Basket hilt sword

I've made up a new sword for sword and shield style.
I was convinced to try out a basket hilt and demi gauntlet, instead of my usual cross hilt with gauntlet setup.

Original stick of rattan stats :
width 1 3/8 inch
weight 443 grams
length 89.5cm

Black plastic sca basket hilt 303 grams


I shaped the handle and shaved the sides of the blade with an angle grinder.


I wrapped the blade in 1 spiral layer of Fibre tape,
then 1 layer of hockey tape

With hockey tape, I put two layers of 1/2 inch closed cell foam into a low profile thrusting tip. (just over the minimum length).
I taped the basket hilt with some fibre tape and some hockey tape.

Finished weight 840 grams

The final sword is well balanced, light and should let me do damn fast snaps :)

Buckler construction

Here are some pictures of my SCA heavy buckler being constructed.
The grip is on the front face, so that the balance of the shield is comfortable.
This reduces the apparent weight of the shield, as it sits in the desired position by itself. This way the larger muscles in your arm are used to hold the shield in position, and the smaller muscles are only engaged if an adjustment is needed.

Bastard sword construction

Here are some pictures of my SCA heavy bastard sword being constructed.
The grip is based on a black synthetic waster.

Pear shaped Pommel pewter 1.7 pounds
Square Cross aluminium 1 pounds


Bastard 134cm total cob 4.3cm from cross 101cm blade with tip 2.08kg finished

Square shield construction

Here are some pictures of my latest centre grip square shield construction.

Weight without tubing 3.0kg
It's a reasonably heavy shield, but it is nicely weighted, due to the handle being attached on the front face.

Evidence for what we do?

The SCA is unique in that it encourages exploration into sword play at realistic speeds for percussive force fighting. To my knowledge there are few other ways to experience this type of fighting safely. The second focus is on the martial aspects of pre plate armor sword play (and other weapons) and how it might actually work when applied. One area that gets a lot of apparent malice is that lack of backing up evidence for the style of fighting that is employed as there are no texts related to sword play much before 1400 but the sca is interested in fighting from 600 - 1600. I recently noticed a very interesting image that is freely available on this wiki article which relates to Arp Aslan from around the 11th century:


Of particular interest is the fine warrior located center and back wearing red. What strikes me is the stance he is employing in this image which appears to be in SCA terminology 'tent' or 'house' block. This has become the dominant stance for many of the top tier fighters in the SCA.



While there are no books instructing on this guard it is very effective in blocking sword blows with ones own sword and is very fast becoming the main stance I use when fighting sword and center boss (as the warrior appears to be doing in this image). What struck me is that I wouldn't have noticed this stance without being able to practice sword play at full percussive strengths due to the lack of perspective that 2 dimension drawings have. Further more this stance wouldn't
exist if single hand swords weren't regularly used as blocking devices on their edge. This appears to go against some of the information I have recently heard from other sword practitioners, clearly more investigation is required.

ps. I note a lot of plate metal armor around the legs and what appear to be plate gauntlets, I was under the impression such armor was very rare until several hundred years later, am I wrong?

Duke Davin teaches Great Weapons Part 1

Has your sword lost its pop?

When I used to skateboard, the main element of pretty much any trick was the Ollie. An Ollie involves kicking the laminated wood skateboard hard against the ground so it pops back into the air; once in the air you manipulate the board to spin or turn or whatever trick it is. A new board has a certain amount of 'pop' a subjective measure of how easily it 'pop's into the air, but after a while as the wood slowly breaks down or as the glue loosens, the board gradually "loses its pop" and at that point you can't Ollie as high, and you have to kick harder to get the same height. If you keep using that board it will break. It'll last some time in that less poppy state, but you just won't be skating as well.

The exact same wear process happens with the rattan swords we use in SCA heavy.

When you first make up a new sword it's rigid and hits hard and makes a clean smack sound when it hits. This is the same as a new board's pop. People will notice when their rattan starts to break and when it has gone mushy, which is the broken state, but it's important to know when it has lost its "pop".
When that happens you'll need to hit harder and the sound when it hits will become more dull.

If you're at the top of your game, just like the pro skater, you may want to just stop using it once it's lost its pop; rather than waiting for the rattan to break down completely. Assuming you have a good rattan supply.
Even if you can't get a new stick, it is worth being aware of the stick losing its pop, so that you can adjust your power levels. You can't make it hit the same as it did when it was new, but it helps to be aware of it.

So the question is, has your current sword lost its pop?

Single sword construction version 2

Here are some images of the different stages of construction of my latest SCA heavy swords.
Cut and handle ground Weight 560g and 610g
940mm
150mm hilt Taped with thrusting tip. 670g and 700g.
They are very tip heavy, and as a result hit quite hard.
This also makes them difficult to thrust with.