for approximately 20 years from 1855 until 1875, it was restored to service in the year of the Corps' centennial and has remained in issue since. Religious In the occult practices of Wicca, a sword or knife often referred to as an athame is used as a magical tool. Sword replicas The production of replicas of historical swords originates with 19th-century historicism. Contemporary replicas can range from cheap factory produced look-alikes to exact recreations of individual artifacts, including an approximation of the historical production methods. Some kinds of swords are still commonly used today as weapons, often as a side arm for military infantry. The Japanese katana, wakizashi and tanto are carried by some infantry and officers in Japan and other parts of Asia and the kukri is the official melee weapon for Nepal. Other swords in use today are the sabre, the scimitar, the shortsword and the machete. In the case of a rat-tail tang, the maker welds a thin rod to the end of the blade at the crossguard; this rod goes through the grip. In traditional construction, Swordsmiths peened such tangs over the end of the pommel, or occasionally welded the hilt furniture to the tang and threaded the end for screwing on a pommel. This style is often referred to as a "narrow" or "hidden" tang. Modern, less traditional, replicas often feature a threaded pommel or a pommel nut which holds the hilt together and allows dismantling. In a "full" tang (most commonly used in knives and machetes), the tang has about the same width as the blade, and is generally the same shape as the grip. In European or Asian swords sold today, many advertised "full" tangs may actually involve a forged rat-tail tang. Morphology The sword consists of the blade and the hilt. The term scabbard applies to the cover for the sword blade when not in use. Blade There is considerable variation in the detailed design of sword blades. The diagram opposite shows a typical Medieval European sword. Early iron blades have rounded points due to the limited metallurgy of the time. These were still effective for thrusting against lightly armoured opponents. As armour advanced, blades were made narrower, stiffer and sharply pointed to defeat the armour by thrusting. Dedicated cutting blades are wide and thin, and often have grooves known as fullers which lighten the blade at the cost of some of