The Armour Archive

I happen to walk by some scrap construction iron (1 cm diameter). some of them looked like the right size for me to make a training sword out of the. I got a few rods, taped and tied them together and got a 45 inch/114 cm sword, with a grip of7.5 inch/19 cm, blade of 37 inch/94 cm, and a guard of7 inch/19 cm.
Now, how much asword of that lengthe should weigh if I wanted to practice period, and what would you cal this sword? I think it fitts well into the "hand and a half sword"...

10X

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miao?

Yes is around a hand and half sword, but what about the weight? For a training sword i would not go over 2,5 Kg
I've succesfully made training swords with flattened Stainless 30 mm diameter pipes that weight 1.4 Kg for a 1 handed sword and little more of 2,2 Kg for a two handed one.

Remember that the weight distribution is at least as important as just weight.

i.e. make sure the sword weighs correctly and has the balance point in the correct place. (just past the quillions if I remember correctly)

I know someone posted weights and balances of period weapons on the web somewhere. I'll see if I can find it.

eeek!
I found an old scale and it turnes out that it's only 850 gr...
Got to get more iron on it...
About 34 inch from the tip of the "blade" will be a good place for the balance point?

[This message has been edited by godzy (edited 09-03-2003).]

progress report:
I went down and got me some more iron, hooked it up with me "sword" and it's now 1940 gr. the balence is 27 inch from the tip of the "blade".

I think I should just move the balance point down a few inches and I'm done. Rhat do you say?

Rule of thumb from historical swords:

balance point on a mostly-thrusting sword should be 2-4 inches above your hand.

balance point on a mostly-cutting sword should be 4-6 inches above your hand.



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Hal Siegel - TherionArms
http://www.therionarms.com

If it is a training sword, keep it heavier and balanced a little far from hands: in this way you will be safer using a fighting sword, you will be able to use it much better because you and your arms are well trained and stronger. An heavier swords probably lasts a bit longer.
Remember that with steel swords you must be able to stop your blows whenever you want, and they starts from the hips and not from the wrist (if you use a heavy sword of "wrists" you risk your hands health).

10x therion!

Good old Cariadoc.

http://www.pbm.com/~lindahl/cariadoc/shield_and_weapon_weights.html

Lots of weapon weights but no hard data on balancing points.