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I've long been fascinated with swords. I was fortunate enough to start cutting with replica swords in my teens back in the 1980s. It was that, combined with play fighting using all manner of sword simulators, which set me on a lifelong course of study. But it wasn't until the 1990s that I came to understand what factors went into making a sword "real" or rather, what made one an accurate reproduction of a historical model. Fast forward to today...

Medieval swords are regularly portrayed in the media as ungainly, cumbersome tools that are most effective in the hands of brawny men. But, was that the case in reality? Think about it. Why would soldiers carry weapons weighing upwards of 30 lbs when the speed of movement was paramount in the melee of the medieval battlefield? The wide, exaggerated sword swings depicted on the screen are exactly that - exaggerated. So, why the misconception...