A pistol sword is a
sword
A sword is an edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter blade with a pointed ti ...
with a
pistol
A pistol is a handgun, more specifically one with the chamber integral to its gun barrel, though in common usage the two terms are often used interchangeably. The English word was introduced in , when early handguns were produced in Europe, an ...
or
revolver
A revolver (also called a wheel gun) is a repeating handgun that has at least one barrel and uses a revolving cylinder containing multiple chambers (each holding a single cartridge) for firing. Because most revolver models hold up to six roun ...
attached, usually alongside the blade. It differs from a
rifle
A rifle is a long-barreled firearm designed for accurate shooting, with a barrel that has a helical pattern of grooves ( rifling) cut into the bore wall. In keeping with their focus on accuracy, rifles are typically designed to be held with ...
with a
bayonet
A bayonet (from French ) is a knife, dagger, sword, or spike-shaped weapon designed to fit on the end of the muzzle of a rifle, musket or similar firearm, allowing it to be used as a spear-like weapon.Brayley, Martin, ''Bayonets: An Illustr ...
in that the weapon is designed primarily for use as a sword, and the firearm component is typically considered a secondary weapon designed to be an addition to the blade, rather than the sword being a secondary addition to the pistol. In addition, the two components of these weapons typically cannot be separated, unlike most bayonet-fixed rifles.
History
Historically, some
flintlock
Flintlock is a general term for any firearm that uses a flint-striking lock (firearm), ignition mechanism, the first of which appeared in Western Europe in the early 16th century. The term may also apply to a particular form of the mechanism its ...
pistols of the 17th and 18th centuries were constructed as gun-swords, with the barrel of the pistol attached to the side of the blade of a
shortsword
The English language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise and has varied widely over time. There is no historical dictionary for the universal names, classification or terminology of swords; a sword was simply a double e ...
or
dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use de ...
. A shell guard protected the firing mechanism when it was used as a sword. These were used by French and German hunters to kill wounded
wild boar
The wild boar (''Sus scrofa''), also known as the wild swine, common wild pig, Eurasian wild pig, or simply wild pig, is a suid native to much of Eurasia and North Africa, and has been introduced to the Americas and Oceania. The species is ...
. Examples of these weapons can be found in the armoury of
Wawel Castle
The Wawel Royal Castle (; ''Zamek Królewski na Wawelu'') and the Wawel Hill on which it sits constitute the most historically and culturally significant site in Poland. A fortified residency on the Vistula River in Kraków, it was established on ...
(
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
, Poland). Similar weapons were made in India, including the
katar (कटार), a thrusting
dagger
A dagger is a fighting knife with a very sharp point and usually two sharp edges, typically designed or capable of being used as a thrusting or stabbing weapon.State v. Martin, 633 S.W.2d 80 (Mo. 1982): This is the dictionary or popular-use de ...
, modern variants of which may feature a single-shot pistol built into one side.
Military use
![Elgin cutlass pistol](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/07/Elgin_cutlass_pistol.jpg)
In 1838, the
United States Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...
developed the .54 caliber, single-shot smoothbore Elgin pistol, which was equipped with an 11.5-inch
Bowie knife blade and was intended for use by boarding parties; it was the first
percussion cap
The percussion cap or percussion primer, introduced in the early 1820s, is a type of single-use percussion ignition device for muzzle loader firearm locks enabling them to fire reliably in any weather condition. This crucial invention gave rise t ...
gun in naval service, but only 150 were made. The Navy specifically intended them for the
Wilkes-South Seas expedition. Reportedly, in 1840 a naval landing party used the pistol to good effect when Fijian warriors attacked the sailors on the island of
Malolo
Malolo is an inhabited volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean, near Fiji. Malolo was used as a tribe name in Survivor: Ghost Island. Malolo Island is the largest of the Mamanuca Islands and is home to two villages.
History
Malolo was one of the ...
. A few Elgin pistols were still in use during the
US Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...
, but proved unpopular. The Navy quickly replaced them with the
M1860 Cutlass M186 may refer to:
*M-186 (Michigan highway), a state highway
*Mercedes-Benz M186 engine, an automobile engine
*Minardi M186
The Minardi M186 was a Formula One car, designed for Minardi by Giacomo Caliri for use in the season. Introduced partw ...
, which remained in service until the 1940s. Some found their way into civilian hands and some ended up in the
Old West
The American frontier, also known as the Old West or the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that began with European colonial ...
.
