Thoughts on reshaping a kopis

In this video, I talk about trying to reshape a cheap carbon steel kopis.

Homemade Gunstock and Juniper Warclubs

Madu about you, or I make a parrying spear.

For whatever reason, I have a taste for exotic weaponry. At least exotic in the context of Europe,
to the people using them, the weapons are pretty much normal. Blame reading too many pulp fiction stories about desperate fights between hard bitten men wielding choora, tulwars, sabres and jezails and too many Saturdays watching Black Belt Theater on Channel 29, where the dao met the jian and tassled spear battled the half moon halberd. Whenever I go to a museum I make a beeline for the arms and armour, seeking out stuff from the Middle and Far East.

This carried over to when I started fighting in the SCA. Someone showed me the buckler/spear combo
called the madu and I was hooked. As I traveled for my military career, I kept my eye out for this weapon. Rarely found, it never seemed stout enough to fight with, most examples being two ibex horns behind a
small shield, hardly a formidable weapon.




Madus from an old museum catalog



I did come across reference to another similar weapon called a saintie. A saintie parrying weapon consisting of an all metal spear with a small handguard. Bazinga! Just what I'm looking for. Unfortunately, I've only been able to find pictures of the weapon in some auction house catalogs.

Saintie from Asoka Arms

The Metropolitan Museum in NYC has one, but it's not shown on their website. I did find some all metal
madus at the Wallace Collection in London.

All metal madu from the Wallace Collection

For a while I've been pondering a way to build a saintie of my own, since those for sale are antiques and more than my meager purse can cover. Simple enough to mount two spear heads to a haft, I thought. but back yard test cutting had shown that unprotected spear hafts were quickly cut/broken by swords.

 Any wooden haft used to parry and block would get chewed up pretty quickly, and fall apart, hence the saintie being made of metal. Maybe a pipe as a haft? Wrapping the haft in rawhide like a Lakota lance seemed like a possibility as well. Could I wrap it in wire? I figured I would cross that bridge when I came to it.


Kult of Athena, the online sword and weapon shop, (www.kultofathena.com) is a candy store to a weapon geek like me. I trolled the site, looking for the right spear. Finally, I settled on the framea. It's a throwing
spear that was used by the Germanic tribes during the Late Iron Age. It's smaller, had a profile I liked and was only21 dollars. I ordered two, one for each end. They arrived in a few days (KOA has awesome
shipping) and I was off to the hardware store, in search of components to finish my weapon.

Figuring this was a prototype, I picked up some pine dowels of varying dimensions and a gate handle for a
hand guard. I still had no idea how I was going to protect the haft, I checked out some piping, but it seemed too heavy at the length I wanted to use.

Fast forward to when I had some time to work on projects, as opposed to the honey-do list. I attached one of the framea heads to a 1" OD 48" long dowel. It felt really "live" in the hand, so I went out to the pell to give it a go. On the way out I grabbed the saber machete I got from
Machete Specialists (www.machetespecialists.com).

Imacasa El Salvadoran Sabre Machete

As I moved around the pell, throwing shots like I use in SCA fighting, I noticed that the end of the spear's
haft came pretty close to my face. If there was a spear point on that end as well, I could just picture getting it
in the face in a press. That would explain why most saintie I've seen have a knob or ball pommel.


Hmmmmmm, back to the drawing board.

I head back to the shed and come across a metal broom handle with an ID of 3/4 inches. I have a dowel
with an OD of the same. Remember how I was stumped for a way to have a metal spear haft? Inspiration
struck and after some witling, sanding, hammering, and cursing, I managed to make the dowel fit inside
the handle, leaving enough protruding in order to attach the framea head. With some work, I get the framea to fit over the dowel and the metal handle.

The socket of the spearhead is split, so it will grip the haft and there is a hole in the side of the socket as well. I used a carpet tack to secure the head to the haft, drilling a small hole in the metal handle first.

