Feather Smallswords - First Look
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- čas přidán 25. 04. 2021
- Feather Smallswords are a newly established company in Serbia, dedicated to making training/fencing smallswords. He we take a look at a few models from them and how they compare to antique examples.
Check out their Facebook page below -
/ feather-smallswords-10... - Sport
![Feather Smallswords - Smallsword First Look [HEMA]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_7rQCPoN2lE/mqdefault.jpg)
I've been really looking forward to seeing a video on these swords ever since people started posting them in the Facebook group. Good stuff!
I bought one not long ago and I’m super excited to have it in my hands already.
As Aria says STICK EM WITH THE POINTY END! ☺♥
I do learn alot watching these I'm being blocked now?
I’d very much like to start training smallsword, so this is very timely. Cheers.
Just wanted to let you know that I'm quite enjoying your Craven's War series, and I've pre-ordered the next one. Also, smallswords are sweet, can't wait to see more mixed-weapon sparring with them on the channel.
Great review! I've been interested in the type 1 (closed ring w/ knuckle bow) with the musketeer blade for a while, and will probably be ordering one soon!
Great review, thank you
I suspect the slightly higher bulge is probably to make it viable for styles which *do* run the finger through the ring (or at least, don't prohibit it). A bulge near the bottom of your palm will make a grip far more uncomfortable than one near the middle or top, and using a ring-grips naturally mandates that you hold the sword from higher up the grip compared to a pinch-grip. This way, it looks like they have a single grip that works with both.
You fence smallsword and use the rings?
@@christopherbartlett8100There are, interestingly enough, some styles that involve the rings. Doyle, an Irishman teaching a somewhat mixed style of fighting in Germany, says to put the finger partway through. His style is influenced quite a bit by Italian rapier fighting, so it's probably from.
These look gorgeous! Also first?
I received mine yesterday. It's gorgeous and I can't wait to get stabby with it. I shall have to order another as my daughter keeps trying to steal mine
Спасибо.
A very solid review, thank you for taking the time! I'm wondering how this sword would measure to an alchem smallsword here, stateside. Very curious.
Thanks. I don't own any Alchem smallswords but I have handled them. Feather is a far more refined product. The proportions are much more realistic, the corps/body makes for a much more comfortable grip, which the Alchem really falls down on. Also the weight, according to Alchem's site their hilt alone is 346g, that is very heavy for a smallsword. An epee blade is around 170g so Alchem with an epee blade would be 516g, as opposed to 380g for Feather with the same blade. The Alchem is better suited to the early larger smallswords and transitional rapiers.
Thats actually a good point that smallsword usually do not face other mixed weapons. Can we have videos of smallsword vs heavier weapons in the future to see what it’s like?
Experimental HEMA should be more of a thing :) . Myself, I wonder how a smallsword paired with a buckler would fare against other setups!
We will indeed put smallswords up against really anything that is not anachronistic, and so we will be doing that as we return to training in the coming weeks and months. For now I can give you this of us doing a mixed weapon bout with smallsword a few years back -
czcams.com/video/i15NJRo57Ko/video.html
I wonder how these compare with
- Rogue Steel Smallsword
- Castile Armory Smallsword
Depending on exactly what style you're practicing & how tall you are, you might want a longer blade. A few 17th/18th-century smallsword manuals indicate the entire smallsword should come up to the navel when placed on the floor, which will commonly give a blade length of around 34 inches for someone who's 5' 10" tall. (Personally, I'm 5' 10" & get blade length of 35-36 inches if I substract 6 inches for the hilt, but perhaps my navel is bit higher up than usual. A smallsword with a total length of 39.5 inches would barely reach my belt by any definition, & that was Balthazar's minimum length.)
In the 17th blades were still transitioning from the rapier and could often be a good bit longer, but these are really looking to represent the 18thc. As much as it can be useful to follow what a master recommends, the surviving swords do tell us a lot. Although height did decline from the mid 17thc on and especially in the 18th, it didn't for most of the classes of people using smallswords, who averaged roughly the same heights of people today. Then we look to the vast numbers of surviving smallswords and most have bladss around 30-32", with 33" alreasy being an extreme, at least as far as typical French smallsword forms go. I don't mind people playing with longer as I have got here, but I do like to aim to represent the originals as a general average.
@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing What's the evidence that 17th/18th-century smallsword wielders averaged 5' 9" (175 cm), the current average for men in the UK & USA? That seems possible, as better nutrition correlates with increased height, but I've never seen data to that effect. Determining average height for historical periods is tricky, & estimates continue to vary. Regardless, I'm more interested in what manuals say than extant examples. The typical surviving original frequently differ from what manuals prescribe. For instance, rather few 16th-century British basket-hilted swords have as long blades as George Silver specified for his short sword (37-40 inches) & rather few 16th/17th rapiers have blades as long as Ridolfo Capoferro & Francesco Alfieri indicated (the entire sword coming comfortably to the armpit from the floor, giving a blade of about two-thirds of height). & I've yet to find a cavalry warhammer quite like the one Pietro Monte recommended, with a longer haft for two-handed use from the saddle. Etc. With extant pieces, we almost never know the proportions of the wielder, nor precisely why they opted for that size. I suspect folks often chose shorter blades for convenience. The principle that the weapon should match the wielder's size appears across numerous historical texts. Proportional measures are more useful to today's fencers than static averages from surviving collections, as people's size varies & a proportional measure gives the personally appropriate weapon length.
