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| Darrell Engelbrect wrote: |
| I cut down the quillons as they made movement unpleasant, but I still feel it needs to be more lively in the hands. |
| Darrell Engelbrect wrote: |
| Hi, first time poster, long time member.
I bought a windlass fifteenth century sword a few years back and I was wondering what I could do to customize it? I cut down the quillons as they made movement unpleasant, but I still feel it needs to be more lively in the hands. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. |
| Julien M wrote: | ||
Ouch...That might have been a little bit drastic! Well it depends what you are aiming at (historical design or not)...as I am afraid quillons are not expendable on such a longsword historically. You can find plenty of examples on the website or look at accurate replicas in the review section. Making the sword more lively...where is the current point of balance? It should be around 10/15 cm before the guard. Choping the guard quillons won't change much it terms of the sword balance I'm afraid and you may have to fit a new guard now. Cheers, J |
| Jean Thibodeau wrote: |
| Well as Julien wrote short quillon like this are not historically correct but it might work for a fantasy sword.
Long quillons can get in your way but you get used to them and learn to not have them hit your arm with practice and they where there for very good reasons when fencing they are very useful. |
| Luka Borscak wrote: |
| I had this sword few years ago. It was quite lively in it's original form. I cut of its side rings and that improved liveliness even more but cutting of almost entire cross guard is quite drastic and I'm sorry to say but you are on a good way to ruin your sword. And the sword is one of the better Windlass models. |
| Mike Capanelli wrote: | ||
Yo say the quillons hampered movement and now you need it to feel more lively. What type of training do you have? Do you practice any HEMA? I'm asking because I used to have the same trouble years ago when I started out. I found that it wasn't the sword but my lack of knowledge in how to actually use it as intended that was the cause of my problems. I don't mean this to be insulting yet my Father used to tell me all the time "A bad carpenter blames his tools", this was true in my case and it may be here as well. While I wouldn't say windlass is very accurate still the elements that you see on most of their swords are close to historical in most cases. |
| Darrell Engelbrect wrote: |
| Those elements, like the quillons, served a function or they wouldn't be there. There's a wealth of knowledge on how to use a word both in print and on this site. I suggest that instead of trying to modify the form of your sword further to suit a pre conceived notion you may have as to how it should work, you instead modify your knowledge of it's function so as to understand how it was intended to be used. |
| Mikko Kuusirati wrote: |
| Yeah, I gotta agree that cutting down the quillons was a bad call. The wide guard does not merely protect your hands, it also protects all the rest of you and helps you manipulate the opponent's sword. It works almost like an integrated buckler. With the quillons as short as they are, you have zero margin of error in blade-to-blade contact - your technique has to be absolutely perfect or the opposing sword will slip right past the minimal guard and into you.
That said... like Timo said, reshaping the tip of the blade would move the center of balance back towards your hands, resulting in a "livelier" feel. Just be very careful not to overdo it! I would actually suggest making the tip more acute, increasing the profile taper and narrowing the point rather than shortening and/or thinning the blade: this would result in a more thrust-oriented blade profile, which IMO would go better with the change in balance. I kinda like the black finish, BTW. :) PS. I'll also have to agree with everybody about practice making it better. As a case in point, I recently got the Windlass German Bastard Sword. The moniker is spot on, it really is a true bastard - just light enough for one hand, just large enough for two. The guard is somewhat wider and the grip significantly shorter than anything I'm used to, as far as longswords go. When I first picked it up, it felt quite awkward and I kept hitting and even bruising my front forearm with the quillons. After two weeks of handling it, however, that problem has completely vanished simply because I've learned not to do that. :D |