How did they measure sword blades?

[estcrh]

Originally Posted by Helleri

Thinking about it more. the easiest measurement to get regarding along a curvature, would be to hold a the base of a blade against the edge of a flat surface (like a table) and roll the blade along it's edge to the tip. Then simply mark where the tip is from the edge of the flat surface. This would trace the curvature of the object along the flat surface perfectly as long as you didn't pull or push the blade.

I used this method on a sword with quite a bit of curve, the pulwar below has a measurement of 29.25 inches (74.29 cm) when measured across the blade tip to were the cutting edge meets the point of the langet, when using your method of rolling the blade on a flat surface from the point of the langet to the blade tip I got a measurement of 31.25 inches (79.39 cm).