General Sword Information
Every effort is made to ensure that each sword or item reaches our customer in excellent condition, so that with responsible use, care, and maintenance it will provide excellent service.
It is your responsibility to ensure that your sword or armour is a model designed to meet the requirements of the activity in which you propose to use it – please contact us if you need help in making a choice as we will be happy to help.
- Caution
- Swords can have very sharp blades and must be handled very carefully to avoid injury. When maintaining a blade, make sure that the sword is resting on a flat, stable surface and always avoid touching the edge. Never try to “catch” a sword that is falling – this is the cause of most sword-related injuries. Let it fall, it is unlikely to be damaged.
- Practising Cutting
- Important - Seek training first from a competent instructor.
Make sure that the sword is specifically designed for the type of target that you are cutting.
Cut only targets that can be cut cleanly with a single stroke. Rolled and soaked grass mats, plastic water bottles and pool noodles are fine, trees and 2 x 4’s are not. A sword is not an axe and will bend if struck hard enough against an unyielding object.
Make sure that the targets are properly supported at a comfortable height.
Seek to improve your proficiency in making clean cuts with the minimum of effort. Do not try to “test the limits” of your sword – it is extremely dangerous and historic battlefields are littered with broken blades! - Re-Enactment Use
- Make sure that your sword is specifically designed for the activity in which you are engaged. Reenactment swords have thick edges and rounded tips - the minimum safe dimensions are often specified by the reenactment organisation or society.
Sparring swords are also blunt and must meet certain flexibility requirements for safety.
Seek training from a competent instructor.
Operate only in a safe and organised environment with competent supervision.
Try to avoid edge-to-edge contact whenever possible. In some fighting styles this is, however, unavoidable and edges will “nick” (steel toughness can mitigate the extent of the distortion but when two equally hard edges are struck together both edges will be nicked – just a matter of physics). After each session examine your blade for any sharp burrs created by nicking and, if any are present, remove them with a file to ensure that your next opponent will not be cut