What is a DUSSACK Sword? Introduction 

Just to add some points from Bohemia: "tesák" (can be translated to English as either "fang" or maybe "chopper") is in Bohemia often used for anything from long one bladed knife used for hunting and/or fighting but also for falchion or langmesser type blades (often with simple handle nuckle bow or D guard made from the same piece of metal as tang)

I was just thinking about this a few minutes ago. It seems Matt can read minds and travel through time.

The word Tesák in Czech means Fang :)

curiosity trivia time: as you probably know there is no sources for 16-17 century Polish sabre. Many people see missing link in dussack sources. You can have some basic idea how early sabre was used thanks to dussack sources.

I believe Americans would call it an "everyday carry". 🤔

As a wood worker, the "knuckle bow" on a wooden practice weapon (as depicted) might have more to do with strengthening the "blade" by providing additional material at the transition from grip to blade, i.e. the junction where the forces will be greatest- especially as you say, handguards were not yet in vogue. Just a thought.

Düssack can be derived etymologically from the Slavic word "tesak", meaning blade, or more precisely, some sharp implement used to hew stuff (like wood).

I don't think there's any contradiction in Meyer's statement; his rappier is just dussack techniques applied and adapted to this newfangled foreign sword, so it's actually an example of how the dussack operates as the basis for all single handed swords.

I note the wooden versions you showed historical images are curved. That would go a log way to help explain the similar usage style to later sabers. The rounded business ends remind me of the fact that the term "waster" can also apply to a simple wooden cudgel used as a weapon in combat rather than for practice.

In his 1600 treatise Meyer is quite clearly saying that the Dussack is the customary weapon of germans. He also says that the Rappier is a new fashion-weapon among the germans, originating from italy. The reason for him treating the rappier as well is that he finds it a very useful and graceful weapon. There is also some inconsistent explanation of his saying that among germans thrusting is only reserved for your most hated enemies and even then its questionable. That doesn't stop him though from encouraging thrusts with any weapon though...

The Dussack is the father of all modern Military Sabers !!!

Sooooo gooood pronunciation of tesák, Matt! I am from Czechia and I have to say well done!

Another branch of evolution for the dussack is the hunting sword. Tessak (Tesák) means "Fang" in Czech, which refers to a big knife of some sort, this can be anything within the general shape and size of a bowie knife up to a hunting sword. The connection to it is there even before it gets its characteristic shape of an all steel curved dussack.

The dussack to me is strangely loveable. It's shape is sometimes doofy, sometimes terrifying. The leather ones that a friend of mine owns have seen heavy use, and dussacks will always remind me of my first timid steps into HEMA, about a year ago.

Finally! I have a Basket-Hilted Cutlass that was obviously an evolution of the Tessack/Dussack and I wanted some content to go with it. 😊

01:28 People who disregard illustrations on manuscripts: "Women didn't fight with a sword" People who read to much into manuscripts: "medieval people had no neck"

Wow, a sword I own made a cameo in this video. So what are your impressions of the Kingston Angus Trim "Cutlass" Falchion? (Supposedly the sword is a sort of Frankenstein's Monster of parts he had laying around the workshop, but I have seen pictures of 17th century Storta that look similar).

The Dussacks are clearly the older brother of the Cossacks, and so are their swords.

You can see very pointed langmessers in froissart battle of crecy painting, pommel cap and knucklebow with riveted wood handle, maybe the soldiers asked the smith to modify the blade for warfare before they go on campaign.

Tesak is also used in Serbian for a heavy machete like short sword used predominantly by army engineers and artillery crews, there are examples showing as late as WW1.

Honestly, the "munition dussack" is the most interesting due to its simplicity. A piece of metal hammered into a blade where the tang is bent into a knuckle guard.

I thought they were Cutlasses. 4:38 aaaaaaaaaahh!.

I'm super curious in regards to golden age Muslim treatises for Alfanges / Al-khanjal, would love if "those guys" did a revival and translation of their sources, so we could compare to more recent ones with sabers and dussacks.

I don't really like the implication here that the wooden dussack was the training weapon for the messer. If you look at, for instance, Paurenfeyndt, his manual illustrates wooden swords that look a lot more like messers, and he calls them messers, while stating they can be used to train for the tessack. By the time Meyer comes around, no one's using messers any more, everyone's got either a longsword or some kind of complex-hilted single-handed sword. I also don't see much support for dussacks being leather. People in the past seem to have had little concern for fighting with wooden weapons, not to mention the obvious use of blunt steel longswords in sportive contexts.

