Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-96.26.145.164-20150819205942/@comment-68.13.228.171-20151113042042

It may also have to do with the fact that if it has the extra weight and size concentrated on the tip of the sword, it naturally shifts the balance of the weapon and could potentially increase the amount of force delivered in the blow. Think of the fact that maces exist, and their only benefit is that they can pierce/"ignore" armor due to concentration of force in flanges or knobs which transfer the force directly as blunt trauma to the wearer of such protection. This would not be possible if greater weight was not focused in or near the part that actually hit their opponent.

The concept works similarly in swords. Most European-style swords have no real taper or are thinned out towards the tip, but other cultures often have a bit of a flaring in size at the very end, which makes for a bigger impact. For example, this can be seen in the kilij or the dao.