[Emil Andersson]

Hello,

I recently received a new sword from Peter Regenyei. It's his Montante 1, found about halfway down on this page. The blade is blunt with a 1mm thick edge.

http://www.regenyei.sg18.net/en_twohanded.html

I've never felt anything quite like it. I'll do my best to convert the measurements for your convenience.

Length: 68.5'' (47.24'' blade)
Weight: 5.512 pounds (I have no idea how to format this correctly)
Point of balance: 1.969'' from the cross

It moves very easily with the close balance point and the 20'' long handle. What I'm interested in learning more about are the blade dynamics and how they might be different from smaller swords. My own tests have given me the following numbers for the two harmonic nodes.

Blade/center of percussion: 20.08'' from the tip / 27.17'' from the cross. This is right about where the fuller ends closest to the tip.
Handle: 5.906'' - 7.874'' down from the cross towards the pommel. I find this hard to tell exactly, but it is close to the middle of the handle where it begins to swell.

The blade is also quite loud when struck, clanging with a bright and long-lasting tone. The center of this sound seems to be about 11.81'' from the cross. If I tie some cloth around this point it diminishes the sound somewhat.



So, anyway, I have read that the harmonic point for the handle in longswords is usually found right below the cross. This helps to avoid vibration damage to the hilt. Is this supposed to be the same for larger swords as well? Or do the change in proportions cause inevitable differences in the sword's characteristics at the harmonic level?

I'm always looking forward to learning more. And again, sorry for my poor measurement formats.

[Mikko Kuusirati]

[Daniel Wallace]

the harmonics of these swords has been a mystery to me, as I can't get my hands on any truly historic sword to understand more about them. now there was a paper published and linked up here a while back 'Using geometry to analyze the mass distribution of hand-held weapons" by Vincent Le Chevalier. within his paper, with one given balance point of a sword, your able to extrapolate the harmonic nodes of a sword. I haven't had the time to really understand how his equation's work and some of it feels like it's a little beyond me. I might be able to use it a little better if I used it with a practical application first before applying it to some of the information I have on some two handed swords.

I would also think that these swords should balance out with a node at the hand - but given their overall size, it could be something more difficult to do.

that's for the little review Emily, we can all get a scene of a swords size by measurements, but the nodes are more of a hold and handle thing to understand.

[Peter Johnsson]

The placing of nodes and pivot points on original swords does not follow a cookie cutter template, but they are not haphazard either.

The grip node on long gripped swords is seldom placed at 2-3 fingers distance from the guard for example. This is something you might find primarily on single hand swords.
On really long gripped swords you might find the grip node halfway to the pommel.
This may well be contrary to popular ideas on what an ideal sword should be, but that is non the less often the case with original swords. I believe they are made the way they are not because of a lack of understanding, but rather from a really good understanding of what is important.

The risk, or challenge you have to deal with with any training blunt is that the inevitable extra mass at the point (even if it is slimmed down to a minimum) changes the handling characteristics into something completely different from a sharp sword.

If you focus on one or two features and try to get these to match an original sword, you might run the risk of unintentionally changing the other aspects of the dynamics of the sword into something that is no longer a sword.

A training blunt is always going to be more or less different from a sharp sword. That is unavoidable. The trick is to get the overall effect as close as possible to that of a sharp weapon of the type.

This is not always easy as modern practitioners might have strong opinions in regards to one or two of their favorite aspects of the dynamic balance of a sword. If you for example focus mostly on point of balance and placing of nodes you might loose track of other important aspects of the sword.

Sorry, I don´t´know if all this makes any sense. What I am trying to say is that it is difficult to present a selected number of characteristics that a good sword should express, and then expecting that *all* good sword should follow this template. There might well be very important aspects that are left out of the "perfect picture" that play an equally big role in deciding the functional quality of a sword.

[Peter Johnsson]

[Emil Andersson]

Hello all,

Thanks for your contributions. Mikko's sentiment makes sense to me but

[Peter Johnsson]

[Vincent Le Chevalier]