Notes on Equipment Suppliers

(being a missive from Todde mac Donnell to his students, and possibly useful to others)

A number of folks have asked lately where they can get rapier gear. This is a good thing because loaner gear is usually stretched awfully thin... You'll eventually want a mask, a sword, gloves, armor, and gorget.

Weapons:

There are about four ways to go here, with prices ranging from $80-400. On the cheapest end, you'll have to buy a bare blade, and make or scavenge the hilt yourself. This former is not impossible, but it will take some work. There are a handful of blacksmiths in the kingdom willing to work with (and teach) you, and a lot of people have spare sword furniture they're not using. Sometimes unrelated hardware (such as lamp bases) make decent (and uniquely decorative) improvised guards. If you can drill and tap holes, and maybe use a lathe for a few hours, you can make or improvise a handle and pommel--if not, they can be ordered cheaply. Once you have the hardware, order a blade you like, and file things down until they fit.

Just about the cheapest complete weapon is the Hanwei Practical Rapier sold around the web for $100-140, depending where you buy it. Kult of Athena is one of the cheaper sites. It comes with either a 37" or 43" blade; the former is well balanced but quite short. Unfortunately, the 43" Hanwei is a very heavy weapon for its length, and will be awkward (at best) in the hands of many smaller fencers. Hanwei makes several hilt models at slightly higher cost, many of which we have examples of at practice.

Slightly more expensive, but just a bit on the large side, is Triplette's SCA line: they carry a variety of decent cup-hilts (best options here are the R2, R6, R8, and R9; the R7 is the worst hilt I have ever used), a couple swept hilts options, schlagers, practice rapiers, and a package deal that may interest you. New to the discount blade options is Darkwood Armory's line of economy hilts with a Hanwei blade-- to my eye, the shell and pappenheimer looks sturdier than the ring hilt.

These are but three of the off-the-shelf options of very, very many that exist. Dona Arabella has compiled an exhaustive (if rather out-of-date) list of merchants you may also consider. Many of these businesses have considerably increased their SCA lines since she wrote. Some of these suppliers sell ready-made weapons and deliver immediately; others offer custom handmade weapons and hilts that may take weeks or months to complete -- be prepared to wait (and sometimes harrass the artisan) to get your weapon. Darkwood Armory is well-regarded for their experience customizing weapons for folks with smaller hands, but be sure to mention this when you order. James the Just will also customize a sword, but with a little less polish (and a lot lower price). A custom hiltmaker can also adjust the balance point to you liking. Be sure to experiment with other folks' weapons so you know what to ask for.

For blades, you want either a schlager (35" to 40") or a practice rapier (Del Tin, Hanwei, Alchem or Darkwood). Caid really doesn't use epees and foils anymore (thank goodness), but readers in epee-centric kingdoms (and also anyone building a rapier from assorted parts), have a look at Arabella's sword-building article. Finally, if you're considering Alchem's Safeflex blades, be aware that while their blades are quite cheap, they are reportedly designed to fail (at the hilt) after 2-3 years. This is allegedly for safety; given the rarity of schlager breakage, it sounds to me more like a scheme to sell more blades at your expense.

If you can handle the longer blade, I recommend something in the 40-42" range. Most of the fencers are using this length now, and you will be miserable if you have to line-fight with a 35" schlager. Practice rapiers have a much wider base and taper towards the tip, so they look more realistic than schlagers and handle VERY differently. The Hanwei and DT come in a variety of sizes, and Darkwood (among others) are producing rapier blades now, too--just confirm over the phone that you're ordering a bendy, not a sharp! 35" schlager blades run about $65, 40" blades $85, and practice rapiers $120-$150. The Hanwei is the exception here: you can get bare rapier blades for $65-$70. They're a bit heavy, but a bargain at the price. Triplette's schlager (especially the 40" one) offers a nice compromise, with a diamond cross-section and slight taper.

Finally, unless you enjoy filing, tapping pommels, etc, consider buying a complete weapon rather than piecing it together. Most of my blades are multi-custom frankenstein jobs that I've learned to love but took a lot of fitting to make them work. Most of the above suppliers want you to be happy with what you get and will mix and match parts on their end, doing the fitting work for you, especially if you ask.

Masks:

The most important consideration for a mask is the fit. A number of the folks in Isles have ordered basic $55 masks from Physical Chess, so we have Child (Mora's), S (Todde's), and M (the enormous loaner mask) masks at Isles' practice, that you can borrow and test the fit. We have found them quite durable and comfortable (incidentally, they offer a 10% club discount, but I need to place the order for you). Santelli makes some of the best masks in the business, but they cost quite a bit more, and we don't have any around to test the fit. Finnian has done a lot of modern fencing and can probably offer advice on high-end masks.

