15-16 centuries swords dimensions database ?! -- myArmoury.com

Vladimir Sokolov

Roger Hooper · Posted: Mon 18 Apr, 2011 12:47 pm Post subject:

Very impressive - 4 distal taper measurements (klingendicke) at cross, down 1/3,2/3, and 20mm from the tip. Also profile taper (klingenbreite)

This should be used for replicas as well as originals.

Adam Bodorics · Industry Professional

This verified some of my theories, thank you for organizing it, and thank you to the people making these measurements public.

Also, after seeing the first pdf, I started playing with guessing thickness and distal taper from the photos and later checking. Max 1 mm error based only on picture, and 0.5mm max error based on picture and weight. (I don't speak German, so finding the thicknesses, while not hard, isn't that trivial for me Big Grin

) This proves that while it's NOTHING like handling originals, photos do reveal a lot.

Vladimir Sokolov · Posted: Tue 19 Apr, 2011 4:36 am Post subject:

Try to guess blade thickness of the first sword in the post.

http://www.zornhau.de/source/schwertexkursion/ZEF-1.jpg

Adam Bodorics · Industry Professional

Unless the steel is foil-thin at the deepest point of the fullers, I'd guess 5.8-6.2 at the ricasso, and at least 4.5mm a few inches from the point - this seems to have very little distal taper. I'd say that the PoB is around the end of the ricasso.
...
Of course, this'd be more believable real-time, so it's quite pointless on a forum, especially with already-posted stuff. Even more so given that I don't consider myself especially thrustworthy, but I'm working on that. Happy

Vladimir Sokolov · Posted: Tue 19 Apr, 2011 5:09 am Post subject:

PoB 192 mm
Blade thickness at the guard 6 mm (also i have info from J.Fricker that blade thickness at the guard is 8 mm, but I am not sure about this)
20 mm from tip - 5mm

Simon G. · Posted: Tue 19 Apr, 2011 5:10 am Post subject:

That is very interesting. I have been wondering about distal tapers on Zweihänders ever since I bought one that has almost none. This was bothering me, but I now see that there are similar historical examples, like the first one... A consistent thickness of 5mm.

Many thanks for this, I'll be sure to add to it if I find others Happy

Adam Bodorics · Industry Professional

Distal taper in bidenhanders is an interesting question, as there are bidenhanders in Graz that have an about 2:1.2 ratio of distal taper (ricasso:around point). It's quite clearly visible as the edge bevel gets narrower, and with uniform thickness that'd mean that the edge gets gradually more dull towards the point, but the reflections show that the edge bevel is quite close to being flat.
But this example in the thread, and some others show zero, or only minimal signs of ANY distal taper at all. Both groups SEEM to contain functional weapons.

Vladimir Sokolov · Posted: Tue 19 Apr, 2011 5:39 am Post subject:

Information from "The Weighty Issue of Two-Handed Greatswords" (http://www.thearma.org/essays/2HGS.html)