How are swords still have a sharp edge after blocking so many direct slashes from a sharp tempered blade.
Imo sword should look like saws after even one session of blocking really anything made of metal.
In: 1711
If you go into a real castle that has genuine swords of the era you will see plenty that have huge nicks and dents along the blade.
If you image search antique sword you will find plenty of examples.
There’s a huge amount of factors that will influence whether or not an edge piece of metal takes serious damage, but it certainly happens. Weapons that were damaged so much they were unusable would not be kept around in order to end up as museum pieces.
This was well answered but I’d like to add something you’ll never un-see.
Watch any movie or show with a prolonged sword fight (Highlander is a good one) and watch the wide shots carefully and you’ll see their stunt blades are chipped to all hell.
In a real fight that goes that long, a real sword would probably break by the end. Which is why those fights tend to be in the realm of movies. It’s also why there are always a dozen swords waiting for use for everyone who’s doing the scene.
The simple answer is that the blocking with your sword was not done if you could help it, it is mostly just in movies. Blocking sword on sword damages both blades and a broken weapon gets you killed. People would pull the blow as not to damage their own blade.
Depending when you are talking about you blocked with a shield and later when shields were given up due plate armour (for the rich) and you lost the polearm you started with and mace or war hammer and were left with a sword the training was to avoid blows and close in as the heavy weapons needed to defeat armour would break you sword.
If you are talking about “musketeer” times blocking a thrust is much less damaging to the blade.
In all cases nicks would be ground out and blades replaced before they snapped. There are few examples of broken swords remade as short swords but mostly old damaged blades would be recycled as good steel was a costly item.
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