dispelling Myths about medieval Combat

[Timelord]

"stress raisers"!! Not usually done in history for good reason. Ease of disassembly and swapping hilts is not the primary function. Check out the museums for construction reference. I repeat - "stress raisers"...

When a blow is struck with a sword, the force is transferred as a shockwave, travelling down along the blade towards the tang. While a well fitted and correct materials grip acts as a shock absorber, it can only do so much. Likewise a large pommel acts as an energy sink to some extent. Even so, the shockwave travels along the narrowing, tapering hilt inside the handle and is focused into the end of the tang in the same way a tsunami rises up in the shallows. This results in a focused shockwave reaching the limit of the tang and its method of fastener. Any cracks, flaws, cuts, sharp corners, grooves, etc etc can act to redirect some of this shockwave into a sharp angled flaw/groove of some kind and so the shockwave in turn can crack the steel crystalline structure at this point. While this may not happen with every sword, it is a distinctly poor manufacturing technique - suited to mass production and easy assembly. I have personally known and seen numerous swords that have failed at the tang due to this flaw. I am not alone and it is or should be common knowledge among traditional hand made sword makers about this subject.
I will leave it at that and hope your sword arm or what it holds never fails. Sincere regards, TL. (thankyou for the interesting discussion)

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Renaissance swords of the more "thrusting" type would be fine for screw thread tangs. Heavier cutting swords will always have the "stress raiser" issue.