[Squall Lionheart]

Each weapon requires different skills to use it (including staffs)...you just can't compare it and say the similiarity in usage makes a certain weapon a basic one...

I'm not an expert about martial arts but from my experience I know that commonly used weapons in different forms of martial arts include : Swords, staffs, and nunchakus...and each one of the weapons requires different skills even if someone is learning just the basics of the weapon's usage, that can't be substituted...

That's because there are too many points that can completely change the weapon's required skills, here are the most important ones : Dimensions, weight distribution, blade, weak spots (This isn't too important if you're going to switch to a weapon of the same category)...all these general examples differ widely between any weapons (sword and staff if you want) for any usage (Martial arts or duels)...

Also you can't really tell how the most basic weapons were since they originated from different places at different times...even most of the weapons don't have a standard clear form of developement because of this...

From what you know some used their farm tools...but somewhere else, swords and other blades (by which I meant different types and forms of swords, knives, daggers etc...) were remodeled even at earlier times...For example pitchforks are very late designs (for farming or military use in general) compared to many other weapons like those I already mentionned...in short not all weapons originated from farm tools -or any other tools- at all...

In summary I agree that anyone should learn the basics of the weapon s/he is using, but you should doublecheck your source about weapons origins as well as accepting that learning a weapon's basics can makes you ready to use a similiar one in a completely different category...(if you meant swords and staffs in a specific way, then there's still a big difference between them)...