Also should take into account that no matter how heavy a sword may be, the sword is made for being weilded in a specific way and usually that specific way involves a combat style or stance, which will lead to the weapon no matter what it is being rather easily useable in both defensive in offensive manner if you're just strong enough to lift the damn thing. blocking with a 2 handed sword is easy you just move the hilt, not the sword. blocking with a katana is abit harder (say from an attack from above) you need to put your palm on the sword to hold it and block properly. if you're skilled enough, any weapon in any weight is useable just as well as any other. even a [censored] door. :cryvaultboy:

Even not-real-weapon things like doors? Oh, good. I'll just go train a bit in the art of wielding a blue whale so that eventually, I will be able to fight on even footing with a master of the longsword.

Just read http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html it has a lot of interesting information on two handed weaponry.

lol those 2 are obviously masters of their sword and know its weaknesses and moves to get around the blade, leaving the opponent open in the smallest of ways.

Zweih?nder was a special weapon for breaking pikes, if was not designed to be used in a standard swordfight but to break pikes

My point is, there are different weapons.

Sorry John his facts are straight up correct, in fact alot of 1-h weps weigh less than 2.5lbs. You saber is likely a poorly made reconstruct, probably with alot of needless width and Tinsel. I'm glad so many people are aware of the misrepresentation of weight in TES games though, encumberence does not equal weight thank god.
Also people be careful when you cling to claims of inferior quality metal and crafting. The first high carbon steel was made in BC if I recall correctly and we still don't know how to make Damascus weaponry.

Being able to walk around while carrying a seemingly huge weight might seem unbelievable, but you gotta take into account the armor the PC is wearing. Well made suits of armor, plate armor in medieval times, were basically exoskeletons. The weight of the armor had almost no effect on the wearer. Proven by people wearing authentic suits of armor and running, and flipping and cartwheeling like a gymnast. The armor is designed to support itself, the wearer is not holding that weight up. In a fantasy world like TES, with materials like Glass, Ebony and Daedric, its not too much of a stretch of the imagination the the armor would not only bear its own weight upright, but allow the wearer to lug around a pack holding a substantial amount of weight.

As for you guys saying those weights aren't that heavy, you try swinging one around. Remember that weight may seem small, but its hanging off the end of your arm.... which is quite a ways from your shoulder, the fulcrum from which you are swing from. My M4 is generally held close to my body, but at a seemingly light 9 lbs (fully loaded and with my optics, laser and light), gets to be quite heavy when running around conducting battle drills after a short amount of time.

i have a pry bar that ways 15-20 pounds, there is no way in hell i could swing at something like that without falling over from the inertia. I think most people who say that swords would way more than a few pounds have never used an ax. A base ball bat is extremely deadly and it ways what, probably two pounds

That sounds wrong...even though sabres are weighted they should still be lighter than 15 lbs.

As for the topic, OP was mostly wrong but had some good points. Warhammers etc focus on getting maximum weight without impeding swing speed, they weigh a lot and weren't really used skilfully by most people, most hammers and axes were used by unskilled footmen because basically you just...swing...

Swords were surprisingly light, though a lot of it comes from their balancing, they were heavier than they seem but can still be moved quickly, ideally.

Is http://www.uesp.net/wiki/Lore:Immortal_Blood

wow i think this might actually turn into a flame war over something as simple as weight.

the fact is though most of your warriors (good ones that is) were trained to kill his opponent within the first few swings. they were tactically taught (whether they realized it or not) to find an opening in there opponent or their weakness withing a few seconds of swinging. size them up in other words. those who weren't trained to do so were either lucky or meat shields. that was the sum of European war fare after during the feudal era with knights and peons.

japan was similar to Europe in that aspect.

during the roman era they trained in strategical units to give a small group of people an optimized defense and offence at the same time.

You seem to be confusing http://www.realmcollections.com/images/pl/Other_Weapons_German_War_Hammer_M600366_1753.jpg and http://www.latex-weaponry.com/images/hammer-long-cm3.jpg. Mauls were weapons sometimes used by lowly foot soldiers because of their ease of use, but war hammers were utilized by knights and cavalry, etc. Mauls were hardly used anyway due to the fact that they could easily be avoided and were incredibly tiring to use.

A Bastard Sword is heavy, We dont know how heavy a substance Daedric or Ebony is (as they aren't real )

@Avis, I'm glad I'm not the only one who knows what real warhammers are

Swords may not be heavy but they can do some damage even bamboo ones. :cold:
http://www.newsminer.com/view/full_story/11380122/article-Fairbanks-woman-nearly-severs-intruder-s-hand-in-defense-of-home?instance=home_most_popular

I've learned a lot from this thread, thank you guys.

The Havok physical properties (used for the physics simulation within the game), however, aren't. They use kilograms, in fact. For example: Umbra's model states that it's 10kg in mass.

Grab NIFScope, unpack the models from the BSA archive and check for yourself.

If you had a material who was far stronger than steel you would make the sword lighter or longer, not heavier,

If your battleaxe weighs under 20 pounds, your doing it wrong. And even if it is 20 pounds, its a VERY light battleaxe.

Most medieval weaponry was under 10-15 pounds, in-fact, they were around 4-7 pounds. They were light and not ungainly. Even a stout bastard, or 'hand and a half' sword only weighed in at around 7 pounds.

I have a ninja straight sword and its about as heavy as a car lock.

Back in the day, if you were swinging one of these things around all day in practise/combat... the weight would become irrelevent as the weapon becomes an extension of the arm.

The tool you use to block with is irrelevant, its size and weight are subordinate to skill.

At the end of the day, you'll probably have really heavy arms then :liplick:

Battle axes are far lighter than woodcutting axes who are made heavy for more impact force, this makes sense as trees don't fight back, even a woodcutting axe weight 3-4 kg.
Compare this http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Horseman%27s_axe.JPG with a woodcutting axe and you see it's no extra metal on it except the protective plate on the sides. the axe head is 3-4 mm thick not 3 cm on a woodcutting axe.

it's funny despite no evidence of heavy weighted weapons and lots of evidence of light weight weapons people still come into this thread without knowing a thing claiming that they weight 20-30 pounds... no even battle axes or warhammers were 5-8 pounds maybe even less depending on the size. Weapons WERE LIGHT!!!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un1M7xbCCIs

:)