I just got this sword from Castille Armory and hope to use it for stage combat.

Here are some specs - in inches (mostly)

OL – 41.75
BL – 34.5
Grip length – 4.75
Pommel length – 2.25
BW (at guard) – 1.375
BW (midpoint) – 0.75
BW (1 inch from tip) – 0.5
Blade Thickness (at guard) – 6.23mm
Blade Thickness (midpoint) – 4.8mm
Blade Thickness (1 inch from tip) – 4.27mm
COG – 4 inches from guard
Weight (according to Castille Armory) 2.3 lbs.

Not much distal taper, though a fair amoung of profile taper.

The grip aluminum/linex, and has somewhat the look and feel of rayskin. Since the pommel is pretty much an extension of the grip, If you wish, you can put both hands on it. The blade has 3mm rounded edges, so it should hold up well to the abuse of stage combat. One thing that bugs me a little – the finger ring is much larger than it needs to be, with an interior diameter of 1.65” - about 2,5 fingers wide. It is very sturdy and won’t crumple when hit. The hilt seems a little too big overall and that finger ring should be reduced to about 1/2 its size.

The sword handles very well and feel fairly light in the hand. It should work well as a stage combat sword, and its edges should hold up well to the abuse that blades must suffer in that venue.

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mighty big finger ring

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some originals that this sword is based on.

I agree with you and Nathan that the hilt is too big, the handle too long for the rounded pommel to give support to the heel of the hand compared to the originals or the Albion Doge that I have.

I also see that the small spur on the false edge side of the blade is missing and with a training blunt sword having the spur would permit doing some experimental swordsmanship to see if the spur can have some useful uses ?

These spurs are sort of a mystery but I can imagine that in a bind using the false edge it might give leverage to wind/double around the opponent blade ? Or maybe stop a blade sliding down near the top guard quillon and give some indirect extra protection to the hand ? ( Just speculation ).

As is one could still train with it and take advantage of the finger ring and knuckle protection of the minimally complex guard.

As a stage sword seen from afar it should still work with a historical costume set in early Renaissance Italy like for Romeo and Juliet ?

Yes, that finger ring is WAY too big. However, whenever I see an over size ring like that I just think, "maybe they were thinking that they wanted someone with old clunky SCA gauntlets to be able to use it."
Then, I think, "na, they just were not paying attention."
Then a whole bunch of other rationalizations flood in to my mind and then I give up and go play with my swords.

...Seriously speaking though. I think it would be a fun sword to have around. Nice purchase! Now go have fun with it! that's why we all got into this sword business in the first place.

Speaking as a guy with fairly large hands, I don't see anything wrong with it. Not exactly my cup o' tea as far as sword designs go, but I think it's an excellent choice. I don't really do 'blunts', but I would totally do a pair of those...just to make the neighbors freak out while sparring with a friend of mine. :D :lol: Now that the knife laws in Texas have changed, we can do that. ;) .....McM

I need my reading glasses a lot more these days. I first thought that this thread was titled "Venetian doggie style" .

I guess this takes away from my status as a purist, but I never liked that spur on this sword type, and was disappointed when Albion decided to put one on their Doge. It made complications for its scabbard, and I figured the spur would constantly make the sword hang up or get entangled with things.

I remember in Albion's first drawing design of their Doge, they left off the spur. When many requested that it should be included, the spur was made part of the blade.

About the hilt size, I'm fairly certain that it's to accommodate HEMA-style protective gloves.

Take a look at Marco Danelli's HEMA version of this sword type. This one is obviously in a higher class than the Castille version. I imagine it costs a lot more. Note that the finger ring on this one also seems rather large. I'd like to see of photo of sword in hand to confirm that.

http://www.danelliarmouries.com/index.php/cus...sword-ss21