Today we take a look at a couple of the ways that grips on medieval swords were made, and how they functioned. This is in response to a question that was asked about an earlier post you can view here.
Arms and Armor Bohemian Broadsword
Medieval sword grips have two major functions, to give you a way to handle the weapon, and as a part of the compression fitting of the whole hilt. We also look at how swords with grip scales differ from those that encompass the entire tang.
Arms and Armor German Branch Sword
As always, our swords are entirely made by us at our shop in Minneapolis, MN out of 6150 carbon steel, hardened and tempered to 50-52 Rockwell. Our swords and other weapons are made to look, feel, and function just like the historical originals on which they are based.
Arms and Armor Towton Longsword
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985