[Alan Schiff]

Hello everyone, I've been contemplating making a very large two-hander for my own collection. I've got a pretty good idea on how I want the blade, 44" long, 60" overall, but I'm not sure what to do for the hilt. I've been looking through pics here on MA, on google, and the few books in my collection, but nothing has struck my fancy so far. So if you have any pics of antique XIIa's or XIIIa's that you like, can you show them here? I'm especially looking for unusual pommels; I have enough swords with disk pommels already, I think.

Thanks,
Alan

[Craig Peters]

Alan,

I think it's unlikely you'll find many Type XII.a or XIII.a swords that reach 60 inches overall. These swords are usually long swords or great swords (here meaning a long sword with a cutting-specialized blade) rather than true two-handed swords. The one that comes most readily to mind in terms of size and pommel style is XII.a 4 from Records:


If you widen your scope to Type XX swords you will find a few more, like XX.1, XX.2, XX.3:

[Alan Schiff]

Hi Craig, I know there aren't many of these swords that long, I'm not necessarily looking for pics of swords that large. I have Records and was looking at XIIa.4, that's what got me started on this idea, but I'd like to do a different hilt. XIIa's are my favorite of Oakeshott's types, and since there's evidence for at least one this large I figured I'd run with it. So I'm hoping to find some pics of more unusual hilts on XIIa's, they don't have to be as large as the sword I'm going to do, I just want ideas for the hilt.

Thanks,
Alan

[Craig Peters]

Have you considered a Geibig Type 11 or Type 12 blade? Brazil nut pommels are certainly far less common than Type I, J and K pommels and would give you something distinctive.