[Luka Borscak]

I'm having a new baskethilt made and I would like to know how close the bars or ribbons of the basket should be to your fingers, how much empty space should be between your hand and the basket. And how far up the hand should rearguard come to without restricting your wrist movements.
Does this picture from Henrik Bjoern Boegh shows the ideal fit, or is this basket a bit too tight for him? He says in a review that it is a bit tight, but restrictive tight or not, I don't know. Henrik, feel free to post your comments if you see this.
http://www.myArmoury.com/images/reviews/madp_ribbon1.jpg

[Nathaniel Jeffries]

That's just a bit tight for my taste for three reasons.

1. I may or may not be wearing a glove when I fight. Add a glove to that picture and I think the basket pictured would be too tight.

2. My grip changes as I fight. Sometimes very quickly. There's just not enough room to shift in there and not get hung up. I'm not sure I could snap cut with a basket that small.

3. If part of my skin or hand were squished or pushed outside the guards and bars in a fight then it can be attacked. Obviously this is a bad thing.

I think basket size is a personal choice. Take Cold Steels basket hilted sword for instance. I have one. It's a fun cutter and I don't feel bad about getting it dirty or clipping the pell with a bad swing. But the basket is huge. I can fit both of my hands in it comfortably at the same time. And because of it's size its a bit awkward to swing. It tends to clip my wrist. My Armour Class and Hanwei's fit me very well without any alteration. I recently had Darkwood re-hilt a saber onto a basket for me. While I did not ask Scott to allow for the difference in technique, he built a perfectly sized basket for the difference in grip with a saber. Again all of this is personal choice. You need enough room to work in the manner you want to. No more, no less.

[Jonathan Hopkins]

I have an antique English dragoon's basket hilt c.1750. Here are measurements of its hilt and photos of the sword in hand to illustrate the size of the basket:

Hilt:
6 ¼” long
Basket:
4 ½” long
4 ¼” wide
3” deep (not including quillon)
Bars are between 3/16” and ¼” wide and are approximately 1/8” thick
Reins Ring:
2 ¾” long
1 9/16” wide
Quillon:
1”
Pommel:
1 ¾” long
1 9/16” wide at base
1” wide at center
5/8” wide at terminus
Grip:
4 3/16” long

[Craig Shackleton]

For me, that basket also looks a bit tight, but not too bad. For my tastes, it looks like the real issue is that the grip is too short. Of course, this also makes the basket tighter lengthwise, which is the main place I think I would need more room.

It is also a little hard to tell from the picture, but that's my impression.

That said, I don't mind having the basket touch the back of my hand in some grip positions. It's probably not ideal form, but sometimes in a high guard on the left, I actually let the basket rest against the back of my hand as a counter-lever to bear some of the weight of the blade.

On the other hand, having a tight basket can be painful if your opponent uses certain grappling or disarm techniques that apply leverage at that same angle.

[Henrik Bjoern Boegh]

[Luka Borscak]

Thank you all, gentleman. I think I might get the basket to fit me a bit tight when wearing glove, so that it will be a little bit more comfy when used without a glove, but not too big...