[Ansteorra] IKA on calibration standards (was Re: Polls)

Sir Lyonel Oliver Grace sirlyonel at hotmail.com
Mon Oct 23 15:03:54 PDT 2006


Salut cozyns,

The bowling ball test was part of a test scenario someone set up at Estrella 
and Pennsic several years ago in an attempt to measure average ft-lbs force 
of an the mean adequate killing blow of each kingdom. I think it was part of 
a college thesis project. The effort was something of a failure in that the 
test subjects tended to treat it like a carnival hammer drop game--each 
fighter attempting to make the ball roll further than the fighter just 
before him.

For twenty years I've been hearing that the amount of armor relates directly 
to the level of calibration. I've not found this to be the case. For 
example, I lived in what became the principality of Artemisia, and our 
fighting majority at the time wore steel cuisses. The fighters in the 
Principality of the Sun tended to prefer leather cuisses or none at all. The 
fighters in the Sun took much stouter leg shots than Artemisia.

Although calibration levels wax and wane for many reasons, the principal 
determinant appears to be the dominant fighting school influence in each 
kingdom. If the Whammo Household in Kingdom Twenty wins more crowns than any 
other household, their calibration level will likely determine the kingdom's 
standards.

Ultimately, we're all trying to accomplish the same thing. We want our blows 
to be solid enough to be realistic but not hard enough to blow through the 
armor and cause actual harm.

lo vostre per vos servir
Meser Lyonel
_________________________________
Dum doceo disco




>From: Susan <catmafia at hughes.net>
>Reply-To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." 
><ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
>To: "Kingdom of Ansteorra - SCA, Inc." <ansteorra at lists.ansteorra.org>
>Subject: Re: [Ansteorra] Polls
>Date: Mon, 23 Oct 2006 15:51:24 -0500
>
>Your statement about harder hitting kingdoms brings up something I've
>always wondered about-how consistant is calibration across the known
>world?  Do these differences correlate with the amount of minimum armor
>required in various kingdoms?  This is just something I've always
>wondered about, expecially as I remember hearing when I was knew of
>using an objective measure (think it included a bowling ball) of
>calebration but have never seen it done.
>
>The difference between kingdoms in how hard they hit has always struck
>me as odd,
>Susan the Curious
>
>Morgan Buchanan wrote:
>
> >My broken arm was in a fairly minimum vambrace, but certainly more than 
>the society requires, and was broken by a sword shot.  The other broken 
>forearm I've personally seen was also a sword shot.  My 2 pieces of 
>evidence are of course anecdotal at best.  I agree with Brother Lyonel 
>about the extreme legislation we have on this  rule, but I'd really hate to 
>see people stop wearing vams in Ansteorra, or any of the harder hitting 
>half of the kingdoms out there.Morgan>
> >
> >
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