Today we take a look at two historical rapiers from the Oakeshott Institute collection to think about the differences between fake swords and composite swords (swords made from historical pieces and put together for aesthetic of didactic effect). Recent years have seen a proliferation of fake antiquities produced on the black market to trick collectors. Composite swords are very different. These are pieces made by assembling various historical parts of swords (or very often armor) into new configurations that are different from how they existed in period.
Dr. Nathan Clough walks you through some of the characteristics of real medieval and renaissance swords and how to tell them apart from later assemblages of historical parts. Arms and Armor is one of the worlds most famous makers of historically accurate European medieval and Renaissance weapons. Since 1982 we have been hand crafting reproductions of authentic antiquities that look, feel, and function just like the originals on which they are based.
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Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985