[Scott West]

Hi there,
I'm new to the forum and this is my first post after being a lurker for a month or so. I must say that I have been thoroughly enjoying surfing through this site and have gained quite a bit of knowledge from it... which is always a good thing! I have a number of years' experience in using the sword in various styles and have recently realized how little I knew about the actual historical weapons, so this site has been quite eye opening.
Anyway, here is my question. I had a custom falchion made by Starfire Swords a few years back to use in my theatrical combat troupe, and I was wondering if a few people out there would let me know exactly how accurate it is... or isn't. I would also appreciate it if someone could come up with an example of what it is closest or most similar to.
There should be a pair of pictures attached. I never realized how difficult it is to get a decent picture of a sword before... These are only decent at best, I think I need a tripod.

Thanks for looking...

[Craig Peters]

Scott,

To me it looks like Starfire designed the sword around their expectations of what a Middle Eastern muslim falchion should look like. The only problem is that falchions aren't Middle Eastern weapons; they're European. It's one of the great myths about swords out there, and one that pretty much everyone finds out that they're mistaken about. The fact that the falcion's grip curves isn't accurate as far as I know- falchions normally have a fairly regular shaped European style hilt. The cross gaurd looks reasonable to me. The blade isn't bad, though it's curve looks again like it was inspired from pictures of "Middle Eastern" falchions. Beyond that, there's not much more I can say; seeing a sword in person helps a lot when commenting on it.

If you want to see a historical style of falchion, see here: http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/albion/ne...lchion.htm

I've also attached a photo that I took of several swords displayed in the Musee Nationale du Moyen Ages in Paris, which includes an antique falchion.

[Simon E.]

I was immediately reminded of this sword labeled as a falchion in the photo albums here : http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/1022.html

It's got a curved grip. What's strange is that it has no pommel, which I think is a defining characteristic of falchions as far as debates about the falchion/messer go.

So maybe a curved grip is not so off the mark. Don't know about in combo with a disc pommel, though.

I've only seen pictures of this falchion and two others: the Thorpe and Conveyors Falchions. There is information on the

Thorpe Falchion in a myArmoury review here: http://www.myArmoury.com/review_mrl_falc.html

Falchions are my favorite European sword type. It's the single edged blade combined with a disc pommel that does it for me. Messers are cool too. Wish there was more info about them.

[Martin Forrester]

Don't mean to be picky, but do you mean 'Conyers Falchion'?
http://bjorn.foxtail.nu/h_conyers_eng.htm
It's a beast of a weapon, definitely made for one huge dude.
This is a nice one from my fav Czeck lads
http://www.armabohemia.cz/imgnew/epees/epees/EP29v.jpg

[Jack Yang]

lol scott, nice "meeting" you, first let me introduce my self, I am a high school student who is very interested in teh sharp-'n-shinnies, but don't know nearly as much about their history as the other guys on this website. I've been pretty experienced in kendo and is currently learning to fight with zweihanders. I've only been on this site for a week or so and learned much from the posts here. =D


About your sword, it doesnt look like a accurate reproduction of a falchion to me, the shape of the blade and hilt reminds me of a chinese broad sword (the Dao), although the hilt looks European enough. The real falchions that I've read about tend to have a much straighter back, and most of them do not feature a dragged-out hilt... I think the dragged-out hilt was more of a grosse messer's feature...
But then, the falchion was a pretty wide-spread weapon, common among the peasants though some times used by nobles, and anyone could've had a custom made falchion... So... I guess you can call yours a falchion, since it does look some what like one, but if you want to use it for demos, then it might not be so good, 'cause you want to have a more 'typical' prop for that.

[Scott West]

Thanks for the replies people, I really appreciate the historical references.
Yes Craig, you are correct. for simplicity reasons (and budgetary... I was a Freshman at UF at the time) I asked the smith from Starfire to just take one of his "Scimitar" blades and attach the crosspiece from one of his "light" swords and the disk pommel from the prototype of their "Templar" sword. As far as handling goes, it is pretty blade heavy, which I suppose is reasonable for a primarily cutting weapon (even though the clip point is pretty wicked) but it does make it a more difficult weapon for choreographed fighting. It does, however, chime like a bell every time it strikes another blade and keeps on ringing for days... I'm not sure how accurate that is either but it sure sells well to an audience.

The way I see it, from the somewhat limited research I've done so far, there were two (perhaps three) general blade types in Falchions. There was a "meat cleaver" type like the Conyers, and a more graceful (opinion) type with a clip point like the Thorpe. I am a bit encouraged that the curved grip did exist at some point before the evolution of the Saber. I suppose the question now is: I know there are period illustrations of curving Falcions, but is there a surviving example of one with a curve?

[Randall Pleasant]

[Scott West]

Ran,
Heh, where Starfire is concerned, I don't know that I'd call anything they put out as "Historically accurate". They are just where my little troupe purchases all of their weapons so it was about all I knew of at the time. Incidentally, the Falchion weighs 4.0lbs to be exact. And yes, I've been drooling over the Vassal (along with just about ALL of the other offerings there) since I found Albion's site a while ago. Although I think I want to diversify my collection rather than specialize it... it's just more fun that way

Jack,
It does seem a bit similar to a Dao, but believe me with the sword in hand there is a HUGE difference between the two, although I have a friend who has fun doing some forms with my Falchion rather than his Dao... He seems to think it builds his streingth and endurance, and he's probably right! Regarding who used it, I've heard that at one point they seemed to be preferred to arming swords in combat (as in battles, as opposed to duels), and so few survive because they were all used up in battle. I'm not so sure that saying "peasants" used them would really be accurate as they were still swords and thus pretty expensive. It wouldn't be unreasonable that Men-at-arms (if that is a correct term) and career soldiers and Mercenaries would have them.