Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dannyalcatraz" data-source="post: 3088427" data-attributes="member: 19675">Why?  Because its not built for his hand's smaller grip.  While a 5'7" adult like myself can easily grip such a weapon- indeed, my hand would completely envelop the grip and possibly overlap some- someone who is about a child's size might just barely be able to grip it.  Without a doubt, that person's grip on that weapon would not be as sure as my own.And if you handed it to someone the size of Andre the Giant (who would still be considered size M, BTW), the whole weapon would fairly dissapear in his hands.Holding != Wielding.  I've never seen a child learning weapons training with a full-sized weapon.Re: Epee & Saber.  Those who learn both weapons are learning 2 different weapons that are of appropriate size & balance to them.An inch here, pound there can be the difference between standing here or lying there.If you look at the statistics for historical weapons, the differences are smaller than you'd think.  A short-sword might weigh as much as 3 pounds, a rapier between 3-4 lbs, a longsword 3.5 to 4.5 pounds, and a 2-hander rarely weighs more than 6.You get outside those weights, you introduce all kinds of problems.  There is an example of a nearly 8lb ceremonial 2 hander in Europe that is completely unwieldy, even by largeish persons who are proficient in the weapon- its blade flexes so much its looks like a comma when the blade is held "level."  A smaller 7lb 2 hander (same length, narrower blade-point) in the same museum (intended for use) has a blade with significant flex, but its INCHES less than its ceremonial cousin.Going the other direction, you simply scale things down and you change some of the mechanical properties of the weapons.  Take a look at one of the various Oakeshott sites- there are reasons why a shortsword has a different blade shape from a longsword.Or, in other words, despite being curved blades, a Wazikashi is not a Katana is not a No-Daichi, and wouldn't perform optimally if used by someone for whom they were not to scale.</blockquote>

Verification