So I was reading several reviews here on the XVa type (Agincourt, Talhoffer just to name a few) and It seemed like people were saying that they cut rather well. So this brought up a question in my mind, how well do blades cut that have a central rib. I was under the impression that a rib made cutting difficult as it increased resistance to the cut?

I have moved this topic to the Historic Arms Talk forum.

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"Discussions of reproduction and authentic historical arms and armour from various cultures and time periods"

Thank you.

Michael,

I'm not certain from the posts you have made so far how much cutting you have done. This is not intended to be an insult, but it is one of those things that is very hard to explain (at lest for me) to some one without a frame of reference. I own and have cut with an Albion Agincourt. It is definately not my best cutting sword (in fact I managed to send a few water bottles flying), but, once you learn which portion of the blade it wants to use for cutting, it can be very effective. The edge geometery of Albion's longer-skinnier XVa's (I don't own (nor have I handled) the shorter fatter variety) seems to like a target with some resistence. 2 litre bottles are easier to cut than 1 litre, and pool noodles fight back against the Agincourt quite a bit (do remember that I am no martial artist; much of this could be opperator error). Nonetheless, that is what I would expect from a sword designed for thrusting. After all, thrusting is a techinique especially suited for use against an armoured enemy. If you find yourself needing to cut in the same circumstance, it is probably not against a target that will felx as much as a pool noodle.

I have never tested my Agincourt agaisnt tatami, but based on the results of the swords I have used (including most of Patrick Kelly's current collection (which now includes a Svante) and a couple of my own swords) I am inclined to say that the XVa would hold its own.

Net result: The Agincourt (or any of the other three swords that share that blade, I suspect) will cut against medium to heavy targets just fine. They might have trouble with lighter targets because of their edge geometry. They are not cutting swords, but they cut better than most people would expect a thrusting sword to do.

-Grey