What are your thoughts on the so-called "sinclair saber" i.e. English or Scottish dussacks? Are there any notable differences? Also why might it be that we see the kind of complex hilts on broadswords, backswords, and dussacks kind of disappear in the late 1700s on sabers then come back on the later sabers (at least in England) for a similar level of protection? At least on the swords carried on foot.

I need our narrator here to do a Halloween special. Dressed as the original vampire movies... Dont know why that look seems to fit... Just saying.

First

Ochs HEMA Clubs loves Dussacks and you Matt! Thanks for your content.

dussack is my favorite sword, just got a custom from Kvetun Armory. Incredible sword. I did some investigation of the art because I had always been suspect that all of the training dussacks were so short. The suspicion started because of looking at plate O. My methodology was simple, I went through the art with calipers and I measured all of the woodcuts of the fencers that had their arm and sword parallel with the view plane. I measured from the palm of the hand to the ball of the shoulder. And then I measured from the start of the blade to the point of the blade. I routinely found that the lengths matched (See caveat below.) The length is an important detail because if The swords are shorter the geometry of the bind changes, even more importantly, the tactical decisions change. If you are attacking with a much shorter sword, then grappling becomes much more important in your tactical decision tree. Meyer does say that he prefers not to grapple with dusack (I certainly do though 😏) in plate O you can clearly see that their palms are even and the tips of both swords are past the center of each other's heads. The next step of my research was to find the heights of men from that time period in Germany a nd northern Europe. I was actually able to find this information and that mode was 5'9. This is actually common with today. So then I measured from the ball joint of the shoulder to the center of the palm and lo and behold the value that I found was right about 29.5" in. And so that is why my custom dusack has a 30-in blade and that anyone who tells me that is wrong can GTFO. Enough for the caveat I mentioned before. There were in fact some dussacks in the art that were the shorter length, however, the fascinating thing there was that those ones were obviously a different construction methodology and one that you frequently find available. The longer ones were made out of a single piece that does look like wood. The shorter ones which have a length in common with the most widely available training dusack today, appear to have a leather blade fastened over a core of wood but leaving the wood handle bare. Also, as a counterpoint to something you said, Meyer at no point says that the swords being used in the long sword section are "just a training version" nor does he say that about the rapier, or the dagger, or the quarter staff, halberd, spear, or anything including the dusack. So why should we assume that when he said the dosach is the foundation of all single-handed weapons that he meant just the training weapon. Either way, all of that research that I did was moot because afterwards I found this. fencingatl.com/blog/2018/8/9/the-tessak-of-norway#:~:text=The%20Tessak%20is%20a%20basket,on%20the%20already%20popular%20Messer.

I'm highly amused by the timing of this video, as I just started writing at story set in the 1630's, and the protagonist carries his grandfather's lange messer, with the hilt and grip reworked to resemble a dussack.

Thank you for this video, Dussacks are my favorite type of sword next the Falchions.

Great video, Matt! What was that saber that you were holding during the video? I looks very similar to the Austro-Hungarian M1845 that I recent bought from you, with a different guard.

Is there an advantage for a clipped point? Does it penetrate armor better than a straight point or better for point alignment?

*Not to be confused with Dudelsack*

Anyone see the sword they recently found in the sea off the coast of Israel from about 900 years ago? They're calling it a crusader sword

Thank you very much for dussack! As for messer-sabre fencing style progression, I think that Sienewski polish saber school trying to do something like this. Not a total medieval, not total XVIII centuries sabre.

It's a common mistake but it is langES Messer and langES Schwert in German. Not Langmesser and Lamgschwert. The "long" is a divided adjective in this context.

Dussack -> tussach (if I hear it correctly) -> tasak. hmmm have sense. Tasak is Polish world for chopper (knife) and falchion (witch is sometimes called half-saber).

So, basically is dussack a transitional sword between lange messer and saber? And is possible with dussack BEGIN drill and exercise to go to the infantry saber???

In the Museum Replicas #88 catalog is offered a steel dussack. "We have copied and original located in a private collection in Italy." Any truth in this, or is it just sales BS?

I thought Dussack came from Dussagge, a farming knife brought to the HRE by Czechian immigrants.

The definition Meyer gives - about the Dussack being only a training sword - is contradicted by him in his own book. I don't have the Art of Sword Combat in front of me, right now, so please forgive me not citing my source, but to paraphrase Meyer, he essentially said during his time as a Master of Arms for Strasbourg, that most Germans were armed, most Germans were peasants and most armed peasants carried dussacks. I'm guessing he didn't mean the training swords.

