Dusack

Dusack, Tessak, Dussägge
Tessak – Norway, 16th century
TypeSabre
Place of originGerman Lands
Production history
Produced1560s
VariantsHilt Typology A - H
Specifications
Blade length25–38 in (640–970 mm)
Blade typecurved (occasionally straight)
Hilt typethumb ring, half basket, "Sinclair hilt"
Figure illustrating the basic cuts with the Dusäck in Joachim Meyer's fencing manual; a pair of fencers using the Dusäck is shown in the background (illustration by Tobias Stimmer, 1570).

A dusack or dussack (also dusägge and variants,[1] from Czech tesák "cleaver; hunting sword", lit. "fang") is a single-edged sword of the cutlass or sabre type, in use as a side arm in Germany and the Habsburg monarchy during the 16th to 17th centuries,[2] as well as a practice weapon based on this weapon used in early modern German fencing.[3]

  1. ^ in Early Modern High German variously spelled dusack, dusäck, dussack, dysack, tesak, tuseckn, thuseckn, disackn, dusägge, dusegge, dusegg
  2. ^ Charles John Ffoulkes, The Armourer and His Craft from the XIth to the XVIth Century, Courier Corporation, 1912, p. 159.
  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Amberger was invoked but never defined (see the help page).