Mask drapes offer a very simple way to armor your neck. Simply take several layers of fabric that together pass the punch test, and sew them into a semicircle with a diameter equal to the circumference of the face of your mask + 14" (this should add up to about 45"). You will have less trouble with overzealous marshals if you distort the semicircle by stretching the radius in the short direction by 3-4". When the drape is assembled, wrap the long, straight side symmetrically around the face of your mask, and sew, velcro, or glue it in place.

Gloves:

The cheapest, softest, most durable, and least hand-dyeing solution is to buy the nice deerskin workgloves from OSH or Home Depot, (they cost about $17, or cowskin for less than $10), remove the elastic from the wristband, and stitch on a fabric or leather cuff. However, if you're lazy, a few of the suppliers on Arabella's page sell black cuffed gauntlets that turn your hands blue when you sweat. Or you can find other color gloves that will turn your hands the color of your choice.

Torso Armor:

You can either make a shirt and doublet ($10-$30 of fabric plus a good deal of work), or buy armor. Triplette sells several different forms of SCA armor for about $50. (Better yet, check out their SCA starter sets and talk them into upgrading your sword in exchange for dropping the gloves. Don't get stuck with a crappy epee cup hilt). Depending what you choose, you may want to throw a poofy shirt over it anyway. If you plan to do some modern fencing, you might want to buy a 3-weapon (not "foil/epee") jacket, and throw a shirt over it for SCA events. If you see a strength quoted in Newtons, the SCA requires 550N.

The basic tradeoff here is that a shirt & doublet will look and breathe a lot better, but you will need some help making it. Then again, you can borrow loaner gear until you're done, and you're gonna have to learn to sew sooner or later. In my personal opinion, the best solution is 3-layer armor. On the bottom, you wear a t-shirt with 3 layer reinforced underarms; over that, you wear a shirt and a 2-3 layer doublet of your choosing. The nice thing about this option is that the armpit protection is provided by the t-shirt, giving you more versatility with the shirt and doublet, and less grief from anal marshals. Also, you can make a bunch of t-shirts, let them absorb the sweat, and keep your doublets & shirts clean longer. If you have overheating issues, make everything (including the armored t-shirts) out of 100% linen.

Gorgets:

As with everything else, a couple options here. Leather "dog collar" gorgets do the job, are easy to make, comfortable, cheap, and you won't get stuck waiting to borrow one that doesn't fit. Unfortunately, the rules on leather gorgets are touchy and frequently in flux. A good one will be allowed by 98% of marshals. The rest will find (or imagine) something wrong with it. (Since I wrote that last bit, overzealous gorget marshalling has waned, but it seems to be cyclical. The good news is that when it waxes again, your leather gorget will probably be grandfathered in) You can make a metal gorget, but it's a lot of work, so if you're lucky enough to find a merchant carrying cheap one that fits well, seriously consider buying. However, metal gorgets are getting expensive and hard to find. After beating my head against this problem for five years, I developed a wax-hardened gorget that is easy to make, and has had no problems passing inspection. You can find details, patterns, and photos at The Leather Gorget Project .

Offhand weapons:

Everything but flexidaggers and second swords can be made in an evening's work. A buckler is a round piece of plywood (recommend 1/4"-1/3"), fitted with a handle and wrapped in leather or edged and painted. A scabbard is a PVC pipe (anything up to 46") wrapped in leather, fabric, or tape. A cloak is semicircle of sturdy fabric (preferably lined) A beaver handpuppet is a... well, never mind :-P You can also use a sturdy object like a cane, pistol, hat, tankard, hurley stick, giant trout, frying pan, and so forth...

You may also decide you want a fencing dagger. The blade comes in three flavors. The "flexidagger" has a small, rectangular cross-section, is usually a little cheaper, but tends to have the shortest lifespan. The "safeflex" is a wide, tapered blade of rolled sheet steel; looks kinda funny from up close but the silhouette and handling are pretty accurate. Darkwood, Hanwei, and other now have their own blades at a range of prices. All are now being mass-produced now and should be easy to find. Again, you can either improvise a simple hilt, file the blade until it fits, or buy a complete weapon for a bit more money. One esoteric point here: longer dagger blades can come in handy, but can tangle up the smaller fencer. I would recommend 12"-14" blades for small people, 16" for me-size, and 18" tall folks.

You'll also need a hilt for that blade. The best options are a "main gauche", a sabre-like guard where a triangle of steel curves down from the quillons to the pommel; a cheap sabre guard, grip and pommel; or a simplified ring or plate hilt. Again, try to have the merchant sell you a complete weapon.

In hopes that I have been of some help,
THLord Todde mac Donnell
Companion of the Duellist
Isles Circle of Fence

First composed in 2000 or so; Finally webbed 12/8/05; Last updated 2/5/11