“Safe Sword” is made up words
We frequently talk about how to make swords “safe”. Unfortunately unless you can come up with a definition which satisfies a few specific criteria, the word “safe” doesn’t have a lot of meaning.
Two Phases Of a Cut – Surface vs Steady State
From a blade resistance point of view, cutting actually has two distinct phases: the internal and external.
Difficulties with SCA Flex Test and Buckling Test for Measuring Blade Stiffness
Two of the most popular ways to quantify blade stiffness are the SCA Flex Test and the Buckling Test. Unfortunately they both have issues, but we’re suffering for lack of better solutions.
Finding the World’s Highest Level HEMA
“In your opinion, which country has the highest level of practitioners?” Let’s see if I can answer this in the most unhelpful way possible.
Vector Transformations and the “Wedge”
Vectors are used to describe just about everything in life. And all it takes to win a sword fight is to transform all your opponent’s vectors into ones that can’t hurt you. Piece of cake!
Why n00bs Fling the Sword: A Multi-Part Analysis of Rapier Thrusting Mechanics (Part 2)
In Part1 we discussed what flinging is, why n00bs fling, and why flinging is a poor tactic. But how can we not fling? Before we can start, we need to understand motor redundancy.
Why n00bs Fling the Sword: A Multi-Part Analysis of Rapier Thrusting Mechanics (Part 1)
In Salvator Fabris’ 1606 treatise on rapier, he dedicates an entire chapter on the subject of flinging the sword and in-depth discussion of why this is bad. But what is flinging? And why is it poor form?
Blade Stresses
We are used to thinking about the forces that swords apply on their targets, but we don’t spend as much time thinking about the forces that the targets apply to the swords. Between axial, shear, bending, and torsion there is a lot more going on than you might have thought!
Sword Cross Sections
In my previous article, “Do Fullers Make Feders Take a Set?”, I promised you that I would take some data on production swords and back up the theory with data. I still haven’t done it, but I do have some measurements of the sharps around my apartment.
Daggers in Men’s Smiles: Tournament Starting Positions versus Outcomes
Dagger tournaments can receive an unfair reputation as stab-happy fights, with competitors disregarding defense for a ‘first-strike at all costs’ mentality. This paper will determine what proportion of exchanges in a recent dagger and ringen HEMA tournament ended with clean, contained hits and how many ended in doubles or hits with insufficient control