What follows is a discussion of the weapon commonly referred to as the feder. This investigation examines some of the etymology of the commonly used term federschwert in reference to this weapon along with how the term feder was used in documents of the period in which they were used. Further, it examines other proposed terms for the weapon, and examines images from various treatises of the weapon to discover the form of the weapon. It then discusses the actual form of the weapon, its physical characteristics and usage.