Pinfire
A pinfire cartridge is an obsolete type of metallic firearm cartridge in which the priming compound is ignited by striking a small pin which protrudes radially from just above the base of the cartridge. Invented by Frenchman Casimir Lefaucheux in ...
cartridge gun-swords were produced in Belgium during the mid-19th century, although in limited quantity.
These custom-made weapons were sometimes used by European officers and featured a loading gate behind the
basket hilt
The basket-hilted sword is a sword type of the early modern era characterised by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand. The basket hilt is a development of the quillons added to swords' crossguards since the Late Middle Ages.
In mod ...
.
In 1866 T Rauh of Solingen filed a United States
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...
on the design of a
9mm caliber
This is a list of firearm cartridges that have bullets in the to caliber range.
*''Case length'' refers to the round case length.
*''OAL'' refers to the overall length of the loaded round.
All measurements are given in millimeters, followed ...
pistol sword with a 32in blade.
During
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the British manufactured a limited number of
Webley revolver
The Webley Revolver (also known as the Webley Top-Break Revolver or Webley Self-Extracting Revolver) was, in various designations, a standard issue service pistol for the armed forces of the United Kingdom, and countries of the British Empire a ...
s with folding blades, similar in design to the Pritchard
pistol bayonet
A pistol sword is a sword with a pistol or revolver attached, usually alongside the blade. It differs from a rifle with a bayonet in that the weapon is designed primarily for use as a sword, and the firearm component is typically considered a s ...
. These were used by officers in the trenches for close quarters fighting as the confined space made it difficult to use a sword. However, few were produced due to the expense and scarcity of raw materials.
A rare variant of the
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
Japanese
Nambu automatic pistol was a pistol sword. It is possible that this non-regulation weapon was privately purchased by an officer as only one example is known to exist.
Civilian use
Another notable example of a pistol sword was the Swedish 1865 Cutlass Pistol; 500 were ordered by the government and issued to
prison guard
A prison officer or corrections officer is a Uniformed services, uniformed law enforcement official responsible for the custody, supervision, safety, and regulation of prisoners. They are responsible for the care, custody, and control of individ ...
s. It was a breech-loading 2 shot weapon with a 14in by 2in blade weighing 2.5 lb. A few ended up on the other side of the Atlantic and one became part of
Buffalo Bill
William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, Bison hunting, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa, Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but ...
's gun collection.
In the late
Victorian era
In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...
, some French
swordstick
A swordstick or cane-sword is a cane containing a hidden blade. The term is typically used to describe European weapons from around the 18th century, but similar devices have been used throughout history, notably the Roman ''dolon'', the Japanes ...
s had built-in pinfire
pepperbox revolver
The pepper-box revolver or simply pepperbox (also "pepper-pot", from its resemblance to the household pepper shakers) is a multiple-barrel firearm, mostly in the form of a handgun, that has three or more gun barrels in a coaxially revolving m ...
s to increase their lethality; these were carried by civilians for self-defense. However this idea was far from new; combination swordsticks and wheel lock pistols have been in use since the 16th century.
Disadvantages
Pistol swords were not widely used and became uncommon relatively quickly, due to their expense and because instead of getting two weapons in one, one got a heavy pistol and a heavy, off-balance sword, as shown by the poor performance of the Elgin pistol.
Modern versions occasionally appear on the market, however, as novelties or collectors' items, including the Sierra Madre knife pistol.
Similar weapons
![Deleaxhe Apache pistol 7mm](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/47/Deleaxhe_Apache_pistol_7mm.jpg)
* Edged weapons with built-in pistols were common in Eastern Europe. The flintlock axe pistol (gun axe) was a trademark
Polish cavalry
The Polish cavalry ( pl, jazda, kawaleria, konnica) can trace its origins back to the days of medieval cavalry knights. Poland is mostly a country of flatlands and fields and mounted forces operate well in this environment. The knights and heav ...
weapon from the 16th until the 18th century. Similar guns were made in Hungary and a multi-barreled version was invented in Germany.
[Howard Ricketts, ''Firearms'', (London,1962) p.29.] Axe pistols, invented in 1703 by Admiral Erich Sioblad, were also issued to the
Swedish navy
The Swedish Navy ( sv, Svenska marinen) is the naval branch of the Swedish Armed Forces. It is composed of surface and submarine naval units – the Fleet () – as well as marine units, the Amphibious Corps ().
In Swedish, vessels o ...
from the early 18th century until 1840.
* Some
linstock
A linstock (also called a lintstock) is a staff with a fork at one end to hold a lighted slow match. The name was adapted from the Dutch ''lontstok'', "match stick". Linstocks were used for discharging cannons in the early days of artillery; the ...
s of the Renaissance and late medieval period had a matchlock pistol concealed in the blade.
