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Author Topic: Arms and armor 12th century sword. Two handed?  (Read 42216 times)

Lord Dane

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Re: Arms and armor 12th century sword. Two handed?
« Reply #15 on: 2015-03-24, 13:01:13 »
Gorgeous work
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Chuck G.

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Re: Arms and armor 12th century sword. Two handed?
« Reply #16 on: 2020-09-08, 05:02:40 »
I have that sword.  I would call it a Hand and a Half.  I can wield it one handed, but I'm 6'4".   A person of shorter stature might have trouble with one hand.   there is enough room, even with my big hams, to grip it with two hands, although the second hand would wrap around the pommel too.  I got mine used from Joe Metz and do not regret it in the least.  Here it is after grip rewrap along with the scabbard I made for it.

Sir Humphrey

Beautiful work! Earlier this year I finished a rehilt of an older version of this sword that I found on eBay to satisfy a strong desire for a High Middle Ages war sword with an octagonal pommel and medieval coins used as decoration, in the manner of the Duke of Urbino sword. This particular A&A example was of fairly early production – at least 20 years old per communication with their shop, given the combination of parts and the maker's mark used to stamp the blade.

Upon stripping the hilt I found some oddments with the tang that needed to be addressed, but otherwise no real problems. The pommel was great, particularly since it already had center recesses, but one side was too shallow and needed to be deepened. After considerable effort and expense trying to find a way to deal with that, I finally settled on using a Dremel grinding stone to deepen that side. The grip was reworked as well, simply to make it a bit slimmer and a better fit for the cross and pommel. Upon completion, I glued some reproduction medieval silver pennies into the recesses.

The main effort was with the crossguard. After much deliberation I decided against reworking the existing cross and made a new one from a mild steel bar. It is shorter overall than the original "spike" guard that was part of the as built piece and features a simple square cross section. I used a specialty tool I devised to help inlet the guard to fit the blade better.

I got compliments from the A&A shop on how the piece turned out, so I did something right!

I do need to make a scabbard at some point, however.

Sir Nate

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Re: Arms and armor 12th century sword. Two handed?
« Reply #17 on: 2021-07-27, 04:58:02 »
I have that sword.  I would call it a Hand and a Half.  I can wield it one handed, but I'm 6'4".   A person of shorter stature might have trouble with one hand.   there is enough room, even with my big hams, to grip it with two hands, although the second hand would wrap around the pommel too.  I got mine used from Joe Metz and do not regret it in the least.  Here it is after grip rewrap along with the scabbard I made for it.

Sir Humphrey

Beautiful work! Earlier this year I finished a rehilt of an older version of this sword that I found on eBay to satisfy a strong desire for a High Middle Ages war sword with an octagonal pommel and medieval coins used as decoration, in the manner of the Duke of Urbino sword. This particular A&A example was of fairly early production – at least 20 years old per communication with their shop, given the combination of parts and the maker's mark used to stamp the blade.

Upon stripping the hilt I found some oddments with the tang that needed to be addressed, but otherwise no real problems. The pommel was great, particularly since it already had center recesses, but one side was too shallow and needed to be deepened. After considerable effort and expense trying to find a way to deal with that, I finally settled on using a Dremel grinding stone to deepen that side. The grip was reworked as well, simply to make it a bit slimmer and a better fit for the cross and pommel. Upon completion, I glued some reproduction medieval silver pennies into the recesses.

The main effort was with the crossguard. After much deliberation I decided against reworking the existing cross and made a new one from a mild steel bar. It is shorter overall than the original "spike" guard that was part of the as built piece and features a simple square cross section. I used a specialty tool I devised to help inlet the guard to fit the blade better.

I got compliments from the A&A shop on how the piece turned out, so I did something right!

I do need to make a scabbard at some point, however.


Looks Excellent! I especially like the silver pennies!
Nathan Phillip Max
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