myArmoury.com - Viking sword head chop

Posts: 30 Location: Silicon Valley, CA

Wed 21 Aug, 2013 3:13 pm

I have a question about all this sword sharpness stuff. How are you supposed to half sword with a sword that sharp? From what I've read, a sword would be about as sharp as a butter knife - plenty sharp enough for the energy it can deliver, but dull enough that you are going to cut yourself if you grasp it firmly.

Am I ill informed?

Profile PM E-mail

Christopher B Lellis

Quote

Posts: 268 Location: Houston, Texas

Wed 21 Aug, 2013 10:54 pm

Matt Lentzner wrote:

I have a question about all this sword sharpness stuff. How are you supposed to half sword with a sword that sharp? From what I've read, a sword would be about as sharp as a butter knife - plenty sharp enough for the energy it can deliver, but dull enough that you are going to cut yourself if you grasp it firmly.

Am I ill informed?

When I first got into swords I read from lots of sources that swords don't need to be knife sharp but I sharpened some of my first ones that sharp anyway.

After extensive experiments with cutting with various swords, I can assure you, they don't need to be that sharp. They don't need to cut paper, they don't need to be able to cut just by running the edge with a bit of pressure on any flesh dense like object.

You can run your hand against what many would consider a moderately dull edge, not cut your self and the swing it at a pork leg and cut it in half with surprising ease.

As for halfswording, from my research, that was done mostly with certain types of swords, such as the XVa where only the upper edges of the sword close to the tip were sharp and the rest of the edge was not honed as much, allowing you to grab it, but there is also a certain way to grab it. This kind of explains it, it's also less typing for me.

Ignore the failed attempts to cut to prove the sharpness of it, that was a bit silly just pay attention to the way he grabs it, that's what I'm getting at.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7rqP1F36EMY

Profile PM

Tom King

Quote

Posts: 429 Location: florida

Thu 22 Aug, 2013 1:16 am

Matt Lentzner wrote:

I have a question about all this sword sharpness stuff. How are you supposed to half sword with a sword that sharp? From what I've read, a sword would be about as sharp as a butter knife - plenty sharp enough for the energy it can deliver, but dull enough that you are going to cut yourself if you grasp it firmly.

Am I ill informed?

to do a strike of wrath you would grip the sword like in this pic. the area near the ricasso is blunt or close to blunt; many swords from this period are like that because most blows are blocked with the strong and most cuts are committed close to the Point of percussion about 2/3 of the way up the blade. the hand griping in the weak of the blade holds onto the flats with the palm and fingertips, essentially not coming into contact with the edge and not letting the blade bite into your hand or slip up and down. It can be done without gloves, but halfswording is definitely an armored style of combat for working in the bind and point control to exploit the gaps of your opponents armor with a short, brutal thrust. For most halfswording the dominant hand would be on the grip with the nondominant hand up in the weak, utilizing the same footwork and guard locations as "normal" longsword

Attachment: 129.72 KB
[ Download ]

Profile PM

Mikko Kuusirati

Quote

Posts: 1,084 Location: Finland

Thu 22 Aug, 2013 3:04 am

Half-swording is all about technique. You only get cut if you grab the edges and let your hand slip. Do it right, and it doesn't really matter how sharp the blade is, as long as it's not too wide to grab easily.

For example.

Profile PM

Robert B. Marks

Quote

Posts: 82 Location: Kingston, Ont.

Thu 22 Aug, 2013 8:49 am

Mikko Kuusirati wrote:

Half-swording is all about technique. You only get cut if you grab the edges and let your hand slip. Do it right, and it doesn't really matter how sharp the blade is, as long as it's not too wide to grab easily.

For example.

There is definitely some truth to that. One of the things that makes a sword cut is shearing. So just holding a sword firmly should not cut you (please do not test this at home, though) - if it slips or move, it would then shear and cut you (again, please do not test this at home).

Profile PM Website