Does anyone know where Matt's dussack comes from? Looks beautiful

Bout to go home and give my girlfriend Dus-sack hahah....sorry ill leave now.

was the design of the dussack inspired by early eastern European and Central Asian sabres?

I HATE THE ARTIFICIAL MODERN DIVIDE BETWEEN SIDESWORDS AND RAPIERS. I HATE THE ARTIFICIAL MODERN DIVIDE BETWEEN SIDESWORDS AND RAPIERS.

Both Czech "tesák" and polish "tasak" mean cleaver

Этоже тесак, а не дюссак. От слова тесать, рубить. Саперные тесаки очень популярны были с пилами

Does the Dussack use asymmetrical (interlocking) fullers?

I wonder how well this type of weapon would have worked in bushcraft/camp work tools. Similar to a long machete?

In France we would say "braquemart" as contemporary translation of the word dussack/messer. Today it is a familiar word for penis.

Medieval cricket ... the batsman made a mess of the shot ... went right through him and hit him square in the Dusack 😜

Tesat' (rus), Tesaty (ukr) - is a verb in most slavic languages. It means, - 'to adze' or 'to remove outer layer of something in the process of carving'. Tesak was a part of army pioneers equipment. I'd say, for me, Tesak is, - a blade weapon that is commonly used as a tool for chopping and carving wood.

Wow! this was actually brief video (not 20 min "brief") :D

My favoured term is "Short pointy choppy choppy."

What is the purpose behind the T shaped blade on the polearm above Matt's right shoulder?

When you say civilians do you mean serfs? How did they learn to use dusacks?

I was looking at the Bloss dussack only an hour ago. Mind reader! 😱

Trouble with these terminologies and teachings is that there was never a clear cut. Never a complete switch from one style to another. So every word used in every different language has its time of overlapping with other terms and other words. Often generations in between.

That's a sweet looking patu in the background

@schologladitoria where did you get that nice Lange messer?

I think machetes comes from dussacks. Or are dussacks.

Dussak -- the bokken of Europe. Nice!

How was weapon or say sword laws in the medieval times to early modern period I’d guess that general knives were nearly always legal due to the time and needing a simple tool but swords being more regulated though do the time I’m not sure how law or regulation was as enforced compared to modern times

Hello, where did you get the messer 1:39? Thanks.

Dussack sounds more like it should be dusac and be a French word.

in Bohemian, meaning in Czech language Tesák, form of Palaš. There is a weapon known as Český (Bohemian) Tesák and Chodský Palaš.

Matt I’ve been waiting for this video. All the videos I see on Dussacks just show and talk about the leather wrapped sparring one.

what is that axe over your right shoulder? the one with the black handle and the inward curvature to the blade

I thought dussac was only referred to as the practice blade

I didn't agree with everything but this was well done.

The grand father of the south American machetes

What falchion is that ??? What is a side sword ???

I would love to learn more about dussacks and their techniques! Great video!

Where did you buy the Falchion in this video, its a very nice piece 👌

There is a Relativ word Dussäge

What is the picture at 4:10? and what is it used for?

That first blade looks like a loooooong bowie.

Calling sabres an end point makes me think. Matt, what's your speculation on the next steps of sword evolu--- "development" had fire arms not been invented?

misread title as "What is a DUCK SACK?" interest is piqued

John Clements might know haha

Ohhh go into the differences go on ../

hi matt What kind of side swords did troops use with 2-handed polearms as their main weapon? In the late Middle Ages in Switzerland practically only 2-handed polearms were used, do these troops also increasingly use long swords and other 2-handed weapons as side arms? I haven't seen many shields in museums or on pictures in switzerland.

You have hinted at this topic in the past. I think this messer to dusack to saber idea makes a lot of sense. Great video.

Fun fact: Dussack is an anagram of Duck Ass.🦆

I think you should have gone deeper! Dussack deep dive!

"Du Sack" is an insult in german!

The 'S' in Langes Messer isn't silent :D

In Russian language "Tesak" translates to a "Cleaver" .

So is dussack related to cossack?

that is a beautiful sword

What's the length and weight?

The messer is a giant bowieknife.

man this stuff is interesting

Looks like a large Bowie

I love short swords

new sword just dropped

Tasak. Its common slavic word

In polish tasak.

dude sacks? Hmm...