Balancing a sword (now with furniture)

[Baron Alcyoneus]

Instead of tying on a bag of "whatever" to see where the balance would be, I used jugs of water. I'm looking at some of Sir Stefhan Von Hessen's guards and pommels, and he gave me the weights for them.

This made it easy, I filled the bottles with water so they weighed as much as the guard and pommel would, placed them in the spot I wanted them to be, and found my desired balance based on those weights. Actually, he gave the weight of the guards first, and then I told him I needed the pommel to weigh about X, which one did I want?

[RenJunkie]

That's indecently brilliant.

Thanks!
Christopher

[AwP]

Good idea, but won't the tape you add throw off your calculations some?

[Baron Alcyoneus]

I also have to add in a lag bolt, and I figure I can add a little lead to the pommel. If I need to I can move the guard up as well.

[J.G.Elmslie]

most cunning. I'll reccommend that setup to people.

I have a similar setup, only a tad more refined. I made a very lightweight cross from aluminium with two screws tapped into it, and a wheel pommel of similar construction. both are then tapped with screwthreads so I can attach a set of lead weights onto them to make up pommel and crosses of different mass, and clamp them into position with the set-screws, and then take a few (light) swings and stances and see if the hilt feels right for the blade setup. nice and convenient, all in all.

[Baron Alcyoneus]

It is simple, and very cheap. Since the cord doesn't shift around, I can make some movements to approximate how it will work out. It definitely helped to have the weights known. Once the hardware is on the sword I can do a little tuning, but I won't know how or how much until I have them in my hand. When I need to replace the sword, I'll start with a similar 1.5" piece of rattan and make it match the hardware.

I like your idea, I see how that could work for multiple sizes of rattan, and give a better idea of the performance. It just takes a bit more to set it up. Once, anyway.

[Baron Alcyoneus]

I did a little planing to get the pommel on the rattan, and planed a little on the blade to clean it up a little. The guard is actually about 4oz heavier than I anticipated, but since it is nearly at the balance point, it doesn't make a very big difference. There is enough space in the pommel that I can pour a bit of lead shot into it if I need to, to get the balance exactly where I want it once I finish working on the rattan, putting a lag bolt in the pommel, and permanently attaching the guard. I can also move the guard a little towards the tip and not add any weight.

The furniture weighs about 2lb 11oz combined, for a current total weight of 4lb 4.5oz. The base of the guard is set at 13", and the balance is at about 14.5". Which means that the weight doesn't make a bit of difference. It will turn on a dime, and give me 25 cents of the other guy's change.

[Balin50]

Woot like your hardware great stuff made by a friend of mine Steffan. Looks great

[J.G.Elmslie]

I'm interested to notice that with the hilt furniture in place, you're setting it up to have a point of balance pretty much on the cross, rather than about 3 inches forward of the cross, which is what I'd expect on a steel one.

mind if I ask the reasoning behind that? in steel stuff, that kind of balance point is fast, but tends to end up feeling very vague in the bind, I've found. would be interested to learn your views on how it works in rattan. (purely as a matter of interest in what people like)

[Baron Alcyoneus]

I've had one before almost exactly this weight and balance. It works quite well. In the tourney I won with it, I only had to swing more than one blow per fight with 2 people. One because I had to chase him down, and the other, well- I had to hit him LOTS.

I expect it to balance about 1" in front of the guard, so 2.5-3" or so in front of my hand. Guards tend to be oversize on rattan compared to real ones.

[Baron Alcyoneus]

All that is left is to add some period phrases in gold Sharpie on both sides of the blade, and the straps on the guard(in black). But I may be at practice Sunday, so I may wait and retape it for Valor Tournament (Labor Day weekend) before going to that trouble.

On the sides of the blade, I'm going to use phrases on a Swiss/Swabian sword at Leeds c1500.

AIN NVWER HAILAG HASIT GROBIAN. DEN WIL EITZ FIR EN IEDERMAN
A new Saint is Ruffian. It is he who everyone now wants to celebrate.

LVOG VND SICH DICH EBEN FIR VOR AIM DER DIR SCHADEN DON WIL VN. DREW IST YETZ FAST EIL
Look around and take care only of he who will harm you. Infidelity is now. [prevalent]

On the 4 sections of the loop on the guard I'll write:

For God, Muri, (shortened friend's name) and Saint George!

[Gurahl]

With a sword like that it should not be difficult to spot you at Valor. Will you be there the whole time or just daytripping?

[Baron Alcyoneus]

I live here. So I imagine that I'll be on site most of the time. I live closer to site than most people, too.

[Gurahl]

Outstanding. Any chance I have to meet others from the Archive is great. I will only be daytripping, but will be trying to get reauthorized after almost a decade hiatus.

[Baron Alcyoneus]

Here's the website for the event:
http://valor.baronyofvatavia.org/