Good day,

Anyone that has an Albion Ritter, are you able to chime in if the blade can be used two handed as Roland Warzecha says from all positions?

Best regards,

Barrett Hiebert

Is the underlined supposed to be a link? I can't find his comments to which you are referring.

Ryan,

See here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yacFlQjtkTU

Best regards,

Barrett Hiebert

Well, any single-hand sword can be used with two hands, so to that extent, I think he is correct. I'm not convinced that that is the intended function of that pommel design, but I think his idea is at least reasonable.

To be more convinced of his grip, I would need to see him swing with some real measure of force, which I did not see in that video. Seeing him strike against a pell would be even better.

David Kite
ARMA in IN

It’s also of note that the sword the Ritter hilt is based off of has a 38 inch blade while the Ritter itself has a 32 inch blade. Those are really 2 different animals.

I am also.not convinced in the two handed premise.

I had one for a while. The grip is longer than most historical examples of this type, but still I did not find it to be particularly two-handy. The pommel is designed more to couch the fist, and a second hand is not really necessary. It's not that heavy.

That's an interesting take. Thanks for bringing it to my attention. The pistol grip on the pommel as described does certainly add a degree of control to the cut. I feel like it is a bit easier to control the edge alignment with it and cutting to Langen Ort is easier than with a single hand. One notable difference is that I don't feel like I'm able to apply much if any power with the left hand like I would be able to with a longsword. Also, just cutting a few Oberhaus (I guess that should be Oberhaue? Oh the Genglish.) left the joint between the metacarpal and the proximal phalangeal bones sore. At the end of the cut the peened prong of the pommel would rotate into that part of my thumb. Perhaps this could be corrected by changing some of the mechanics or gripping it slightly higher on that metacarpal, but that changes the angle of the hand.

The grip is actually long enough for me to get the my thumb and index finger around the bottom. With the curved base of the pommel this seems to allow the same gains as regards to control but also to apply some force with the left hand when cutting.

I've always thought that type XI was much better suited to fighting from horseback than on foot, particularly the lengthier examples, so I'm not sure two handed use with the driving force behind the design. Also, the bade on the Ritter is about 33 3/4".

Kind Regards,

Ryan

I definitely agree with the horseback hypothesis.

I had one of these made custom, based on several historical examples: http://myArmoury.com/talk/files/sdscf6655_582.jpg

The blade is nearly 4" longer than the Ritter, the grip is shorter, and it handles like a dream for long sweeping cuts.

Hey,

Thanks all for the thoughts. I’ve let that tangential thought fall to the wayside. Please disregard. Thought better of it.

Best regards,

Barrett Hiebert