Fantasy often sports unusual weapons like the flame-bladed sword:

Source: Quora

But how historically accurate are they? Were these actually ever used in battle? And if so, why? Murphy Barrett has the answer in Quora!

Why a Flamberge?

A flame-bladed sword – aka flamberge – would certainly be effective in real combat. But would they have been more effective than a non-flame-bladed sword?

Period sources don’t suggest so. But neither do they suggest they’d be less effective. Nor does any source seem to treat them any differently than a regular sword.

So, why did people use them?

Disadvantages

Let’s start with why people might not use them.

In an actual fight, most users would have probably switched to a shorter, more manageable despatching-blade, while using the wavy sword to threaten with. You certainly wouldn’t want to plunge such a sword through someone’s abdomen. Cleaning the blade afterward would be a…