Am I wrong, but arent the fingers supposed to rest on, not in the rings? Its what puts the hand into the proper position, provides balance and leverage in changing hand positions and is not simply for fashion... at least that is my understanding and its use in practice
The fingers certainly don't go in the annelets as I said in the video. They can end up resting on the annelets depending on the size and shape of them and the size of your hand, and yet I would say that is merely a byproduct of where you are gripping it. Plenty of smallswords did not have annelets or they were so small as to not be a factor, and the training weapons used to practice for them didn't either.
It seems to me that this knucklebow -less swords were almost always colichemarle or diamond bladed ? Am I right ? As always thanks for your channel.
Yes that's right. There are some examples of narrow triangular bladed ones but they are very rare, almost always colichemarde or diamond as you say. This is likely due to the period of the knucklebowless swords being fashionable (about 1650-1730), when those types were at their height and the narrow triangular blade came dominant after.
Any good exaples of smallsword replicas? For home defence and showing off at events.
Not really. The only sharp options that aren't wall hangers or super expensive would be Cold Steel and Hanwei. Both very robust but way overwight. Smallswords are one of the most underappreciated antiques and so you can still get good originals for low prices. In the UK we regularly find nice solid ones for £200-400, and sometimes less, and so there isn't much point in buying badly weighted replicas.
Is there any evidence of smallsword being used like a rapier, with a dagger in the off-hand? If this did happen, I would imagine that it would've been more likely early on(mid-late 17th century). Or is it the case that the use of a left-hand dagger died out while the the rapier was still in use, before the smallsword even came around?
The use of the dagger offhand was in decline when the smallsword was coming in, and so the smallsword was almost always used solo. However, Angelo says that whilst offhand dagger was not common in Britain, it was used in some other countries and therefore recommends learning it. Thbere is a section in his manual for it with some lovely plates. There was also one early 18th century work which basically copied the Capo Ferro plates but as smallsword and dagger. So generally a rare combination, but not unheard of. We will be getting some epee based dagger blades soon to use for this purpose.
@@AcademyofHistoricalFencing , Thanks for the response, Nick! That is actually very fascinating. I'm familiar with Domenico Angelo, of course, but didn't know about his references to off-hand dagger! Considering his statement about how they're not really a thing in Britain, but remain in use in other regions, I'd be willing to bet that it was still relatively popular in Italy, Iberia, and other southern, and Mediterranean parts of Europe. Definitely going to look up those illustrations from Angelo!
Do you have any plans to spar with a kite shield in the near future?
We don't currently have any, but it's on the list to do, and so perhaps sometime later in the year. My personal heater shield has finally been painted after 15 years of ownership and so that will be getting more use soon, and with some new arming swords from Poker Armoury on the way, I do expect to see more variety in shield work.
Can you buy a sheath or scabbard? And how would you sharpen these?
No reason to sharpen, these are not “real” swords. They are for practice only, totally different blade. A real small sword blade has no flex at all.
@@samuelprice2461 but I want to sharpen it
Small word and a messer and I’m solid . Maybe a war spike ....
Come on dude! @1:09 why do you soft pedal that bit of information?! That the HFA blade is endorsed by you for small sword. That's a handy bit of information to have. I've been looking at those blades having no clue whether they're good or not.
I mean, they literally sport his channel name. :P
In sport foil fencing why even call an off target hit? Doesn't that reinforce bad combat habits of dropping a defense for a less lethal injury?
If you were in a duel, and stabbed someone through the thumb, you wouldn't have to kill them. You definitely won at that point.
@@therecalcitrantseditionist3613 I mean stopping action for a non point seems silly. If it were a duel to the death one would not want to reinforce stopping to address a booboo mid fight. If a soldier is stabbed/shot in the arm training dictates eliminate the threat then dress wounds.
It is very difficult to buy these swords.
How so? We sent them a few messages and then paid by bic/swift as is typical for most suppliers in Europe.
I don't know why whenever company's make Viking swords with handles that are far to long..it bugs me when swords are far from anything there supposed to represent...huge baskets on handles and blades that are the same thickness all the way to the tip........🗡️🔨🤬
Sometimes it is just a lack of knowledge, they roughly imitate a photo or similar, but often it's a result of the end users. Most Viking swords made in the UK for example are made for the re-enactment community, who have strict rules on edge and tip thickness. To meet these standards and keep weight down can be a challenge and so many swords are bar like to keep costs low whilst meeting the rules. Same for grip length. Most Viking re-enactors use large heavy duty gloves to protect themselves when fighting. So it hugely depends on the knowledge of the smith and the end users they are being made for. It can absolutely be frustrating as hell though. 18th and 19th century swords are some of the worst reproductions, mainly because the original sword susually relied on massive distal taper to counter their lack of profile taper, but the repros don't bother and the rssult is horrendous.
Looks nice. I have two smallswords already though...only two you say? I should get a pretty one? Sigh. Okay maybe...your persuasion techniques are sinply cruel.
You can never have enough. I only had two a few months ago and now I have about 10 smallsword/foil trainers. Also a great way to indoctrinate other members when you can throw swords at them and let them fight.