Today we have some thoughts on how striking someone in armor with the pommel of a sword is an effective thing to do. We started thinking about this after watching an interesting video by the HEMA fight breakdown guys. You should watch the stuff they make, watch the video here.
In order to better understand the context around asking, "does this technique work?" we take a look at three original gauntlets from the Oakeshott Institute collection (oakeshott.org), try hitting some armor with the mordschlage, and discuss the similarities between the sword as an impact weapon and how dedicated impact weapons work. Of course, check out our full line of impact weapons, and all of our awesome historical weapons.
As always, our swords are entirely made by us at our shop in Minneapolis, MN out of 6150 carbon steel, hardened and tempered to 50-52 Rockwell. Our swords and other weapons are made to look, feel, and function just like the historical originals on which they are based.
Also, the banner art is taken from Wiktenauer, the awesome folks who have made so much knowledge about sword-fighting freely available.
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