Scimitar

Scimitars (pronounced "sim-mit-tar" and not "skim-mit-tar") are somewhat-powerful slashing weapons, despite their less effective stabbing attack. On average, they deal slightly more damage per hit than shortswords, but less than longswords. Scimitars are a much favoured training weapon against armourless opponents, because what it lacks in absolute power, it makes up for in speed. The balance favours a player's Strength being higher than their Attack. This quality, when combined with the great popularity of training Attack and Strength alone and neglecting Defence, results in its popularity. They have the exact same speed as the considerably weaker daggers and two-handed claws, so they are widely used. However, they have less attack than longswords and battleaxes, and they lack versatility due to possessing only an effective slash attack. They are also ineffective against stronger enemies that have a good defence. In that case, it is suggested to bring a longsword with you as it is more accurate, hits harder than a scimitar, and is much cheaper.

Scimitars are made with the Smithing skill, purchased at a scimitar shop identified with the scimitar icon on the map, or bought from another player. One scimitar shop is Zeke's Superior Scimitars, located in Al Kharid. Unfortunately, it only sells bronze, iron, steel, and mithril scimitars. There is also a members-only scimitar shop located in the Ape Atoll that is only available after completing the Monkey Madness quest. This shop sells Dragon scimitars.

Combat Styles
Grand Exchange prices are shown below:

Scimitar vs. Longsword
While Longswords offer higher strength and attack bonuses, they are a full speed bar slower than Scimitars. There is a 3 second delay between blows with a Longsword, whereas with a scimitar, the delay is 2.4 seconds. This equates to 20 attacks per minute with a Longsword as compared to 25 attacks per minute with a Scimitar. The extra 5 hits per minute usually outweigh any damage or accuracy boost that a longsword will give against an unarmoured opponent. This could be very different against an opponent in armour, though in which case a longsword is the preferred weapon.

One test carried out by a player compared the experience gained per minute by each weapon. Having 84 strength, wearing Rune armour, an amulet of glory, Rune gauntlets (charged), wielding a Rune Berserker shield (charged), and fighting Deadly Red Spiders, he obtained the following results:

Rune Scimitar: Average: 670.2 exp/min-1 (713.6, 638.4, 676.8, 652).

Rune Longsword: Average: 549.2 exp/min-1 (515.2, 559.2, 603.2, 519.2)

These results suggest that the Rune Scimitar delivers more experience than the Rune Longsword. However, there are two possible flaws in this testing. The first is that while the Rune Scimitar was tested on Level 50 Deadly Red Spiders, where the Scimitar's accuracy sufficed, some parties may argue that the accuracy of a Rune Longsword inflicts more damage on more defensive NPCs or even on players, while the Rune Scimitar may inflict rapid 0's. Also,the player was wearing an amulet of glory which is not available in F2P. More exhaustive testing is required to produce definitive results, which will prove useful due to the lack of current testing on these weapons.

Special Scimitars

 * Corrupt dragon scimitar
 * Sacred clay scimitar

Stealing Creation - Scimitars

 * Scimitar (Class 1)
 * Scimitar (Class 2)
 * Scimitar (Class 3)
 * Scimitar (Class 4)
 * Scimitar (Class 5)

Trivia

 * Dragon scimitars can be bought from Dealga in the Varrock swords shop or from Ape Atoll after completing Monkey Madness.
 * Holding position of scimitars was updated with the Herblore Habitat update on 24 November 2010.
 * All scimitars give a +1 Slash defence bonus.