[MR] How hard does it hit?

[Aedan Aylwyn]

> A challenge for atlantia's esteemed engineers, please.  We've 
> been talking about the different weapon blades 
> (rapier/schlager vs foil/epee) and how hard each hits when 
> striking it's target.

Pardon the bluntness, but I think this is a fool's arguement.  You can spin
this any way you want, one blade category doesn't hit "harder" than another.
Or "softer" for that matter, especially when the categories are so broad.
Next thing you know, someone will start asking which is safer or is that
where you were headed?

You want to look at the blade?  How stiff is it?  That will have a huge
impact on the "hardness" of the hit (whatever you mean by "hard").  Epee's
used to be generally springier and more likely to flex than schlagers, while
foils were even lighter than epees.  But now are you looking at a #5 dry
practice epee?  Or the much stiffer "SCA" epees that you designed?  Ditto
for foils.  And schlagers verus Del Tins versus Hanweis versus Safeflex
versus <insert new blade here>?  You have all different ranges of stiffness
in *every* blade category.

When you state an epee weights 1 lb versus 2 lbs for a heavy rapier blade,
are you just weighing the blade? Or is some of that weight the guard?  And
why a shlager?  Why not one of the more accurate rapier simulators that are
out now?  If you want to do some sort of comparison, you need to do apples
to apples and mount both blades in the same guard.  A simple cross hilt
versus a heavy pappenheimer guard will make much more of a difference in
overall weight than the difference in blade weight.

Next issue, the tip.  Again, you have these assumptions of different tip
sizes that just isn't accurate.  Espcially with the stiffer epees out there
now, the buttons tend to be larger.  I see as many epees with bird blunts as
I do with "epee" tips althought I will say I haven't see the reverse.  But I
have seen many different varieties of blunt used on heavy rapiers, including
nothing but tool tip, and leather covered spent brass shell casings.

Lastly, the actions of the fighter affect the "hardness" of the blow as much
if not more than the blade used.  I can thug someone with a foil.  I can
deliver feather touches with a 45" bated rapier.  What's the point?

Grumpily,
Aedan

----------
Master Aedan Aylwyn, Provost, OP                 Caer Mear, Atlantia
Email: aedan (at) mindspring.com                Royal Bad Influence -
Retired
Academie d'Espee: http://www.mindspring.com/~aedan
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