armour effectiveness

An interesting post on the effectiveness of armour:
http://willscommonplacebook.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/muscle-vs-armor-blunt-impact.html

armour testing

A fairly in depth article on English Longbow Testing against various armor circa 1400

On Images and their value.

This one is short but sweet. I have been looking for an online database of actual medieval images with verified dates to do my own research. I have stumbled upon the University of Heidelberg's digital library here: http://www.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/Englisch/helios/digi/handschriften.html

My first interesting image was this: http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/cpg848/0047
I have heard a few people talk of helms as being very difficult to attack and demonstrations of helms that for all intents are purposes can not be broken by a sword. This image clearly shows a knight's helm being cloven by a sturdy strike.

Constructing an 11th (ish) century sword

One aspect of the SCA that is rarely documented is the construction of our training/sport replica swords. This is probably related to a couple of factors,
firstly a lot of people put relatively little effort into constructing a sword (as compared to say armour).
secondly it is a very personal affair with a lot of varying opinions on what is good and works well.
finally it is often learnt off someone else and one might assume that person has published their construction techniques but this is usually not the case.
While there are some excellent guides floating around I have just finished constructing some as close to the real thing as practical swords and thought I'd post some tips as a result.

Firstly, choose a sword. Most people tend to use the approach of just long enough to comfortably touch the ground, 1"4 thick, whatever hand protection you prefer.

One big problem in the SCA is callibration, and that in part comes down to not being able to use real swords against real armour. Although such an activity would obviously be life threatening, we should still try to make every effort to get as close to accurate as possible. With that in mind I decided to try a slightly different approach and use a particular reference sword as guidance for as many parameters as possible. I choose to use this http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/albion/nextgen/sword-medieval-hospitaller-xa.htm for inspiration. Albion make some neat swords, in some cases are direct replicas of actual swords, or inspired items such as the hospitaller which has drawn inspiration from several period sources. I selected the Hospitaller sword predominately because it represents a lot of what the SCA is about. There is little specific information on 11th century weapons and so we make a best guess drawing on various sources from the period. This type of sword was likely used against people in something akin to SCA assumed armour and on foot.

The other nice thing about Albion is that all useful statistics on the construction are listed (shamelessy copied below) which provides us with an excellent point of reference for creating a sword rather than just 'a look':

Specifications
Total length: 40" (102 cm)
Blade length: 33.75" (86 cm)
Blade width: 1.88" (4.8 cm)
CoG: 5.25" (13 cm)
CoP: 22" (56 cm)
Weight: 2 lbs 10.2 oz (1.2 kilos)

The first thing that amazed me about these numbers was the total length. All my previous swords have been between 75 and 85cm long in total which I thought was quite long. I am 6'2" and 85cm is on the high end of the commonly touted 'long enough to touch the ground comfortably', with a hospitaller with my arms by my sides it rests on the ground approximately 1 foot infront of me.

Secondly the balance point of these swords is around 5inches from the cross. Anyone in the SCA has probably heard every different opinion on balance points so having some specific information here is very interesting. My previous swords balanced around 8inches from the hilt (which was over half way up the blade). I have picked up swords with metal caged basket hilts that balanced at the hilt and some swords which use pewter counter balances that balance at the grip. The balance point is integral in defining how readily the sword can be rotated upon itself (torques) which is a key movement in our fighting style.

Finally the total weight is only 1.2 Kilos. This pretty much rules out any sort of metal basket hilt that I have tried (although you can argue metal gauntlets add just as much anyway) and most counter weight systems.

Construction:

So now I have a clear idea in mind for my new swords I set about construction. The first step is to find some rattan, my sword is straight.. so that was easy. Measuring previous efforts it was clear some minimum thickness rattan wouldn't do to get to the 1.2kilo point so I found some 1.5inch diameter lengths.
Each sword was measured up according to Albions stats and marked out. Rather than purchase pommels I opted to increase the total length of the sword slightly and use that as the pommel leaving the possibility of buttspikes if I want try them out while keeping the balance point right.

The sides are planed down in a tapering fashion from almost no shaving 1.5inch to 1.25inch at the tip.

The next process is one of the more important and often overlooked components, the grip. Making a grip based on albion was challenging given the images, however a plastic training sword was used to get some numbers down. In the end my grip is 40cm at the top and 3cm at the smallest. The grip is 3cm thick. This is done predominately using an angle grinder with a general purpose wheel. I start by making deep cuts to get to the right depths less a fraction so that I can finish the grip without compromising strength. with a finish just using 80grit then 400 grit sandpaper.

