I've posted before about Scottish swords, but this time I'm not interested in the two-handers.

The first sword I ever bought was the blunted armour class highland hand and a half. A sword I still like to use for longsword drills because although it's weighty and has a small handle, it's very agile, tracks well, and is fun to handle.

Also, when going into some forms of ochs and vom tag, it has a habit of locking my drilling partner's point between the cross and the blade, rendering him unable to wind and letting me slide up his blade to deliver a thrust almost unopposed. I still find this trait of the spoon-cross amusing. (if anyone wants a picture of what I mean, I can take one). Depending on the guard, there are some work arounds, but they require dramatic shifts of position (steps really far to the side or backwards) to disengage.

I was wondering if their was historic mention of this, the few halflang's I've seen pictured all have the right taper by the cross towards the point to work in this respect. Essentially I wanted to know if that was the intended purpose, I've seen few type XV or any completely thrust-oriented blades from the highlands (although this could be because of little plate exposure), and was wondering if this hilt type was a cause of dearth of thrust-oriented medieval/renaissance blades in the highlands.

It would also make sense for this to not be fully accepted by the lowlands or other areas where plate was prevalent, because locking the opponents blade gives you a small range of movement for your point, which would be almost useless if who your fighting is decked out in plate armor. (Nope can't reach your armpit, or behind the knees... uh...)

Apart from the cross guard, I know little about the halflangs hand1/2s. From what I've read, all I know is that they tend to have a mostly hexagonal cross-section (sometimes changing to diamond or lenticular), the pommels are hollow(?) and semi-pointed, blades have wide bases but tend to taper to serviceable points, almost always have a single fuller of varying length, and have relatively small handles compared to their continental counterparts.

I have virtually no measurements for length or width, this has all been qualitative, and have no experience with originals or even other reproductions other than the one I own. I want to know what others experiences have been with hand and a halves, and whether what I know is correct, not-quite true, or expandable. Because at the moment, all I have a inferences generalizations and assumptions, and I'd like to know more that's actually concrete.

FWIW, some of us have speculated about a connection to the distinctive Swedish sword types of the 15th c.

The high grip-to-blade ratio makes these handle more like short polearms, which would lend them to the kind of high-leverage binds you describe. Some types have the down-sloping spatulate quillons like those shown here.

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I wonder about this too, because a friend and I noticed this while trying some techniques. I usually used my Hanwei Practical Bastard Sword with the curved crossguard, which did what you describe here. We didn't really try to do it with my straight crossguarded Hanwei Tinker Pearce Blunted Longsword, but it didn't seem to be able to do it that way, whereas I was doing it by accident with the Bastard.

I've been interested in getting an armour class halflang but I have heard all about the unbalanced or heavy trait to it. I've been planning on getting a custom halflang from them and adding a couple inches to the grip and blade. When I emailed them before telling them what I want and that I want it to be light and balanced at around 1 or 2 inches off the guard. Would you recommend their halflang? If so where would you suggest it be balanced at if the blade is around 37 inches, grip is 8 inches and pommel is around 2 inches???? Also, how does their steel hold up as a blunted blade? Your opinion means a whole lot to me as no one I know has ever handled an armour class sword before and since I cant test one out myself being that I'm from the states.

so vincent those instances of trapping your opponents point i assume is kind of like how rapier based parrying daggers, and japanese sai specifically have quillons pointing towards the tip SPECIFICALLY in order to try and trap the opponents blade, correct?

Funny. I find that the trapping effect works with just about any steel sword as long as the cross is long enough--but not with wood, since wooden waster blades don't give/bend as much in the bind. A cross curved towards the blade makes the effect more pronounced but the difference isn't all that significant.