1. The "light-blade" is not curved.

2. The only hilt that somehow reminds me of a saber's hilt is Dooku's.

I think the "common" lightsabers rather look like "light-bastardswords".
You can swing it with two hands or just one if you want so.

Yes, I know "lightsaber" sounds better although, but it has nothing to do with the swords in SW.

[Pcm979]

I always wondered why do we call the "energy-swords", lightsaber?

I mean it has nothing to do with sabers.

1. The "light-blade" is not curved.

2. The only hilt that somehow reminds me of a saber's hilt is Dooku's.

I think the "common" lightsabers rather look like "light-bastardswords".
You can swing it with two hands or just one if you want so.

Yes, I know "lightsaber" sounds better although, but it has nothing to do with the swords in SW.

For the same reason that turbo *lasers* are called that.

[Spanky The Dolphin]

It's just the fucking name.

It's for the same reason that turbolasers aren't lasers or turbo-ised (or whatever).

[Kuja]

Do you think a Wookiee bowcaster throws bows? Of course not. It's all in the name.

[Stuart Mackey]

Do you think a Wookiee bowcaster throws bows? Of course not. It's all in the name.

Or in this case, the shape of the weapon.

[Isolder74]

Do you think a Wookiee bowcaster throws bows? Of course not. It's all in the name.

No, it throws Energy-enhanced Explosive Quarrels. To get the speeds the weapon fires requires Wookie superhuman strength

[Patrick Ogaard]

For that matter, for a sabre to be a sabre does not even require a curved blade. Many of the straight swords used as part of the parade uniforms of officers the world over are still sabres.

At its most basic, a sabre is a single-edged sword derived from the swords of Central Asian nomads. While curved sabres are the most common historically, heavy cavalry sabres are very often straight for the two simple reasons that the shape allowed their use in densely packed formations and that the sabres could be used as short lances in a charge against infantry.

And that's more than most people really want to know about sabres.

[Crown]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

[Crazy_Vasey]

Maybe they used sabres back in the olden days and just tacked light onto the front of the name when they get their nifty new toys.

[Isolder74]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

Yes a rapier of often referred to as saber
and the Straight sword the marines used in their dress uniforms is called a saber

[Vympel]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

Hmmm not really- they're not exactly those little rapiers you hold with one hand with the other behind you sorta thing (all gaze at my incredible lack of swordsmanship nomenclature)

They're kinda scary lookin actually. I think Liam Neeson used one in Rob Roy when he killed Tim Roth.

[Warspite]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

A sabre is manily a slashing weapon, with a heavy blade to carry enough momentum to basically slice n' dice. A fencing sword is mainly used for stabbing moves, and due to the fighting technique, a light blade.

[beyond hope]

Perhaps the fighting style? Sabers are slashing rather than stabbing weapons, and what we've seen of saber combat (with the one notable exception of Qui-Gon being run through by Darth Maul) is all slashing moves.

[Ender]

Perhaps the fighting style? Sabers are slashing rather than stabbing weapons, and what we've seen of saber combat (with the one notable exception of Qui-Gon being run through by Darth Maul) is all slashing moves.

Dooku used the stabby stabby technique as well.

[Isolder74]

Perhaps the fighting style? Sabers are slashing rather than stabbing weapons, and what we've seen of saber combat (with the one notable exception of Qui-Gon being run through by Darth Maul) is all slashing moves.

Dooku used the stabby stabby technique as well.

And Dooku(Tyranus) was obviously very proud of his saber skills. Note the design of his saber is better for one handed use.

[haas mark]

light being energy, and the shape of a sword also being called a saber, and the additiont hat is sounds awesomely cool, well, there ya go!

[spongyblue]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

Hmmm not really- they're not exactly those little rapiers you hold with one hand with the other behind you sorta thing (all gaze at my incredible lack of swordsmanship nomenclature)

They're kinda scary lookin actually. I think Liam Neeson used one in Rob Roy when he killed Tim Roth.

Yes, in fencing there is a saber. The three different swords used are foil which is used with stabbing motions only, epee(pronounced ep-ay) which has stabbing and a few slashing moves, and saber is primarily slashing with a few stabbing motions.

The point system in fencing is foil gets points for stabbing the chest only, epee can stab at the chest and only a few hits with the side of the blade(IIRC) to the side of the head, saber can have slashing motions to shoulders, any area of the head, and stabbing motions to the chest.

Its been a couple of years since i fenced so im not 100% on the point system.

[Lord Pounder]

In reference to Dooku's style and skill. It is noted quite heavily how much of an expert he was at the fencing style, a stype the majority of the other jedi had abandoned.

