What you may wish to know is that in the center, that line is a dent, not a bump.
i think that varies based on whether it is merely where the sides of the blade join, as with most simple swords, or if there is a fuller, as with later, more sophisticated swords.
the most imporant thing to keep in mind though as trev has shown is that seldom if ever are the handle and the blade different pieces of metal. this means that many simple swords were somewhat thin, having been beaten from a piece of approximately the same size as the handle! and that's the handle less it's binding! improvements in and propagation of more complex casting and forging methods would allow for greater variation of shape and size, but most swords continued to be constructed using the fastest, simplest methods.
OT: weapons have always propagated based on ease of construction. knives are by far the simplest metal weapon to construct, followed by spears and axes and, finally, by true swords. Long, sharp, straight edged, and necessitating a hilt, swords were no easy task for the medieval smith!
« Last Edit: February 17, 2008, 12:57:43 am by Adarias »
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