Whole volumes of literature are devoted to melee weapons: from highly specialized to popular. Nevertheless, we will try to briefly consider this topic in order to find the answer to the question posed above.
As a matter of fact, all the weapons that humanity has used throughout its own history were mostly cold (the history of firearms in this regard is much shorter). Accordingly, at the initial stage of the history of weapons and such a division did not exist and could not exist in principle. Only with the advent of gunpowder, and later of all other explosives, did weapons appear in which the ignition energy of the charge was used to use the damaging elements on the target.
This is where the division of murder weapons into guns and cold ones began. Let's not philosophize slyly, but turn to the fundamental domestic legal document regulating the issue we are discussing: the Federal Law of the Russian Federation "On Weapons". There it is clearly and clearly indicated that a cold weapon is the basis of the damaging effect of which is the use by a person of his own muscular strength and direct contact with the target, that is, the target. Further, the particulars already begin, which are a dime a dozen in the domestic arms legislation.
First of all, edged weapons are divided into throwing and contact weapons. The first, of course, includes everything that is able to "reach" the target at a certain distance, and it does not matter whether the "projectile" is fired by a human hand or by a mechanical device. That is, to this category we include not only throwing (or, as our ancestors said, throwing) knives or axes, but also a sling, bow and crossbow. Contact - everything that is capable of inflicting damage while in the owner's hand. And here again we have a great variety of varieties.
Blade weapons: sword, saber, checker, sword and so on, up to a knife with a certain set of characteristics. Percussion weapons: mace, flail, pernach, tonfu baton. Melee weapons can be pole-arm and wood-free, combined, with the help of which you can chop, stab and just hit anything (for example, some types of halberds, guizarms). In turn, according to the nature of the damage inflicted, it is divided into piercing, cutting, chopping, as well as crushing action and, in addition, having a variety of combinations of these properties.
Further, the subspecies, distinguished by the method of manufacture, begin: industrial, handicraft, converted (remember Vysotsky: "Make knives from files") and by scope: combat, service, civil, hunting, sports. And even being an integral part of the traditional national costume. In a word, there are a lot of nuances here. The variety of edged weapons is enormous, another thing is that today only a few of its varieties remain familiar to us and found not only in museum expositions or actions of military-historical restorers.
First of all, these are, of course, knives of various types and types. Swords, foils and sabers, along with bows, have firmly "taken root" in big-time sports. Crossbows in our area are rather exotic, but some of the hunters and simply amateurs of shooting appreciate them.
It is worth adding something about axes, which at one time represented a formidable fighting force in the hands of our ancestors, but now remain in the everyday life of descendants in the form of an economic and tourist tool. Which, however, is also not worth joking with …
Domestic legislation categorically denies the right to appear in the hands of citizens of such things as shurikens, brass knuckles, brushes and overseas boomerangs. The so-called switch knives are strictly prohibited. Well, there's no need to talk about a mace or some kind of sword. Certain types of axes (tomahawk, labrys, valashka and some others) are also prohibited. Well, as for the knife, everything is determined by a combination of several parameters: the length of the blade, the strength of the material from which it is forged, a number of features of the handle design.
All of them are precisely specified in the legislation, and when possessed, a seemingly harmless knife turns into a cold weapon, the storage and carrying of which requires registration and licensing. As a rule, all legal sellers of such goods have the necessary certificates and examination certificates for them. However, if you doubt the knife you have, it is better to take an interest in the relevant regulations, since they are quite accessible, so as not to get a lot of troubles and problems with the law instead of the benefit and pleasure of owning an excellent blade.
