Dagger

Dagger Usage and History

The dagger is a very common weapon used in antiquity and well into the 20th century. The dagger should be distinguished from the knife as it has a very different design despite a comparable size and weight. Daggers are immensely effective thrusting weapons with a symmetrical blade and little cutting ability. It is a weapon used across all layers of society in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and was effective in puncturing the weaker points of armor in the Medieval and Renaissance periods.

Daggers can be used as the only weapon, or with other single hand weapons such as sword or rapier.
Those forms used in conjunction with a longer weapon are often identified as parrying daggers.

Dagger Components and Construction

A dagger consists of a symmetrical straight blade, a handle, a pommel and usually a small cross-guard. The blade often doesn’t have a usable edge and is used mostly for thrusting (and parrying).

Training Tools

Some practitioners today use wooden or synthetic daggers which we at Sword Academy feel they lack the weight and balance of steel replicas.

Due to our philosophy (and its application to training) Sword Academy uses steel weapons exclusively in our Western Martial Arts (WMA) / Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) curriculum as they have many benefits over wooden, synthetic or other materials.

In our curriculum Sword Academy tudies both medieval and renaissance techniques of dagger combat inspired by German, Italian and other sources.