(Sale Sword ) The Kriegsmesser (#98944)

Relative condition: 8/10

Structural integrity: 10/10

Reason of sale: This bastard sword was created with parts that have not passed our quality control tests (minor Aesthetic flaws). The guard and blade show some very minor signs scratches (see image gallery for details). The sword will pass another polishing step prior to shipping. The Kriegsmesser was engineered primarily as a devastating cutting weapon, designed to combat unarmored infantry, pikemen, and skirmishers on the Renaissance battlefield. To maintain exceptional rigidity along its massive length, the blade features a thick, robust spine. A wide, shallow fuller runs along the upper half of the blade to pull mass back toward the hilt, ensuring the weapon remains agile and responsive.

The Kriegsmesser (literally translating from German as “War Knife”) is one of the most distinctive and formidable weapons of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Developed in Central Europe—primarily within Germanic lands—the Kriegsmesser was a two-handed, single-edged sword utilized extensively by professional soldiers, mercenary captains, and the famed Landsknecht double-pay soldiers (Doppelsöldner).

Despite its massive, sword-like proportions, the weapon belongs typologically and legally to the knife (Messer) family, a design choice deeply rooted in late-medieval guild law, social class, and battlefield pragmatism. The development of the Kriegsmesser is a classic historical example of navigating around protectionist trade guilds. In the Holy Roman Empire, the powerful Schwertfeger (Sword-cutlers) guild held a strict legal monopoly on the manufacturing of swords.

To bypass these restrictions, knife-makers (Messerschmiede) began producing large, two-handed weapons. By utilizing traditional knife-construction techniques rather than sword-construction techniques, they legally classified these massive infantry weapons as “knives.”

SPECS:
Blade: 5160 High Carbon Steel.
Total length: 45″
Blade length: 34″
Blade Width : 2″
Weight: 3lbs 1oz