[werecow]

Originally Posted by Peter Hudson

Dear Werecow, What an excellent post! I was most impressed with the observation of the weapon having two sides to it...and that the wear was more on one side than the other through training / using the sword against an opponent. I suspect that wear on one side is however, also made by the hand resting on one side of the hilt and that the high mount was responsible for that. The fact that these swords were shown to have pommels that in later designs were made giving a better grip and became seated about a centimeter over to one side ...a fact I had totally missed and which becomes important in how any wear in the pommel developed.

One other aspect worried me since your video shows two exponents with anglo saxon swords training and by giving point in their duel... My thought was that with such good broadswords would the style not be more of a chopping slashing action...in which case the grip would have been more of a full grip in both fighters...not a grip enabling the giving point technique...

I guess the answer there is we don't really know how it was used, as there are no surviving treatises from that era.

I do think Roland Warzecha makes a good case for the way he grips the sword using both the physics of the sword (and user) itself, the wear patterns, and the geometry of the grip (noting the way it is shaped to fit the palm of the hand and also the way most of the antique examples have a slight twist and an asymmetry to them).
He has a lot of hands on experience sparring with these swords, which I think does count for something, although of course the way one uses these in modern sparring is by necessity informed guesswork.
I also can't personally confirm what he's saying, since I personally do not have any sparring experience. It would be interesting to know if these swords would allow for effective tip cuts for example. My guess is you can cut very high up with them including with that broad tip, which would make this extended grip he's suggesting more sensible, but that is just guess work on my part.

IMO it would be rather peculiar if the people of this era did not make use of the full reach and most efficient physics and control that the geometry of the grips and pommels on their swords would grant them. But then, we do know of other swords where a hammer fist was the norm (e.g. the tulwar) or where their appearance is deceiving (e.g. Khyber knives not being used for thrusting), so in the absence of more convincing evidence it is hard to say.

In any case, it's interesting. He has multiple other videos on his channel where he makes his case, and he also has a number of sparring videos on there, and looks at several antique examples. It's a channel worth checking out.

(And of course, there is no reason why the wear patterns on the grips could not be due to both the way the sword was wielded and also the way it was worn.)