Saturday, March 20, 2010

Arms and Armor's Fechterspiel Sword

Arms and Armor's Fechterspiel sword has attracted favorable comments. Here is another review.

Medieval fighting schools developed blunt practice swords that that simulated the medieval longsword in much the same way a fencing foil simulated the 18th century smallsword. They are shown in the the 15th century Solothurner Fechtbuch, and examples have survived from the 16th century: a pair have been preserved in the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Arms and Armor have recreated this sort of training weapon. You can choose between the training grade, which they describe as follows: "the finish on the blade is not taken to as high a polish and the hilt parts are finished with a smoothed cast surface". In the higher grade version "The pommel and guard are finished in brushed steel"

As I write this, the training grade costs $40 less. Hugh Knight, who has used them, suggests "Frankly, they're the better buy unless you intend to do demonstrations for the public at which you want to display nicer equipment."

1 comment:

Hugh Knight said...

I think these swords are superb; they are, hands down, the best training options available. They are the only ones I allow to be used in my Schule.

I do have to agree with the MEMAG critique, however, that blade weight and stiffness seem quite variable sometimes. The ones my students are getting now are significantly lighter and more flexible than the ones I purchased several years ago.