making a sabre weapon feel lighter?

[claymore88]

I used to fence foil and i had my foil blades bent, so they feel lighter. I just started to fence sabre and was talking to my friend about making the weapon feel lighter. he said something about putting more weight around the guard.

so, is there a way to make sabre weapons feel lighter? Do light guards make a difference or do they screw up the center of gravity?

[Rick Shellhouse]

Try different cants....


Bend...assemble....try....repeat till find perfect feel....


:-) Its really that easy...


R

[GypsyScot]

I use a mix of insulated metal pommels and Leon Paul's 14g pommel, make for a near weightless blade.

[Inquartata]

Meh, and I thought I was the one who didn't understand physics around here!

Claymore, technically you are talking about altering the balance of the weapon, eg shifting the COG ( center of gravity ) toward the pommel end. There's rather little variety in the overall weight of blades. You may want to try adding some washers between the butt end of the grip and the pommel. Triplette also makes a heavy pommel, but you will have to insulate it yourself, with Shoe Goo, Plasti-Dip, or tape. That will change the feel of the weapon. You may also want to experiment with different guard-grip-pommel combinations.

Frankly I think the canting business is snake oil. I could never feel any difference in balance with a bent tang or curved grip ( although it does seem to result in making it more necessary to make cuts with your wrist than with your fingers, as the hilt already wants to nest up in your palm ). However, I seem to be in the minority position there, so YMMV.