messer, kiegsmesser, grosses messer, langes messer

[stekemest]

All photos in this thread are copyrighted by either the author of the thread, Cornelistromp, or the authors of the respective posts, except mentioned otherwise.

That's quite funny because some of the pictures themselves are copyrighted, for example those of my own Messer. But I have no problem having them shown here.
I sold my own piece one or two years ago, so unfortunately, I can't show any more pictures. Generally, the typical "Messer" seems to possess a riveted handle because - that's my guess - it evolved out of the "Bauernwehr" (peasant's knife). That's a dagger-length weapon with riveted handle and single edged blade that became popular in the 14th century (for such pieces and their similarities to the "Messer", see, for example, Hugo Schneider: Waffen im Schweizerischen Landesmuseum, p. 268 ff.). There is no strict definition of what a Messer actually is, but to me it makes sense to restrict this term to weapons with riveted handle and single edged blade with varying degrees of curvature.