*
Henry VIII
Henry VIII (28 June 149128 January 1547) was King of England from 22 April 1509 until his death in 1547. Henry is best known for his six marriages, and for his efforts to have his first marriage (to Catherine of Aragon) annulled. His disa ...
's bodyguards were equipped with iron
round shield
A round shield can refer to any type of hand-held shield that has a round shape. They come in highly varying sizes, and have, in different forms, been very popular in Europe, the Asia and the Americas, throughout the Bronze Age, the Classical per ...
s fitted with a pistol. The English also combined pistols with
maces. A notable example is Henry VIII's Walking Staff, a 3 barreled pistol and
morning star. The king would carry it while walking through the city at night to check up on the constables. Henry's mace pistol is now on display in the
Tower of London
The Tower of London, officially His Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, which is separa ...
's Tudor Room.
* In the late 19th century, members of Parisian street gangs carried
Apache revolver
An Apache revolver is a handgun which incorporates multiple other weapons, made notorious by the French underworld figures of the early 1900s known as '' Les Apaches''.
History
The design dates from the 1860s, and is attributed to Louis Dolne. T ...
s, a combination of knife, revolver and
knuckleduster
Brass knuckles (variously referred to as knuckles, knucks, brass knucks, knucklebusters, knuckledusters, knuckle daggers, English punch, iron fist, paperweight, or a classic) are "fist-load weapons" used in hand-to-hand combat. Brass knuckles ...
.
* Knife pistols with folding blades were popular in England during the mid-Victorian era. These were made by Unwin and Rodgers, used
black powder
Gunpowder, also commonly known as black powder to distinguish it from modern smokeless powder, is the earliest known chemical explosive. It consists of a mixture of sulfur, carbon (in the form of charcoal) and potassium nitrate (saltpeter). Th ...
and were available in various small calibers.
[Frost, Gordon (1972). ]
Blades and Barrels: six centuries of combination weapons
'. Like the modern
Swiss Army knife they contained a variety of tools, from blades to corkscrews, and were often used by sailors. A modern version that fires
.22 caliber .22 caliber, or 5.6 mm caliber, refers to a common firearms bore diameter of 0.22 inch (5.6 mm).
Cartridges in this caliber include the very widely used .22 Long Rifle and .223 Remington / 5.56×45mm NATO.
.22 inch is also a popular ...
rimfire cartridges, known as the Defender, is still in production.
Defender pistol
/ref>
* Belgian gunsmiths made revolvers with Bowie knife blades, some of which were used by French officers during the Crimean War
The Crimean War, , was fought from October 1853 to February 1856 between Russia and an ultimately victorious alliance of the Ottoman Empire, France, the United Kingdom and Piedmont-Sardinia.
Geopolitical causes of the war included the de ...
and Franco-Prussian War.
Gallery
File:German - Combination Sword and Wheel-lock Pistol - Walters 51509 - Group.jpg, German sword pistol, 1580s.
File:Półhak.jpg, Polish axe pistol.
File:Wheel-lock daggers.JPG, German knife pistol, 1600s.
File:Cutlass pistol on display at Salem Pirate Museum, Massachusetts.jpg, Replica of an 18th-century pistol cutlass.
File:Coach-Gun-gm002.jpg, Georgian knife pistol with spring-loaded
A spring is an elastic object that stores mechanical energy. In everyday use the term often refers to coil springs, but there are many different spring designs. Modern springs are typically manufactured from spring steel, although some non ...
blade similar to the modern switchblade
A switchblade (aka switch knife, automatic knife, pushbutton knife, ejector knife, flick knife, Stiletto, flick blade, or spring knife (Sprenger,Benson, Ragnar (1989). ''Switchblade: The Ace of Blades''. Paladin Press. pp. 1–14. . The sw ...
.
File:Gun Katara.jpg, Indian pistol katar.
File:Poivriere systeme mariette 1855.jpg, 1850s Belgian pepperbox
The pepper-box revolver or simply pepperbox (also "pepper-pot", from its resemblance to the household pepper shakers) is a multiple-barrel firearm, mostly in the form of a handgun, that has three or more gun barrels in a coaxially revolving m ...
with stiletto blade.
File:Sword revolver2.jpg, Rauh's sword revolver, late 19th century.
References
External links
The Mariners' Museum
Video describing mechanical operation and history of an Elgin Cutlass Pistol
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pistol Sword
Pistols
Early Modern European swords
Modern European swords
18th-century weapons
19th-century weapons
Combination weapons
American Civil War weapons
Guns of the American West