Re: (TFT) stainless sword and pole arms

["Neil Gilmore" <raito@raito.com>]

> 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.... :-)

That's 80 with everything. Not too far out really, for full armor.
Incidentally, somewhere I read that the typical soldier's load hadn't
dropped significantly throughout history, about 70 lbs.

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

Nope still 16, though I could go into a long rant about how inconsistent the
rules are...

> 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.

Because apparently, nothing did the job hand to hand, if you're talking
about killing the other guy outright. You don't have to kill the other guy
through his armor to take him out of the battle.

> 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.

Yes, it is. My handmade one is by Ric Furrer (www.doorcountyforgeworks.com).
When he first got into professional smithing, he said he'd make me one if'n
I ever got knighted. Well, it finally happened, and I have the blade. Still
working on the fittings, though.

Neil Gilmore
raito@raito.com
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