Edged and bladed weapons
Bladed and edged weapons are types of melee weapons used throughout history for combat, hunting, and ceremonies. Bladed weapons include swords, daggers, knives, and bayonets. Edged weapons are used to cut, hack, and slash, and, depending on the weapon, also to thrust and stab. Not all swords, daggers, knives, and bayonets have blades, but points intended for thrusting or stabbing, rather than cutting, hacking, or slashing, which includes weapons such as pikes and lances. Other dedicated edged weapons include battleaxes and poleaxes.
Many edged agricultural tools such as machetes, hatchets, axes, sickles, and scythes, have been used as improvised weapons by peasantry, militia, or irregular forces – particularly as an expedient for defence.
Edged weapons and blades are associated with the premodern age but continue to be used in modern armies. Combat knives and knife bayonets are used for close combat or stealth operations and are issued as a secondary or sidearm. Modern bayonets are often intended to be used in a dual role as both a combat knife and knife bayonet. Improvised and dedicated edged weapons were extensively used in trench warfare of the First World War such as Entrenching tools being modified to take an edge and be used as melee weapons.
