My new two hander in Swiss style, made by Alojz Krišto
Feb 3, 2013 22:09:13 GMT
Post by Luka on Feb 3, 2013 22:09:13 GMT
After a few months of moving up the Alojz's waiting list and exhausting research about such a difficult subject as Swiss two handers of the first half of the 16th century, this sword is finally materialized and mine. It is based on several very similar two handers from the first half of the 16th century situated in Bern museum, Morges castle and some private ones. It seems that most Swiss museum collections have at least a few two handers from this family. Some have dozens.
Swiss soldiers were obviously quite in love with long handled swords, but true two handers were during some periods outlawed for the field use by at least some and maybe all cantons of the Confederation. But it is not known how well were these orders obeyed because Swiss chronicles show two handed swords quite regularly. After the Marignano or Pavia it is possible that two handers were introduced as a possible mean to equal evolving tactics of the Landsknechts and neutralize the advantage Landsknechts gained during these years by accepting new tactics and warfare philosophy. Also, after the Reformation began, catholic cantons accepted two handers and used them to great effect against reformed cantons during the Second Kappel War in 1531. In the second half of the 16th century two hander gained greater popularity across the Confederation, but mainly for the defense of the town fortifications so they are regularly purchased by towns for their armouries even into 17th century. For defensive use in sieges they are probably used through all these periods.
Considering all that it is hard to date this specific family of swords which is so well represented in the Swiss museums and collections and from which most specimens are extremely similar. Blades are different, some have parrier haken, some not, cross sections are hexagonal, flattened diamond, with or without fullers. Some have those "rosary" like engravings on them.
Hilts are all very similar and distinctive. High, slightly mushroomy scent stopper pommels, hourglass shaped grips and crossguards mostly straight with either scent stopper ends, ends looking like the end of a trumpet and some flared with ball finals. Some of them are S recurved and some are written. Many swiss longswords have those hilts too.
So, without further ado, here some originals that inspired me, and then my sword, made by Alojz Krišto. I found the pictures of the originals both on this forum, vikingsword.com forum and many other pages across the internet, but I will post only a few. If anyone is interested, I can e-mail you a few more
Originals:
My sword:
It is 170cm long, the blade is 120.5cm long, 4.8cm wide at the base. I have no accurate scale at the moment, but it is about 2.5kg. The point of balance is right at the end of the ricasso, so at about 17cm or 18cm from the crossguard. Thickness of the ricasso is 6mm. The grip is walnut covered with hemp string soaked in linseed oil and glued to the wooden core.
Swiss soldiers were obviously quite in love with long handled swords, but true two handers were during some periods outlawed for the field use by at least some and maybe all cantons of the Confederation. But it is not known how well were these orders obeyed because Swiss chronicles show two handed swords quite regularly. After the Marignano or Pavia it is possible that two handers were introduced as a possible mean to equal evolving tactics of the Landsknechts and neutralize the advantage Landsknechts gained during these years by accepting new tactics and warfare philosophy. Also, after the Reformation began, catholic cantons accepted two handers and used them to great effect against reformed cantons during the Second Kappel War in 1531. In the second half of the 16th century two hander gained greater popularity across the Confederation, but mainly for the defense of the town fortifications so they are regularly purchased by towns for their armouries even into 17th century. For defensive use in sieges they are probably used through all these periods.
Considering all that it is hard to date this specific family of swords which is so well represented in the Swiss museums and collections and from which most specimens are extremely similar. Blades are different, some have parrier haken, some not, cross sections are hexagonal, flattened diamond, with or without fullers. Some have those "rosary" like engravings on them.
Hilts are all very similar and distinctive. High, slightly mushroomy scent stopper pommels, hourglass shaped grips and crossguards mostly straight with either scent stopper ends, ends looking like the end of a trumpet and some flared with ball finals. Some of them are S recurved and some are written. Many swiss longswords have those hilts too.
So, without further ado, here some originals that inspired me, and then my sword, made by Alojz Krišto. I found the pictures of the originals both on this forum, vikingsword.com forum and many other pages across the internet, but I will post only a few. If anyone is interested, I can e-mail you a few more
Originals:
My sword:
It is 170cm long, the blade is 120.5cm long, 4.8cm wide at the base. I have no accurate scale at the moment, but it is about 2.5kg. The point of balance is right at the end of the ricasso, so at about 17cm or 18cm from the crossguard. Thickness of the ricasso is 6mm. The grip is walnut covered with hemp string soaked in linseed oil and glued to the wooden core.