OT: check out this wonderful Falchion

I would think that the 'shield' over the hilt would reduce your mobility. Dig into the back of your hand. Or is your wrist supposed to be locked when you use it. Pardon my ignorance.
 
I think that with the way its curved that you would still maintain a normal level of movement. The end of your arm/wrist/back of your hand turn to more or less the same degree when moving so the guard would follow, like in a basket hilt. Plus I would think that curling your wrist outward would not be an advisable maneuver, it would weaken your defence and attack, pull your elbow in funny and throw the body alignment off. And really the Falchion is about one thing, hacking the crap out of anyone/thing unlucky enough to get in front of ya :eek: , argueably not a very good defensive sword from the start
 
that is a mean mofo.
im not sure its a falchion,id call it a dusagge, but maybe theyr too close to call.
remember that in 1680 the average white man was about 25% smaller than we are today.
this sword would have been quite roomy and heavy for a 5 foot 2 inch italian or german soldier.
 
Hi Guys
would have to dispute the 25% factor Danny, more like 5-10% amongst the professional fighting men , less amongst the elite. Most of which is down to nutrition. The weapon is a most stunning example of a late falchion but is only a baby compared to my favourite, the Conyers Falchion at Durham Cathederal. tried to find an image but no luck. Any good book on edged weapons will have a picture. Definately a mean MOFO.
Regards
Phil
 
the US army uniforms have changed 5% since ww2!
25% comes out of a real library book, so ill have to see a real library book that disputes it before i give up on it.
 
I bookmarked it, then deleted the bookmark - why torture yourself? :yawn:
 
Hi Danny
Two 'real books' on the topic
Armour From the Battle of Wisby 1391 AD
Finds from mass graves give an average height of 5ft 7 inches
for adult males.

Blood Red Roses-finds from the Battle of Towton 1461AD
Find from the grave pits give an average height of 5ft 7 inches to
5ft 8inches.The range is 5ft 3inches to 6ft 1 inch.

Also some similar work done on a mass grave at Kaimokusa near Kamakura, I have only studied an extract of this work, dealing with cranial damage. Unfortunately the rest is available only in Japanese. It is important to realise that both the European examples involve men who were well fed and regularly
exercised. Unsure about the rest of the population at this point. Hope this helps.

Regards
Phil
 
can i get the isbn numbers or authors info for those books?
they apparently contradict the mass of historical and paloeanthropological literature going back 150 years.
thats worth looking into...
 
Hi Danny
Blood Red Roses ISBN 1-84217-025-2
Armour From The Battle of Wisby ISBN 1-891448-05-6
These are the best analyses of battlefield remains, I have little information on civilian remains, although a large portion of those who died at Wisby werefrom the city militia. Your original statement refered to soldiers particularly, hence my comments. While there undoubtably were 5ft 2inch soldiers, they were not, in general, the men so often portrayed. much of the so called research carried out in the past is now determined to contain methodological and interpretational flaws. Please let me know what sources you have been using for better analysis. Other common mistakes are, armoured knights couldn't mount their horses unaided, european swords weigh 10 pounds, they are nothing but sharpened crowbars, there was no skill or method in their fighting, Vikings all had horns on their helmets' Great swords were carried in over shoulder sheaths( ala Braveheart). There are plenty more, continually fed buy idiots in the entertainment 'industry'. I believe they did much the same with Ninja a few years ago.
If you want to continue this privately let me know here and I'll send you my e-mail.
Regards
Phil
 
well, my first and most commonly known index came from the US armys uniform size changes from 1860 to the present.
this was probably the most famous and clear illustration of the huge jump in size of males in Europe and America over the last 100 years.

#2 was arms and armor of the european knight by David Edge and John Miles Paddock . i forget the page numbers, sorry.

my third came from source is myself, having a degree in anthropology I have studied physical anthropology and osteological changes over time and the cultural cause and effect of such changes.

with every advance in food technology and medicine, infant mortality and nutrition improves.
this makes people bigger. bigger people have an advantage in violent environments and tend to reproduce more than smaller people in the same environment, and they have big babies.

war and junk food make us bigger. this is a fact that is borne out by archaeology and is not a topic that is commonly debated by people who are active in the world of science.

a skeleton can be measured in mm from head to toe, and there is not much room for interpretational mistakes.

australopithecus was about 3 feet tall.
i am 6 foot two.

obviously, there have been some changes to get from lucy to me.
 
well, my first and most commonly known index came from the US armys uniform size changes from 1860 to the present.
this was probably the most famous and clear illustration of the huge jump in size of males in Europe and America over the last 100 years.
Click to expand...

You're absolutely right -- the last century has witnessed incredible changes in nutrition, work patterns and genetic interchange in America. To a lesser extent, similar secular trends have occurred in Europe. We are, on average, much taller than our great-grandparents.

However, I'd be shocked if this trend was linear, and could simply be extrapolated back to the 16th century. My wife is a bioarcheologist, and her off the cuff guesstimate was that a 25% increase in mean stature sounded high to her. Then she went on about whether such a simple measure really told you anything about the population and started proposing more statistically meaningful metrics...

It was at about this time that I said "thanks, honey" and replied to this thread. Now I know how she feels whenever she asks me a "simple" question about physics ("Love, what happened before 'The Big Bang?'"). :)

Ahh, to live in a household of academics... our children are doomed! :)
 
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