I mount the cross next which is still a work in progress. I recently acquired some windrose armory pewter crosses. Firstly I built the rattan up to thickness using hockey strapping tape such that the cross only just slid into position (5 loops). By drilling through the side, a cut down bolt can be used to fasten the cross to the sword.

Next a layer of packing tape (which is clear and has small fibres embedded, 3m product number XXXX) is carefully woven around the blade. This is important as it stops the rattan ever being exposed after damage (which will occur). This both improves the longevity of your swords and makes it a simple matter to repair by adding more surface covering.
The surface covering is hockey strapping tape which was sourced from XXX. It is great because it is slightly lighter while being as durable as duct tape. I also think it looks better ;).

The grip can now be covered. I use tennis racket grip tape which can be had for 3$ for a pack of 3, but there are many similar products that could be used instead. It is important to make sure the finish is good because roughness under the grip tape will come through and both deteriorate the tape faster and be less comfortable. The tape is simply wound around tightly and affixed to the sword with hockey strapping tape. I put a slice of leather under the gripping tape at the point where my index and ring fingers grip to give a textural feel which aids in keeping the sword gripped in the right location without having to look down and check. For these swords I opted for yet another loop of hockey strapping tape for something different.

Finally I put the thrusting tip on which is 4 pieces of 1/4 inch closed cell foam (on the harder side) wrapped up by, you guessed it, hockey strapping tape. Even if you choose to use duct tape for your swords, I would recommend this approach to thrusting tips as I am notorious for breaking the things, and I haven't managed to break this design yet. The hockey tape keeps the thrusting tip flexible even after repeated use.

Summary:

After completing my swords the first thing that struck me was the accuracy of the numbers to the original reference sword. My SCA legal swords are 1.2 kilos each, have a balance point around 5 inches from the cross, have a blade that is 86cm and a grip that is 16cm. The most important factor I think in getting close to realistic sword specs, is to use thick rattan. 1.5inch is definately a good place to start, not only does the total weight come out close but you wont suffer from 'whippy' swords that move fast but will have opponents calling lights due to the rattan flexing. I have also found that the Windrose pommels are good in pewter, but for even better weighting, aluminium cross and pommel might be better and will be the next design I try.

Assumed Armour

As far as I can see, there are several distinct classes of armour worn throughout history that are designed to protect the wearer from sword attacks:

• unarmoured / soft leather
• chainmail
• plate mail

There are a few different kinds of attacks with a sword

• cutting - running the edge along the target
• bashing - hitting the target with the edge
• thrusting - penetrating the target with the point

Now it may seem obvious, but the different armour types protect against the different attacks to varying degrees.

Unarmoured or soft leather gives virtually no protection, and arguably thrusting is the most effective attack.

Chainmail mostly provides protection from cutting, some from bashing; but little from thrusting.

Plate mail provides total protection from cutting, good from bashing, and good from thrusting (except in the gaps, obviously). These are clearly over simplifications, but they can help to think of the optimal attack strategy.

Different sword fighting schools assume differently armoured targets. In competition, people generally wear more armour than the "assumed armour" for safety and (in sca heavy) looking better. Here's some examples of the assumed armour of different schools.

• modern fencing - unarmoured
• sca fencing - unarmoured
• eskrima - unarmoured
• kendo - unarmoured

• sca heavy - chainmail and helm 

• half-swording - plate mail

I couldn't find any groups that compete with full plate assumed armour, but I'm sure they exist. The difficulty would be making it safe. The full plate techniques of aiming for thrusts in the unarmoured parts (groin, eyes, palm, underarm) would pretty much always be dangerous at full speed.

The point is, striking techniques used by different groups must be understood in terms of the armour they are designed to be used against, not necessarily the armour people compete in. It's pointless comparing the slashes of eskrima to the snaps in sca, or the half-sword thrusting technique to thrusting in modern fencing; they were designed to work around different levels of passive defense.

With this in mind, the SCA heavy techniques of "hitting" the target make a lot of sense. Thrusts however, have always been a source of confusion for me. With a two handed weapon, it's easy enough to get a "good" thrust; but with a single handed sword it seems quite difficult. I was always told that it can't be a "push" but must be a strike. After seeing some videos on youtube which showed how easily a broadsword can thrust through chainmail, I've come to think that thrusts should be more effective in sca heavy combat. Maybe all that should be required is a strong "push" with the thrust. I'm pretty certain that the foam/rubber thrusting tips we use, make it difficult to judge a good thrust to begin with. Also I've found it impossible to find a legal thrusting tip that doesn't completely change the weighting of the sword, making it tip heavy; when really it should be lighter at the point. It seems the thrusting tip requirements have been reduced in the last year or so, which is a good thing. I hope at some point we can use a simple leather cap, or just thrust with the rattan; for single handed swords at least.