Messer vs. Falchion

I found this on Kult of Athena.

kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=2652

I dont know what it really is but it claims to be a Dussack

What i meant be idk anything about it was its history or usage.

Never liked Falchions. Looked too Eastern for my liking. Enough said.

-Quinn

If you know your history they look exactly like their culture.

Its like saying a German never knew how to grapple in medieval times just cause he wasnt asian enough ....... or that one wouldnt practice master ott's wrestling as a euro martial art cause it seems to greek.

Actually in some ways its a moot arguement cause most weapon changes often rode of the back of style changes as well as functional improvements. Dont mind me.

Actually john the reply was more for musicalpoo's post. I didnt mean to have it come off sounding critical.

In that alot of people are trying to dispel alot of misconceptions about falchions and messers in general. Kinda like rapiers should be lightning fast and you can slash with them.

I must say, I've found this thread very informative as I've often found falchions and messers hard to distinguish as well-- personally I've wondered if they're related in terms of development.
With regards as to falchions looking eastern, the best guess I can think of is because they have curved blades, some vaguely resembling a dao or tulwar. Mind that I myself don't think they look all that eastern and my guess might be completely off.

Minor correction on my part. South Eastern lol. With one exception, I don't like curved single sided blades.....at all. That exception is the Kopis/Falcata family of blades.

from the Walters Museum in Baltimore (photo from MyArmoury.com)

second and third from left are pretty close fore-runners of what I agree tend to be Hollywood interpretations...

regardless, maybe this is where some see the "eastern" resemblence to the curved, single edged, clipped point Euro blades... or maybe not...

Those two are kilij swords, Turkish if I remember correctly. The second pic posted by graybeard is why I'd consider to be a Hollywood invention, the 'classic' scimitar that nearly 99% of people think of when you mention the word. Nothing at all like the graceful shamshir. Falchions bear a slight resemblance to that 'scimitar' or the dao, but I think the pommel and crossguard would be dead giveaways to their euro origin, let alone the blade profile.

To add another comment, there are probably several reasons for the development of the Long Knife (it's actually Langes Messer in German)

1) there where periods when a sword was a noble weapon, meaning that only nobles where allowed to carry one. So your average footman had to look for another way to defend himself in close combat. So he took the biggest knife he could find, hammered a nail in the handle and ready was your basic Long Knife.

2) when you come down to the basic necessities, a sword, especially a longsword, is a bloody stupid weapon for war. Imagine yourself, standing in the middle of a lot of other e.g. archers or whatever, the enemy is running in your direction... and you, together with a hundred others, try to draw a really long and sharp blade.
You would be making friends like hell