Re: (TFT) stainless sword and pole arms

["Charles Gadda" <cgadda@earthlink.net>]

> My normal tourney suit is Japanese, and weighs in at 37 pounds, which is
> pretty light. Some time ago, for a specialty event, I made some new stuff.
> Proper padding, mail, and plate over that. The whole rig was about 80
pounds
> or so. I took a hit with a rattan weapon that creased the backplate about
8
> inches (really odd combnation of circumstances). I didn't even feel it.
> Sure, I moved slower, but I sure felt like a tank How thick was the helm?
> Many of the repros out there are 18 ga. (I think that's deliberate,
because
> SCA requires 16 or better). How was the helm held to hit it? When worn by
> someone, armor is a lot more absorbent than when held tight.

Here is the link: http://www.myarmoury.com/review_dt_hammers.html
The helm was ~15 gauge, actually. As I already said, it obviously was not a
fair test - the helmet was on the ground and had no "give" - but it is not
as if every battlefield situation is going to be fair either. I can easily
envision situations where you "zig" rather than "zag" and end up moving into
the blow, rather than away.

Also, original helms were pretty light. Leafing through my Wallace
Collection Catalogue I notice that most battle helmets (ignoring jousting
examples) are around 5-6 lbs. I have a great helm I made out of all 16 gauge
that weighs 7 lbs, so the orginals may have been even lighter than that. The
80lbs armour you made seems quite heavy by Mediaeval standards - I thought
~50lbs was closer to reality. While you were no doubt a tank, I do not think
rattan vs. an overweight suit of armour necessarily replicates the
battlefield reality.... :-)

Unrelated question: is the SCA standard still only 16 ga? I heard rumours
that it had been upped to 12 gauge (!)

> As for cumbersome, Jeu de la Hache pretty clearly shows that (at least for
> tournament), the head isn't what should be used, unless you have a clear,
> unimpeded shot that the opponent can't respond to.
>
> And there's the one Jacques Lalang duel with poll axe. The other guy shows
> up with a war axe, so the officials call it off, but Jaques says play on.
> Both lay on each other pretty well, and the only injury is a stab to the
arm
> to Jacques. He ends up winning by throwing the other guy down with his
good
> arm, and because one of the winning conditions was something like 'lay
your
> length on the ground', Lalang wins. The other guy wasn't happy. Clearly,
> even an axe nade for battle wasn't all that effective against armor.

Perhaps you are right, but again this goes back to the basic question: "What
soldier in his right mind carries something heavy and useless into battle?"
History is replete with examples of soldiers discarding burdensome and even
useful/needed equipment, to say nothing of stuff that served no practical
purpose, so why not ditch the pole axe if it can't do the job? Something
just doesn't add up here.
>
> I've neard some really good things about properly treated L-6 blades.
>
Isn't this what Howard Clark uses for his katanas? I'd love to get one, and
maybe I will someday... but not today, alas.
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