Common Armory Blunders

Your weapons and armor... are you doin' 'em wrong?

Swords

 * People make the mistake now and then of using a scimitar to impale someone. Curved swords are designed for hacking and slicing, not stabbing. Note: This does not necessarily hold true for katanas. Master swordsman Miyamoto Musashi explicitly detailed the use of the katana as a stabbing weapon in the Book Of Five Rings, but recommended it only if the fighter is heavily fatigued and needs to end the fight quickly or must fight through multiple combatants.


 * Some authors attempt to use lightweight swords such as rapiers in High Fantasy/pseudo-medieval stories in conjunction with heavy blades such as broadswords. The rapier is a blade that owes its existence to gunpowder - bullets rendered heavy armor useless. With men out of heavy armor, there was no point in carrying a sword heavy enough (such as the broadsword) to break through it. Speed became key in a swordfight, and so lighter blades were developed and used instead.


 * Blows were blocked/parried with the flat of most swords, not the bladed edge.


 * Never try to cut down a tree with a sword[1].


 * Keeping the sword in a scabbard for a long time will cause it to rust. Likewise, touching the blade with bare hands too often will cause the oils in your skin to corrode the metal. Keep this in mind when the village kids get all touchy-feely on the great hero's sword.


 * It is possible to break a sword with another sword -- if one sword is considerably heavier than the other, and if the metal on the target is thin enough to snap (i.e. a rapier). It will, however, cause damage to the surviving blade (something a fighter would want to avoid), and the flying shrapnel would be quite dangerous.


 * Cutting someone in half with a sword is not as easy as it looks.


 * Dual-wielding swords, wait, scratch that- dual-wielding ANYTHING is much more difficult than wielding a single weapon alone. Soldiers would do much better with a sword and a buckler than two longswords. Likewise, you'll rarely hit anything dual-wielding guns.
 * Dualists tended to wield a sword and a dagger, but the dagger was used to parry, not to attack.

Maces and Flails

 * Flails are weapons with a chain and a weighted head (can come with spikes). Maces do not have chains; simplest terms they are heavy rods with a heavy head (can come with spikes too).


 * Flails can entangle swords and reach over shields. Flails also are incredibly difficult to use properly. Do not expect any individual short of a prodigy to pick up a flail and not lose his balance.


 * The force of impact on a mace covers more surface area than that of a sword's razor edge. That being said, blades cut flesh, maces break bones.

Archery

 * Not any old tree can become a bow - it must be flexible enough to bend and return back to its original shape - otherwise it breaks.


 * For every inch past twenty-eight inches (28") on a bow, an extra pound must be added to prevent it from breaking.


 * The size of one's bow is based upon your wingspan. If your character is six feet tall (6'), he will be carrying a very large bow.

Guns

 * Gun silencers are properly known as noise suppressors, and they do not actually silence the gun. Instead, a suppressor aims to muffle the explosion, giving it a more benign sound.