The Armour Archive

I'm curious what is your optimum grip & overall length for a sword meant to be primarily 2-Handed?

Is it influenced by what gauntlets you wear?

Using a 4 foot blade and 20 inch grip. It is working well and fun as hell. It does look verily funny when a normal sized person uses but I'm 6'6" so not bad for me. Just my 2 cents.

For a 2-handed sword, I measure from ground to armpit. That is about 54" for me. Hilt length works out to 14"...room for my gauntlets and one gauntlet-length in between. I find this gives an ideal mix of leverage and blade length.

All of this is based on my particular style, of course, so is personal preference.

I've had several different lengths, from 48" to 7.5'

I find the fun in being able to use whatever length sword I have against whatever my opponent has. Adapt to the range and movement of the fight.

I see people getting away from this trend, but the the most common length for a sword Society wide used to be some fraction of nine feet (because rattan is often sold in nine foot lengths). So one handed swords are typically 3' long (3x3=9) and two handed swords were 4.5' (4.5x2=9) or 6' (9-3=6). The rise of daggers and growing access to rattan has largely changed this, but I still get a lot of requests in those lengths because those are the lengths people got used to.

By growing access to rattan, I'm not saying there is more out there, just that web searches and places like this forum make people who sell rattan easier to locate.

My greatsword/longsword has a 42.5 inch blade, 12 inch grip, with an overall length of 59 inches, so it is just under 5 ft long; I find this to be quite manageable.

are we talking steel or rattan?

37" blade, 14" hilt, including the cross and pommel.
I too go by the armpit measurement

hornsofodin wrote:are we talking steel or rattan?

Whichever one you're using for which ever application you're using it for.

Thorsteinn Raudskeggr wrote:

hornsofodin wrote:are we talking steel or rattan?

Whichever one you're using for which ever application you're using it for.

with steel swords its a bit more challenging to optomize the blade length, i gues one could chop a blade down. but i usually go with whatever the manufacturer designed.

my swords. starfire light sword 22" blade very snappy.
paul chen practical knight (its 6 years old i think theyve changed it to the marshal sword)
various home made swords with various blade lengths.

with sword and board i like the starfire or paul chen.

For 2 handed swords ive found this one very nice.

http://www.kultofathena.com/product.asp ... ning+Grade

Rattan,4.5' with a 12" grip.

My two handers are six foot two and a half inches. That is my height. I don't have a reason for it, but after 25 years, it's a habit.

f

Greatsword - 43" blade and 16" grip, and as above it's just a long standing habit

"bastard" sword - 36" blade and 11" grip, as it replicates the type XIIIA sword that was gifted to me