[Ansteorra-rapier] Spears for heavy Rapier

[James Crouchet]

On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 4:44 PM, Greg Coffman <baroniago at earthlink.net> wrote:
> We tried making legal pikes on the late 90's. Attaching a
> foil/epee/flexi-dagger/schlager to pvc worked great except for the TINY
> problem of a complete lack of feedback in the hands of the wielder.

This was the issue I recall from every design that came up.

Frankly, it's not insurmountable. We do it in the English Civil War
Society. The key is that you can't just throw any shot you want. We
limit the techniques allowed to those that are consistently safe. Of
course, only allowing specific techniques is not the SCA way. I'm not
saying it should be -- experimentation and discovery are some of the
greatest assets of the SCA -- but it is the one model I know of for
using pike safely with rapier level armor.

BTW, a pike is not a 6 foot spear. I would say a minimum of 10' would
be about right.

Also, I will point out that pike on pike battles are quite period and
make a lot more sense than large rapier melees. That the fighters
would have swords for close action also makes sense. Pike battles with
Cut & Thrust armed/armored fighters would be about right.

Christian Doré