[Stuart Mackey]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

Yes a rapier of often referred to as saber
and the Straight sword the marines used in their dress uniforms is called a saber

USMC uses a curved Mamaluke sabre and rapiers are always straight weapons, they should not be confused with a sporting foil or epeee

[Stuart Mackey]

Aren't sabres also a fencing sword?

Hmmm not really- they're not exactly those little rapiers you hold with one hand with the other behind you sorta thing (all gaze at my incredible lack of swordsmanship nomenclature)

They're kinda scary lookin actually. I think Liam Neeson used one in Rob Roy when he killed Tim Roth.

Rob Roy used a Socottish basket hilted broadsword AKA Claymore. Tim Roth used a rapier

[Perinquus]

Let me clear up a few things here.

First, with regard to sport fencing weapons: the epee and foil can only be used to stab. There is a little button at the tip, and a small electrical jack under the bell guard of the weapon. Into this jack you plug a thing called a body cord (so-called because it threads under your fencing jacket and comes out behind your back). It's connected to a reel at either end of the strip (you fence on a linear strip), and the reel keeps the cord off the ground whre you can trip over it. Both reels are connected to a score machine which records a point every time the button on the tip of the weapon is pressed. Only pressing the button by striking your opponent with the tip will score a point - hence, no slashing attacks in foil or epee. In foil, the only target is the torso only, and to make this work, the fencers wear a thing called a lame (pronounced la-MAY) which is a vest of metal mesh that allows the score machine to differentiate between a touch on the proper target area, and a touch on another part of the body. No lame is worn in epee, and a touch anywhere on the body is valid.

The saber is a non-electrical weapon. In competition you have four judges and a referee. When a strike is scored, the judges observe and call it out, awarding the point to the fencer who struck. A saber fencer may use either the point or the edge freely, and the target area is any part of the body from the waist up (the sport of saber fencing was developed from cavalry practice, and the waist up target area reflects the thinking that a strike to the legs would presumably not be immediately disabling to a mounted man).

I know all this because I used to be a competitive fencer.

Now, with regard to what exactly a saber is (a real one, I mean - not the sport version): a saber is a weapon with a long, curved, single-edged blade designed for use mainly on horseback. The term seems to be of Slavic-Hungarian origin, and modern research suggests that the weapon originally developed in central Asia. Sabers were in use from the 9th century by the Slavs, who probably adopted it from their nomadic opponents. No weapon with a straight blade is properly referred to as a saber. Straight bladed cavalry swords were popular in Europe at the same time that the saber was travelling westward, and these straight swords are called broadswords. Broadsword, incidentally is a term that properly applies only to straight-bladed, double-edged swords with an enclosed hilt (the straight, cross-hilted, knightly sword of the Middle Ages, or the older swords of the Viking Age and earlier are termed longswords, not broadswords). Straight-bladeds swords with an enclosed hilt that are single edged, or have only a partial back edge are called backswords, and were also popular cavalry swords prior to the general adoption of the saber. The saber supplanted the straight-bladed types because a curved sword is better as a cutting weapon.

Eventually, the saber was itself replaced as a cavalry sword by a straight-bladed weapon. Just before the sword was abandoned altogether, both the U.S. and British cavalry arms adopted a straight sword with a curved hilt and a large bell guard. It was a long, double-edged weapon, but the blade was narrow and very stiff, and was meant to be used almost exclusively for thrusting. It was not called a saber, just a cavalry sword. Incidentally, the American version was designed by a young lieutenant named George S. Patton Jr.

Now as to why the light saber was called a light saber, when the weapon bears no resemblance in shape, or in the way it is used, to an actual saber - I suspect the name was simply chosen because it rolls off the tongue more smoothly than "lightsword", or "lightblade", or "lightlongsword" or anything else they could think of.

[Perinquus]

Incidentally, if you want to see what the M1913 cavalry sword designed by Patton looked like, go here:

http://www.pattonhq.com/sword.html

[Perinquus]

Incidentally, if you want to see what the M1913 cavalry sword designed by Patton looked like, go here:

http://www.pattonhq.com/sword.html

They call it a saber on this page, but that's a misnomer, and it's official designation was: sword, cavalry M1913.

[spongyblue]

Thanx for clearing that up. I didnt intentionally mean to fudge it up, its just been many years since I fenced and I forgot a lot of the rules and what have you. I would like to get back into it but NW Florida doesnt have ANY fencing academys or classes unless you happen to be a student at Pensacola U which is an hour away from me.

[Boba Fett]

Yes, thanks for the info!

BTW, I'd like to point out another thing that's also almost unique to the "saber" class, that's the high flexibility of the blade!