Animal: Howdy! Izzall good, Dog.
paulb wrote:Trystan wrote "The 7.5' unpadded glaive is the hardest hitting weapon in the SCA"
I feel that I must disagree. While a glaive may impart more force during a strike, due largely to its mass, it is moving relatively slowly, when compared to a greatsword. The strike of a glaive will, essentially, give a very hard push, while the greatsword puts similar (but somewhat less) force into a very short moment in time. You may get knocked around more, with a glaive, but you'll get damaged more with the greatsword - at least, in our game.
That's fine, except I said hardest hitting not most damaging. You actually help make my point a coupla times here. For this model, assume that (force=mass * acceleration).
paulb wrote:I also must disagree, using a similar argument, that the spread position of the hands contributes to the greater force. The spread position of the hands makes it easier to maneuver the glaive, and to start it moving, but it will not be moving as fast when it hits. The radius of rotation will be too short much shorter than that employed by a greatsword.
In my model, the radius of the swing is the length of the weapon from the tip to the rear-most hand. I think you mean the arc of the swing, which is a variable depending on how far back behind his back the user starts thier swing, and whether the forward hand or their body is the fulcrum, its relative position on the weapon and distance to target. I had initially valued this as 0 because similar arcs can be achieved with either weapon, but may re-think this some more.
paulb wrote:I was a strong proponent of unpadded polearms, but what I used, when I played with my naginata (essentially, a glaive), was two pieces of rattan that overlapped about 14 inches. I also used big, heavy pieces of rattan. There wasn't a lot of whip (there was some, but only not really noticeable). It was tip-heavy, and had to be used as I would think a steel and hardwood weapon would have.
Now here I must confess that I didn't take the flex factor into the equation, which would increase with weapon length and decrease with a greater diameter of rattan. Unless one's technique includes using that whip effect to increase the angular momentum of the weapon at impact. Styles of swing introduce a lot of variables here, which I suspect accounts for Animal's positive results. I guess that's why they call it Martial Arts and not Martial Sciences. That means I emphaticaly agree with Mord and also most of JPdeS statements.
paulb wrote:I don't have anything good to say about unpadded polearms that consist of a pole of rattan with different colored tape on one end, weighing not much more than my broadsword. That is taking advantage of the rules of the game, and is, to my mind, completely unrealistic. To my mind, it is even worse the the so-called "madu's". Take a hardwood shaft, tip it with steel, and run the steel down the shaft somewhat to protect the wood, then show me how fast and how accurately you can thrust, one handed, starting with a tip-down position.
Note that I am making an appeal to realism, not authenticity.
Suffice to say that I use it as a 7.5' spear that I can also whack the shite out of someone with. I think of it as a long broad spear blade that I can cut or slash with. Think sword blade on the end of a stick, not poleaxe. The only times I normally start with the tip down is with the tip on the ground for 'sweeps', or with both arms over my head for high 'spoons' and downward strikes or thrusts, all of which would work just dandy with the weapon you describe, using two hands. No one considers the 7.5'UPG a one-handed weapon so I cannot address that...???
I don't really think about authenticity or realism while I am using it, I mainly think about just using it.
