Terminology

Abrasion Resistance – The blade’s ability to withstand scratches, surface wear, and friction damage over time, influenced by steel hardness and heat treatment quality.

Acid Wash – A blade finishing method where the steel is treated with acid to create a dark, rugged, and stonewashed appearance often used on tactical knives and modern machetes.

Arming Sword – A medieval one-handed sword with a straight, double-edged blade used alongside a shield for slashing and thrusting in battle.

Assassin Dagger – A slim, double-edged dagger designed for concealment and precise penetration, historically associated with stealth missions and close combat.

Authentic Temper – A precise heat-treatment of the blade where the edge is hardened for sharpness while the spine remains tougher and more flexible, creating a durable, battle-ready sword or knife.

Auto-Temper – A natural tempering effect that occurs when thicker sections of a blade cool slower during forging, creating varied hardness across the steel for strength and flexibility.

Auxiliary Knife – A small companion blade included with larger weapons, such as the karda paired with traditional kukris for utility tasks like carving and skinning.

Awl – A pointed tool used for piercing leather, marking handle materials, or guiding stitching when constructing scabbards and grips.

Axehead – The forged steel head of an axe, designed for chopping, splitting, and heavy outdoor cutting tasks.

Back Edge – A sharpened or partially sharpened section on the spine side of a blade, often seen on clip point, spear point, or double-edged weapons for enhanced thrusting and slashing.

Balance Point – The spot along a weapon where it naturally balances on a finger, influencing how fast, heavy, or agile a sword, kukri, spear, or machete feels in hand.

Barstock – Long, uniform bars of steel used by bladesmiths as starting material, cut and forged into knives, swords, and spearheads of various designs.

Basket Hilt – A protective sword hilt that fully surrounds the hand with metal bars or plates, offering strong protection in cutting and parrying during combat.

Batoning – A wood-splitting technique where a knife or small blade is struck on the spine with a stick to drive it through logs or branches for firewood and bushcraft.

Battle Ready – A term used for fully functional swords and weapons built with proper steel, heat treatment, and construction, capable of real cutting and training rather than just display.

Bayonet – A blade designed to attach to the muzzle of a rifle or firearm, turning it into a spear-like weapon for close-quarters combat and battlefield use.

Bead Blast Finish – A matte, non-reflective blade surface created by blasting the steel with fine beads, giving knives and swords a smooth, tactical, satin-like appearance.

Belly – The curved section of the cutting edge, usually near the front of the blade, that improves slicing power and draw-cut performance on knives and swords.

Belt Loop – A leather or fabric loop on a sheath that allows a knife, dagger, or machete to be carried securely on a belt for easy access in the field.

Bench Grinder – A stationary grinding machine with rotating wheels used for rough shaping, deburring, and cleaning metal parts, sometimes used in early blade shaping stages.

Bevel – The angled surface ground on a blade that tapers toward the cutting edge, controlling sharpness, cutting performance, and overall geometry on swords, knives, kukris, daggers, and machetes.

Blacksmith – A craftsman who heats, hammers, and shapes metal on an anvil to forge blades, tools, weapons, and hardware by hand or with power hammers.

Blade – The main cutting part of a weapon or tool, including the edge, spine, tip, and bevels, responsible for slicing, chopping, thrusting, and cutting performance.

Blade Balance – The distribution of weight between blade and handle, which determines how light, responsive, or blade-heavy a weapon feels during cutting, thrusting, and movement.

Blade Blank – A roughly shaped, unsharpened blade outline cut from steel, ready for grinding, beveling, heat treatment, and finishing into a completed knife or sword.

Blade Etch – A controlled chemical process that darkens or reveals patterns on the blade, such as Damascus layers, logos, symbols, or decorative artwork etched into the steel.

Blade Geometry – The overall shape, thickness, bevel angles, and cross-section of a blade, which together determine cutting ability, penetration, durability, and balance in use.

Blade Length – The measured length of the sharpened portion of a weapon or tool from the tip to the start of the handle or guard, influencing reach and cutting capacity.

