One of the most interesting aspects of our work is designing training swords that really feel and move like historical weapons. The object of today's blog is a great example of this process. This sword is a training weapon for replicating the fighting system laid out in Royal Armouries Ms. I.33, the Walpurgis Fight book. This early German fencing manual from around the year 1320 describes and illustrates a system for fighting with a one-handed sword and a small shield called a buckler.
A page from the ~1320 Walpurgis Fechtbuch
This fighting system is built around complex winding motions that require the sword to easily cut from the wrist and elbow, with either edge. Our friend Roland Warzecha of Dimicator can be seen here demonstrating the style.
His help and insight helped us develop this piece to really embody the aspects of a sharp in a rebated training sword. The edge is thin enough to allow the swords to interact as a sharp might but allows for good flex and a the width of blade that allows the nuisance of interaction of blade play to evolve naturally.
Check out our video of this awesome training sword, and the process we went through to create it.
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