Safe Steel for Edged Weapons
Individual Medieval Groups and Societies Safety rules
Whereas most historical medieval combat groups have very similar safety concepts (blunt edges to blades and no points), many of them have long term established guidelines.
Each Lancaster’s Armourie Limited weapons is designed to conform to the Early Medieval Alliance (EMA), The International Medieval Alliance (Intermedieval) and NAReS weapons safety guidelines… But we’re happy to make modifications conform to individual safety guidelines, in most cases this is simply a matter of reducing a tip radius so please tell us your particular needs and we will do our best to help you.
Briefly… Lancaster’s Armourie do not make sharp weapons of any kind. Our Swords have a tip that is 4mm thick and a variety tip radius’s from 3mm to 7mm. Our cutting edges for Swords are 2.8mm to 2.5mm. Smaller blades (Short Swords, daggers) are 1.8mm to 1.5mm. Pole Weapons (Axe, Bardische etc) have a 3mm cutting edge.
SO! Throwing yourself onto the tip of one of our Swords is rather like trying to stab yourself with the “blunt end of a pencil”, it’s going to cause a really nasty bruise… but that is all it will do.
Authenticity of weights; a simple quick research into Sword blade lengths will quickly demonstrate there is no set pattern of dimensions to weight ratio. We are moving towards lighter swords, but without compromising our ethos of safe weapons.
SO!… What suites you is OK, but be certain you receive adequate training.
A good instructor will tell you “balance” of a Sword is usually more important than its overall weight and a lighter Sword is not a substitute for lack of training.
Sword hilts and Sword Blades are now available for purchase as separate items.
By Roger Lankford. June 2001
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