Straight swords vs. curved swords

[Rich Jordan]

Its pretty hard to get a picture of the whole thing with the cameras I have access to, but I can try.

Wish I'd been able to afford the Schmidberger katzbalger that was offered for a short time too but even the one sword was a real stretch back then.

[D5CAV]

I remember the Katzbalger! Didn't they sell for more than the "Austrian Masterpiece"?

That was back in the day of "Museum Replicas". IIRC, they had a guy who was actually a expert historian of swords who made sure the swords were well made replicas of museum pieces. Those swords were made in Spain and Germany instead of China and India where they are all made today.

I remember drooling over some of those catalogs in the late 80s, but I was making the meager yet undeserved wages of a centurion in the legions of the empire in Germania. The only sword I could afford was a regulation M 1902 US Army officers sword I found at the base thrift shop for about $40.

My German is rusty, but I believe "Katzbalger" means cat-gutter or cat-cutter.

[toad]

Somewhat off topic but isn't interesting that we still have such a fetish for edged weapons? I hate to think about how much time I've spent reading about swords and pole weapons,( of course I've also blown time of bows Asian and European). I'm still somewhat hacked that my Adam's Arms mid-length Blem doesn't have a bayonet lug.
Is it a cultural thing or have we become hardwired for sharps?

[308Mike]

Toad, I think we've been hard-wired for sharps for CENTURIES (if not millennium). We KNOW sharp works, and has worked as long as our species has been alive. Why stop now???

[First Shirt]

That was back in the day of "Museum Replicas". IIRC, they had a guy who was actually a expert historian of swords who made sure the swords were well made replicas of museum pieces. Those swords were made in Spain and Germany instead of China and India where they are all made today.
My German is rusty, but I believe "Katzbalger" means cat-gutter or cat-cutter.

Hank Rinehart was the Museum Replicas expert, and he has two excellent books on edged weapons, both swords and knives, available from Baen. He's passed on now, but his widow, who is the Big Boss at Baen still has the books available.
And, yes, "Katzbalger" means "cat-gutter."

[toad]

This guy:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCt14YO ... GCwcjhrOdA

Has some interesting video on straight vs. curved swords. I particularly liked his one on "The Center Of Percussion" and "Not all spadron's were bad" in that they pointed out some history of point vs. edge especially the early 19th century British experiences.

If you can get a hold of it, the movie "Hidden Fortress" has and interesting scene of a Japanese spear "duel," for spear fighting, "Seven Samurai" has a better one.

Don't piss off a Japanese girl, some of them have been doing the sword on a stick since they were in elementary school.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Emw0_F7kuAA

[D5CAV]

Thanks! I liked his series on the Katana "It's just a sword". I agree with his assessment: short, heavy and club-like.

If you want to see some girls who you definitely don't want to piss-off, check out the Chinese women's fencing team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBMjLpWRQXg

The biggest girl from the China team is over 185cm, the shortest is about 175cm. Their Korean opponents are between 155cm and 165cm. Tall and fast beats small and fast.

[Vonz90]

My medieval history teacher said that the first knight came about when someone decided to take the biggest, meanest jerk in town and pay him to go beat up other people instead of the locals. Or maybe that was the sheriff. It's been a few beers.

Actually, they were often the same person first of all; and yes, that was often exactly how a local area got their "knights". They were levied for men to serve their lords, and they send the biggest meanest guys they could.

In exchange for guarding the territory, and risking their lives in wars, they got land and taxes from the locals.

That was not really how it went for the most part at the front end. The basic name for "knight" most languages which are not English basically means a guy on a horse (example Ritter in German means rider, chevalier in French is much the same). They were mounted class of warrior from the tribes which became more formalized over time. The chiefs relied on them for their military power, and because being a mounted soldier required both horse (aka a lot of money in the day) and pretty much full time training to be useful as a mounted fighter meant that it required a one to be a class of people who did that as their thing verses infantry which could be mustered as needed.

When the tribes settled down, the leaders gave their mounted warriors a piece of the pie because they already relied on them, not the other way around. The deal was that you got the land (and peasants - which could be a conquered people or just a lower social order of the same tribe) in exchange for continuing be on call as a mounted fighter.

This is common to almost all western civilizations in one form or another. Even the Romans had a knightly class early on, they just fell out of power over time as their method of war transitioned into an infantry centric mode.

[Highspeed]

Have any of you sparred with blunt steel medieval swords ?

I'm rather expecting the answer to be yes...just a hunch

[D5CAV]

Nope.

Competed in foil.

Trained in epee, but never got competitive.

Tried saber a few times.

Tried kendo once.