Blade Play – Unwanted movement or looseness of a blade in its handle or pivot, especially in folding knives, reducing stability and safety during use.

Blade Polishing – The progressive smoothing and refining of a blade’s surface using abrasives to remove scratches, enhance appearance, and sometimes reveal hamon or pattern-weld details.

Blade Profile – The outline of a blade when viewed from the side, including the shape of the tip, belly, and spine, which affects slicing style and handling feel.

Blade Set – A permanent bend or deflection in a blade that remains after flexing or impact, often indicating that the steel has exceeded its elastic limit.

Blade Sharpening – The process of grinding and honing the edge of a blade using stones, belts, or guided systems to restore or improve cutting performance and edge retention.

Blade Spine – The thick, non-cutting back of the blade that provides structural strength, stiffness, and sometimes a surface for striking fire steels or batoning.

Blade Thickness – The measurement of how thick a blade is at the spine or base, affecting strength, weight, stiffness, and how the edge can be ground for cutting performance.

Blade Tip – The forward-most part of the blade responsible for penetration in thrusts and fine control work, shaped differently for piercing, slicing, or utility tasks.

Blade Warp – An unwanted twist or curve that develops in a blade, often during heat treatment or quenching, requiring straightening or re-forging to correct.

Blade Width – The distance from the cutting edge to the spine, which affects cutting depth, food release, and how the blade feels in slicing or chopping motions.

Blast Furnace – A large industrial furnace that produces molten iron at high temperatures, later processed into steels used for mass-produced blades and tools.

Blood Groove – A common term for a fuller, the long groove forged or ground into a blade to reduce weight while maintaining strength, often seen on swords and some large knives.

Bloom – A spongy mass of iron produced in a traditional bloomery furnace, later consolidated and refined into usable steel for blades and tools.

Bloomery – An early type of furnace used to smelt iron from ore, producing a bloom that could be forged into blades, tools, and primitive weapons.

Bolo Machete – A forward-weighted machete style with a widened blade near the tip, commonly used in agriculture and jungle clearing for powerful chopping strokes.

Bolster – A thick metal section between blade and handle that adds strength, improves balance, and provides a smooth transition for the grip on knives and daggers.

Bone Handle – A knife or dagger handle made from animal bone, valued for its traditional look, rigidity, and ability to be carved or polished for decorative designs.

Bowie Knife – A large fighting and hunting knife with a pronounced clip point and strong belly, famous in American frontier history for combat and wilderness use.

Brass Guard – A crossguard or hand guard made from brass, offering corrosion resistance, decorative shine, and solid hand protection on swords, daggers, and knives.

Break Test – A destructive test where a blade is intentionally stressed or broken to study grain structure, hardness, and potential flaws in the heat treatment or forging process.

Brine Quench – A quenching method using saltwater instead of plain water or oil, increasing cooling speed and hardness but also raising the risk of cracking if not controlled properly.

Broadhead – A wide, multi-bladed point used on arrows and sometimes spearheads, designed to create large wound channels for hunting or combat use.

Bronze Casting – The process of pouring molten bronze into molds to create guards, pommels, fittings, and decorative elements for swords, spears, and ceremonial weapons.

Burnish – To polish metal by rubbing or pressing with a hard tool, smoothing the surface and giving blades or fittings a brighter, more refined finish.

Burr – A thin, raised edge of metal that forms along the cutting edge during sharpening, which must be removed or refined to create a clean, razor-sharp edge.

Bushcraft Knife – A robust fixed-blade knife built for wilderness survival tasks like carving, shelter building, fire prep, and food processing in the outdoors.

Butt Spike – A pointed metal spike fitted to the end of a spear shaft or staff weapon, used for secondary striking, bracing, or reversing the weapon in combat.

Buttcap – A metal cap fitted at the end of a handle, often serving as a counterweight, decorative feature, and sometimes as a striking surface on combat blades.

Buttplate – A metal or reinforced plate attached to the rear end of a handle or stock to protect it from impact, wear, and damage during use or thrusting.