Cutlass

A cutlass is a short, broad sabre or slashing sword with a straight or slightly curved single edged blade, typically 28 to 32 inches long, some as long as 36 inches, with a hilt carrying a solid cupped or basket shaped guard. It emerged in the seventeenth century as a development of earlier short edged weapons such as the medieval falchion, its English name coming from the French coutelas, itself named for a machete like blade, and by about 1685 it had begun replacing longer straight bladed swords in English naval service. Its short length suited close quarters shipboard combat while remaining strong enough to hack through heavy rope, thick canvas and dense vegetation, which made it a standard sailor's weapon through the Age of Sail and also a working tool for colonists in the tropics; buccaneers did not invent the cutlass but adopted an already established naval weapon well suited to boarding actions and intimidation.