Falchion

The falchion is a European single-edged sword with a broad, often slightly curved blade that widens toward the tip, in use from around the thirteenth through the sixteenth centuries and combining some of the cutting power of an axe with the versatility of a sword. Its wide blade concentrated weight forward for powerful chopping strokes, making it effective against mail armor and a popular sidearm for infantry, though surviving depictions also show mounted knights carrying falchions, and the weapon appears frequently in medieval art and literature as an infantry and lower-status weapon by comparison with the knightly arming sword. Few original falchions survive; among the best known are the Conyers Falchion, held by the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral and used historically in a ceremony marking a bishop's entry into the diocese, and the ornately decorated Thorpe Falchion.