Today we are happy to announce that we are producing a very close replica of a pair of 16th century German training longswords, or feders, from the Metropolitan Museum in New York. Last summer Dr. Nathan Clough had the chance to handle and measure the originals and now we are happy to reveal the fruits of that research.
Here is a link to the artifacts in the Met
These swords date to the last quarter of the 16th century and are contemporaneous with the late German fencing tradition known as Kunst De Fechten, and very similar to fencing swords shown in Joachim Meyers 1570 "Art of Combat".
These are the type of sword that modern HEMA feders are inspired by, but they have important differences from the modern interpretations. First, the tips of these 16th century swords are essentially sharp. By our measurements the two feders in the Met Museum are, respectively, .3 and .6 millimeters thick in the last centimeter of the blade.
Measuring the pair
We will be introducing a limited run of nine of these swords in the coming weeks. We will alert the public when the product page is ready and we will take deposits of $150 to reserve a sword. The final price of the piece will be $1250 plus tax and shipping.
These are not intended for tournament fighting, but should be understood as tools that can help us to understand the social, material, and martial context in which Renaissance swordsmanship was situated. The tournaments that featured these blades in period were fought with no protective gear and with cuts to the hands and any thrusts forbidden. The winner was the first fencer to make his opponent bleed from the scalp without otherwise hurting him. We do not encourage you to do this as there are historical records of people dying from injuries acquired in these fights - but you do you.
For a historical take on how these were used in the Holy Roman Empire check out the following two articles by Adam Franti that give social context, and a description of how the tournaments worked.
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is 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