Dusack

The dusack is a single edged sabre or cutlass type sword that emerged from Czech usage during the Hussite Wars before spreading through the German lands and the Habsburg monarchy as a military sidearm in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In 1579 the Austrian province of Styria recorded ordering about 700 dusacks from local bladesmiths while preparing for conflict with the Ottoman Empire. Beyond its military role the weapon became important in early modern German fencing schools, where practitioners adapted it into a training and sporting implement, often making wooden practice versions with a short thick blade of 25 to 38 inches and a grip formed by a hole cut directly into the blade.