Hi all,

I'm looking for images, both photos and extant art, that show the leather tabs seen on some 15thC swords such as this:

http://www.thehaca.com/pdf/sf1.JPG

I know I've seen some, but can't think of where.

Cheers,

Dave

Sean Flynt has a great thread called New Windlass Type XVIII Project (Erbach Sword) where you can follow along on one of his many DIY projects. This particular project sword includes a chappe. There are a few photos and illustrations of chapes in the thread as well as Sean's "how to" make your own!

Welcome to myArmoury! If you use the search function with rain AND guard you'll get 3 pages of threads and info.

here is a good starting place:

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...rain+guard

Here is a fascinating video by the Hammaborg group speculating that this wasn't a rain guard at all. Hammaborg's theory is that it was a safety device fastened onto sword to protect the hands. Further discussions on other forums suggest that these "rainguards" started showing up in earnest about the same time unarmoured dueling or "blossfecthen" was becoming very popular.

Watch and wonder: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8QBr4dTAR0

Allen

Hi Allen, that's exactly why I asked. It seemed to me that many of the extant chappes were too small and of toothin leather to perform the task as presented in the hammaborg video. Other's that I've now seen (thanks guys!) are definitely big enough.

Perhaps the smaller, more ornate ones were for thos who thought it less likely they would actually use their sword in a fight?

Maybe Hammaborg's thesis doesn't correctly identify the true purpose of the chappe.

Whether it is the true purpose of it or not....if it works, then they're going on my swords.

Thanks for the help guys.

Dave