Balance

In my last post, I talked about how armored fighters don't tend to be impressed with rapiers, and made the comment that they don't even like my 36". Sounds conceited, I know, but...

Many moons ago, when I was a happy newlywed, I did a study on period rapiers and how they compared to their counterparts in the SCA (you know, I might just have to resurrect that study because that was back before we expanded beyond schlagers). Basically, I compared the blades based on length (blade and overall), weight and balance. The short of it was that the SCA failed miserably. Too short, too light and with our balances waaaay off. The only group that consistently got anything right was the epee fencers. Surprisingly enough, an epee balances almost exactly the same as a period rapier. Go figure.

Anyway, when I built my 36" schlager, I based it off of that study (practice what you preach). It was still too short (this was before longer blades were readily available) and about a pound too light, but the balance was nearly spot-on. Okay, it's not quite tip-heavy enough; I need to shave about a quarter-ounce off the pommel. Not perfect, I admit, but darn close to the balance being in the 22-25% of the total length range that my study showed was the norm. In short, my 36" feels like a sword.

Here's how balance works. The more tip-heavy a sword is, the quicker it is. But, the less tip-heavy (pommel-heavy?) a sword is, the easier it is to control.

Think inertia and momentum. A tip-heavy sword takes more power (strength) to get going, but once you've started it moving, it keeps moving on it's own. A pommel-heavy sword is easier to get moving, but you have to apply power the whole way through. That's what makes a tip-heavy sword quicker.

Now, when it comes time to stop a tip-heavy sword, you actually have to use your power to stop it (think trying to stop a hammer in mid-swing). Not so with a pommel-heavy sword. All you have to do with one of those is stop applying power.

So the trick with a sword is to balance speed and control. If all you're ever going to do is point drills, you want a sword that's pommel-heavy. Likewise, if all you care about is getting your blade going fast, you want it as tip-heavy as you can get. The tendency I've seen up here in the north is for slow, easy to control swords with their balance point at or below the quillons. While this does improve tip control, it makes the blade slower than a snail on valium. Not a good thing if you're up against some young buck who's just chugged a case of Red Bull.

As you can probably tell, I like my balance point out in front of my quillons. This does mean that I have to work harder at tip control and that I do need a bit more wrist strength. But, hey, I'm old and slow and need all the help I can get. And besides, it's period.