New Federschwert Swords by Pavel Moc

[ShaunnM.W.]

yes 320 euro is roughly $423 at the moment.

I agree that I would love if a stateside maker would begin producing feders with these dimensions.

I know that it was mentioned that Angus Trim was going to design a Feder....no idea on the dimensions though...

I like Ensifer's rolled tips, but I also like Pavel's tips - I would call them flared(?) for safer thrusting. The nice thing about the flared tip is I think whatever you use to tip it would be more secured and unlikely to fly off by the very design of the tip. Every now and then we have a tip come off our Hanwei Feder's and while It has never led to an injury it would be nice if it didn't happen at all.

[Bill Carew]

yes 320 euro is roughly $423 at the moment.

I agree that I would love if a stateside maker would begin producing feders with these dimensions.

I know that it was mentioned that Angus Trim was going to design a Feder....no idea on the dimensions though...

Well, ATrim does do an I-beam trainer at T&TA. I hadn't heard he was doing a feder as well.

I like Ensifer's rolled tips, but I also like Pavel's tips - I would call them flared(?) for safer thrusting.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the rolled tips work in practice. For those who have and are using Ensifers, how (if at all) do you augment the rolled tips? What do you put over them? Also, has there been any recorded incidence of the rolled tips snapping at all? I assume they are rolled before the final heat treatment and tempering, to avoid overly stressing or weakening the steel structure?

Every now and then we have a tip come off our Hanwei Feder's and while It has never led to an injury it would be nice if it didn't happen at all.

The plastic tips on the Hanwei feders are useless. They fall off at the slightest disturbance.

One thing I'd like to see is more 'feder' makers building a complete, integrated blunt tip into the design of their feders so that separate augmentation is not necessary. Whether the best solution is a rolled tip like the Ensifers or perhaps some kind of welded or screwed on 'button' I don't know.

[Keith P. Myers]

I know that it was mentioned that Angus Trim was going to design a Feder....no idea on the dimensions though...

---The problem is that Gus has proven to be somewhat unreliable over the years.

I like Ensifer's rolled tips, but I also like Pavel's tips - I would call them flared(?)

---I think the term is "spatulate."

[Dustin Reagan]

I guess I'll find out for sure, but my take on these swords is that they are not meant to be an Albion or A&A replacement. They are meant to fill the noticeable gap in safe (well, it's a relative term...) steel swords that you can spar with some intensity with. They also take a lot of inspiration from the historical "safe" sparing swords that we are familiar with from some of the illustrations in the fechtbuch.

Albion & (to a lesser extent) A&A both make fine training weapons (I own an albion meyer), but they aren't as safe to spar with as a Hanwei Feder (baring a blade break). But Hanwei Feders are pretty budget...you get what you pay for. These swords are meant to be a high-quality feder that is (hopefully) much more durable than a Hanwei feder.

If Albion made a true feder-type weapon, i would buy it in an instant. Not so much A&A...I own one of their sharps, which i am utterly unimpressed with (hilt came loose from dry handling, it has a pronounced secondary bevel, it handles poorly, and the finish is "workman-like" to put it charitably) and my training partner had a custom A&A fechterspiel which was constantly loose at the hilt and which ultimately failed catastrophically during sparing, but that is another story.

[Jeremiah Smith]

I guess I'll find out for sure, but my take on these swords is that they are not meant to be an Albion or A&A replacement. They are meant to fill the noticeable gap in safe (well, it's a relative term...) steel swords that you can spar with some intensity with. They also take a lot of inspiration from the historical "safe" sparing swords that we are familiar with from some of the illustrations in the fechtbuch.

Albion & (to a lesser extent) A&A both make fine training weapons (I own an albion meyer), but they aren't as safe to spar with as a Hanwei Feder (baring a blade break). But Hanwei Feders are pretty budget...you get what you pay for. These swords are meant to be a high-quality feder that is (hopefully) much more durable than a Hanwei feder.

this

I cant wait to hear what you think Dustin. Sadly it will be next year before I can afford anything like this

[Roger N]

Hey guys!
Martin has written an article about it now, and you can find it here: http://www.hroarr.com/hands-on-preview-pavel-moc-fechtschwert/

[Mike Edelson]

Does he plan to make ones with shorter handles and blades in the 36" range (rather than the 40" range thus far discussed) for those of us interested in the zettel and not the later 16th century stuff?

[Mark W]

Does he plan to make ones with shorter handles and blades in the 36" range (rather than the 40" range thus far discussed) for those of us interested in the zettel and not the later 16th century stuff?

Hi Michael,

I've heard that having a longer blade makes the distinction between weak and strong more obvious in the sword, which is handy for training. That may be in part why they were used. I'm going to get an Ensifer long feder and see how I like it and how it impacts my practice.

Best regards,

-Mark

[Mike Ruhala]

Does he plan to make ones with shorter handles and blades in the 36" range (rather than the 40" range thus far discussed) for those of us interested in the zettel and not the later 16th century stuff?

An A&A Fechterspiel should satisfy your want but there's plenty of big swords in 15th century treatises and Germany is widely acknowledged as the birthplace of the great sword of war, what specific sources are prompting your interest?

[Dan Sellars]

I agree that $545 still makes them out of my easy reach, but lets consider that before shipping they are less expensive then an albion blunt and around the same price as an A&A trainer.

The Albion Liechtenauer and Meyer are both $490, and the A&A Fechterspiel Trainer is $430, more than $100 cheaper (with cheaper shipping to anyone in north america). I like these, and they seem great, but they're very expensive, even compared to other top-of-the-line swords.

Joey, you can figure on another $100 on top of that by the time you get an Albion or A&A up here. Considering shipping on these is going to be the same as it is to the states they are probably competitive on price all things considered.