Are there any notable 2nd Amendment cases not involving (then) modern firearms?

Question

Imagine if you walk down the road all dressed up for the Battle of Hastings reenactment with all of your fellow Viking-Normandy enthusiasts, covered neck to toe with your chainmail, your great helm on your head, and holding a kite shield with a sword on your belt, and you find someone robbing someone with a knife. I imagine that the second amendment would also protect you just as much if you decided to intervene, whether that was wise or not. I wonder if anyone has gotten into a second amendment legal battle over things not involving firearms. Or perhaps someone reenacting an American revolutionary against the British and they happen to be walking somewhere with old weapons in their belt and over their shoulder.

Answer 1

You are conflating two issues

The Second Amendment limits the restrictions governments can place on the weapons citizens can own and carry. It applies to all weapons, not just firearms.

Teter v. Lopez (9th Cir. 2023) was such a decision invalidating Hawaii's restriction on butterfly knives.

“Although Bruen discussed ‘firearm regulation[s],’ that was because the arm at issue in that case was a firearm,” Bea wrote. “We see no reason why the framework would vary by type of ‘arm.’”

(source)

Whether you can use a weapon (legal or otherwise) in the defence of others is a separate issue. The simple answer is: yes, if the use of the weapon is reasonable in the circumstances. If the weapon is illegal to possess, you might get a citation along with your bravery medal.

Answer 2

It is not settled yet, but Commonwealth vs. Canjura is being argued in the Massachusetts courts with the argument being that the 2nd Amendment protects the right to own and carry a switchblade knife.

Canjura’s case rests on whether knives were intended by Congress to be considered in their definition of “arms” protected by the Second Amendment. Fighting knives, which include switchblades, date back to the Stone Age, and the framers of the Constitution clearly intended to include them, the defendant said in a brief.

And as noted above, a similar case in Hawaii found a ban on butterfly knives to not be consistent with the second amendment.

Prospective knife owners convinced the Ninth Circuit to overturn a decision that upheld Hawaii’s butterfly knife ban as in compliance with their right to keep and bear arms.

The US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday reversed summary judgment favoring state officials, and instructed the lower court to continue proceedings in compliance with its determination that butterfly knifes are protected by the Second Amendment.