How long do swords last for?

Anywhere between “after first serious use” and “never”. Assuming thorough, regular maintenance, a sword can last almost indefinitely – the oldest one I’ve held that has seen use was about 250 years old and might still be usable, given a good cleaning.

Can a sword be broken?

Yes. Swords can, and historically did, break in combat. A new, well-forged blade might sometimes end up breaking an old, damaged weapon.

Do swords snap?

Swords today break, and a bad hit can definitely snap a sword. Battles are high stress situations for a weapon, and swords in the past were nothing like we have now.

Are swords brittle?

As one of the last processes in fabricating a sword is quenching and tempering it. Quenching hardens the metal so it holds an edge longer but this also makes it very brittle. Swords could also be differentially hardened so that some parts, like the cutting edge, are harder than the body.

Can swords break on bone?

Swords can effectively go through bone. Whether this is “cutting” the bone or breaking through it may be irrelevant. Some swords can do this better than others and a lot is based on the particular cut. It certainly wouldn’t be uncommon for people to get hands, arms, and legs chopped off during battle.

Do swords crack?

The hardest part of the blade has been cracked through, and there’s no way to repair it as is. If you grind away the edge until there’s no more crack, you lose the 1/3 of the blade that is made of the kind of steel that can be hardened.

Do swords break during battle?

Not sure about breaking, but in ancient times swords would often go blunt or bend during battle. This happened less after the dark ages when steel was introduced, but if of poor quality they could still break.

How long does a sword last?

Assuming thorough, regular maintenance, a sword can last almost indefinitely – the oldest one I’ve held that has seen use was about 250 years old and might still be usable, given a good cleaning. The oldest one that I’ve seen was about 1500 years old and while thoroughy rusty, was worn (indicating regular sharpening and use), but seemed solid.

Can swords be used to cut?

As for cutting, that depends on the sword. The rapier of the renaissance was a thrusting weapon, the longsword of the high-middle ages was a two-handed cutting sword, as was the Katana. How often did swords break?

How do you know when to replace your sword?

Another reason why you might need a sword replaced would be if you got a dent in it too big to be ground out, but again, this requires contact with a blade of similar or superior quality along with an unhealthy dose of sloppy swordsmanship, and doesn’t really depend on the age of the sword anyway.