Not sure where to post this one, so I hope it fits with off topic stuff. If not I apologize. Anyways, with all the talk of scabbard suspensions lately, I've been thinking a lot about back suspensions. I've been looking at a lot of medieval art from various time periods and regions, and can't find any depictions of knights, men-at-arms, other military, or any sword wielding individuals wearing a sword slung over the back/shoulder. Nor have I seen any reproduction suspension systems designed this way. Was it simply not practiced enough to be commonly found in art, or is the visage of a warrior with a sword slung over his back another product of Hollywood imagination?

I think this has been covered previously. I tried our Search feature, but could not really find what I was looking for in previous posts.

I have tried a couple of these type suspensions. You can force them to be plausible, but drawing a common medieval length of sword from over your shoulder is tough. (Even un-armoured.) Trying to put the sword back in is really difficult. I figure someone will eventually produce some period art depicting "back" suspensions. But, think such a thing would be more likely useful for general travel and transport rather than "battle ready" type application.

Shoulder slung suspensions, where the sword is still somewhere low and diagonally in the front, are entirely different in terms of functionality. I actually prefer this over anything else I have tried.

I may be the victim of Hollywood here (or perhaps Toho...) but I believe that No-dachi were sometimes carried on a back strap. Of corse these were ment to be removed from the back and un-sheathed proor to the comencement of hostilities. Of course this is recieved wisdom, I have no actuall sorces for this...

I believe that the Scots sometimes carried their great swords on their backs but it was only for transport. They would take off the harness and draw thier swords before going into battle and reclaim the harness afterwards.

This does come up from time to time and has been discussed in depth before on this forum. You can find illustrations of swords being carried in a sheath or covering on the shoulder of a soldier in woodcuts that depict troops on the march. However, during the life of several threads about back-scabbards I have not seen anybody produce solid evidence of a back-scabbard in period illustrations on European origin. I have also not seen any photos of surviving examples. Either or both of which would go a long way to answering questions about the use of rigs of this nature.

The fact that I have not seen any evidence means only that it has not yet been presented to me. Still it does strongly imply (to me) that swords were very seldom or very rarely carried in this way. At least not in Europe.

In a more practical sense, the modern back-scabbards I have experience with were all much less user friendly than a waist mounted suspension. I felt that my range of movement was more limited and weapons of significant length were not easy to extract from the rigs I tried without taking the whole thing off.

Something from hollywood (IMO).

One very long discussion in the spirit of this one I think:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...arry+sword

Another along the same line (there are others...I found it helped to use the AND function in the search tool):

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...arry+sword

In my opinion, from the sources I have read and depictions of knights and soldiers, I have not seen a suspension that would make me believe they ever carried a sword on their back to draw it. Most swords that indivduals wish to carry on their back seem to be ones that would be used from horse or used to remove a knight from a horse. I believe, IMO, that the folks that wish to carry the swords on their back due so to show their pride in the arms they have purchased or created. Thank you Hollywood. ;)