[Jose Pereira]

Greetings
This is my first post here, but I'm an years long lurker.

I'm trying to chose my next sword. My favorite fencing style is from the teachings of Lichtenauer, with heavy use of zornhau techniques. However, due to my fighting group relationships with other groups, I often have to practice Fiore dei Liberi fencing.

With this said, the first sword that drawn my attention was the Lichtenauer from Pavel Moc. Seems to be a really nice sword, but I'm afraid that it's lenght (140cm) might be to long for fencing styles other than the German ones, or even to carry on a scabbard and belt. A sword this long seems be be closer to a true, full on two hand montante like use.

Moc also has in his line the Durrer (128cm, 95cm blade), and the Viollet (125cm, 93cm blade), which seem to be a lot more versatile.

So, which lenght would you recommend for me? By the way, I'm 185cm tall, 193cm armspan.

Thanks in advance

[Adam Bodorics]

I never had any problems with drawing 140-150cm long swords from a sheath, and carrying them isn't that complicated either, you only have to tilt them a bit more (and there's a large number of depictions showing people wearing these longer longswords). If you don't have enough time or space to draw one of these, 20-30cm difference in length won't help much either, so you'd be better draw a dagger, remove the closest obstacle and disengage to create enough space. Also, don't forget that in close quarters, even a sheathed sword is quite useful if the suspension is somewhat "loose" (you're able to use the hilt and the scabbard to fend off attacks directed at your lower left, and the pommel can be used to crush wrists, elbows, ribs and collarbones with ease)

Though if you want to use the sword in one hand (10-20cm extra reach, fewer usable angles of attack and less torque) more than occasionally, the shorter ones might be better for you.

[Jose Pereira]

Thanks for your answer.
A little "help for the helpers":
(total, blade, handle, weight, all metric)

Lichtenauer- 1410, 1030, 380, 2.0.

Viollet- 1250, 930, 320, 1.7.

Durrer- 1280, 950, 280. 1.6.