As we have been selling swords at the Ren Fair for several months we have heard questions like this quite a lot. It is a version of the "Battle Ready" conundrum of modern sword production. What the customer is after is some assurance this sword is of higher quality than average. The problem is what is average? Swords today are in general made pretty well by most makers. It is the inexpensive and shoddily made ones you need to look out for. A bit of research on the sword boards on the internet will usually identify these pretty quickly and steer you towards better choices.
When selling to the public at a show its a bit harder for customers to be prepared and we are often asked if our swords are some version of "real fighting swords". Our swords are crafted to replicate historical pieces not only in look and feel but in function in a fight as well. To do this we not only study the physical materials, specifications and construction of the originals in detail, but we also study and practice how they were used in the day. This is how we are able to guarantee them to be as functional and durable as the original pieces that they replicate.
Sadly not all people really know what that was like and often have misconceptions of what "real swords" are like. So lets look at these expectations and what we can learn about swords.
The ideas of what "real swords are" has many influences in the modern mind. The fantasy books such as the Lord of the Rings series and the more recent Ice and Fire have profound affects on peoples ideas of what is a real sword. You add to that the movies and TV shows such as Highlander and Star Wars and people have a great deal to use when they form ideas of what is a sword. Add to this sales pitches in catalogues, the Home Shopping Network and youtube sword shows and there is to more info than is probably healthy for one to know (we consider our selves in this category).
Most have given up on thinking that a sword is a magical indestructible weapon, you would not believe how common this was about 20 years ago. But the common understanding of how to use a sword is still not widely known and even this has advanced a great deal in the last few decades. Today, hopefully, most knowledgable sword buyers understand that trying to use a sword for jobs best left to car crushers, sledge hammers and wrecking balls is asking for trouble.
So, if being able to utterly destroy la 57 Chevy without getting dull is not, in fact, a good test of a sword, what is?
The characteristics of historically accurate swords
A good sword is one that effectively accomplishes the tasks for which it is designed. At Arms and Armor we think that modern swords should be built for the same tasks that historical swords were built for. These tasks included preventing yourself from being killed, harming your opponent, training to do both of these things, and giving aesthetic enjoyment through beauty of form and elegance of its handling.
Check out this video of historical fencing techniques from the Italian fencing tradition of Maestro Fiore de Liberi.
Historical swords are lighter than many people think. The physics of swords is directly related to their success in use, including to help protect its wielder from being killed. One of the primary merits of swords over many other weapons is that they are great for both offensive and defensive actions. A sword that is to heavy will be really good at chopping things, but they are clumsy in the hand and make it difficult for even a skilled fighter to protect themselves from an opponents counter attacks. Additionally, light swords cut people very well. You do not need a ten pound sword to cleave someone well. For example, even the largest sword in our catalogue, the 15th Century Two Hander, which is almost 60" long weighs only six pounds and is fast and agile in the hand.
Most longswords weigh between 2.5 and 3.5 pounds maximum. Our English Longsword, weighs in at 2.6 pounds and is a great cutter that moves like an extension of your arms, making it possible to both attack and defend with great speed and efficiency. This is the true function of a sword to work in concert with your body to enhance your attack and defense.
Swords of the medieval period were not made to accomplish the challenges that some modern "testing" videos try to put them through. The medieval sword was not designed to penetrate armor plate or chop wood. They would have chosen other tools for such missions. While some types of steel and some degrees of tempering might be more or less resistant to this kind of use, any sword that will stand up to repeatedly hacking trees, cinder blocks, or any other hard object will necessarily be either too heavy to function as a good fighting weapon, or it will have too little distal taper to move well in the hand as is necessary for historical forms of combat.
What we have consistently striven to do over the past forty years of crafting swords and other weapons is to match the way the originals excelled at these actions. Today when people ask us if our swords are 'real swords' this is what we try to share. We always try to make the best elegant, historically accurate, authentically 'real' pieces our craftsmanship and talents allow.
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