I took it to the pell for a test run and it didn't feel as nice in the hand as the javelin. I definitely needed something to counterbalance the head, even with the metal broom handle, the smaller dowel wasn't cutting it and the weapon felt pretty dead. I rooted around the shed until I found a nice heavy drawer knob. A bit of drilling, and Bob's your uncle, a nice counterbalance. I first placed the handguard about two thirds the way from the point, like it is on the spear I use in SCA fighting. Felt pretty leaden in the hand, so I moved the handguard to about the middle of the haft and it felt much better. Nice solid presence, but lively.

I'm pretty chuffed with myself.

So here's what it looks like all put together:




Some comparisons between historical examples and my homemade version:

Mine

The genuine article

Framea javelin head

Saintie spear head

Bargain gate pull handguard

Punched and chased original 

The saintie and machete.  Machete is 30" long, saintie is about 48" or so.

Historical versions seem shorter, more like sword length.

The Road So Far

So, a lot has been happening since my last post, Oh So Many Months Ago. First,

at the risk of tooting my own horn, I’d like to share with you, my fellow SCAdians that I have 

been taken as a man-at arms by Sir Aethelred Cloudbreaker of An Tir. I’m pretty stoked for two reasons. One is that a man whose opinion I respect believes that I have potential to become a better fighter. The other is I have been looking for a SCA mentor for a while and am glad to have found one.

I've been hitting practice pretty regularly and events more often than before. Admittedly, not too hard given my past record. I have been getting sound advice from experienced fighters. With that in mind, I've come to the conclusion that parrying spear and sword is really the form for me, despite all its inherent limitations. It's what I enjoy most. I've got no fear going up against anyone using that style. I may lose, but I won't embarrass myself, or my knight. I will continue to practice sword and shield, because there will be times I have to use that style (Junefaire this year for instance) and I need to be much better with it. It's almost everyone's A game so it has to be at least my B+ game for those tournaments where it's the required style.

I've been trying several different shields, both to find the right one and because making them has turned out to be a fun little project. I have a big 30 inch Viking round, a center grip heater, a small kite, and my old oval. So far the best result has been the kite, followed closely by the old oval. I may stick with the kite or if I can break my old bad habits, go with the oval.

He ain't heavy.....

Well, maybe I am. I think my armour and me are too heavy for my bad knee actually. I have patellofemoral pain syndrome in my left knee, which means the knee hurts and there is no clear reason why. According to the doc and the PT, more than likely due to nerve damage and muscle weakness in that leg. So I wear a knee support when I fight and all is good. 

Now, I've gained weight since retiring from active duty and I didn't notice any real effects while I was fighting. Until I changed from my light weight kit. Really just enough to keep me out of the hospital armour (street hockey pants, leather knees, body bracelet, steel elbows, soccer shin guard vambraces, helm gorget) to my older heavier Hun armour  (leather scale hauberk, splinted legs, steel knees, splinted vambraces along with the same helm and gorget). 

I fought at a Friday practice then a Saturday event. Man my knee has been killin' me since! I plan on switching out the hauberk for the body bracelet, the scale is easily the heaviest part of my kit. I did also make some plastic splinted cuisses to go with the leather knees, but I'm not happy with how they move and gap. 

Moral of the story: Don't get old and fat.

The Dilemma or Too Many Things Are Too Damn Cool

One of the advantages of such a long layoff from SCA fighting is that I can almost start from scratch, armour kit wise, using the research and information I’ve picked up over the years.  The problem is I have research ADD.  I will be cruising along, digging Post-Roman Britain in all its Misty Avalonian goodness and then I’ll see a special on William Marshal. Next thing you know I’m all surcote and troubadours.  Then I go to a Viking festival and I want a round shield.  Focus, I has none.  Not a big deal to many people, but I believe a cohesive appearance, on the field and off is part of being an exemplary SCA combatant.

Still, I think if I do a little self-assessment, I come down on the side of the surcote, at least for tourney gear.  When I think of the medieval fighting man, I see someone in a surcote with a heater shield.  Banners snapping in the wind, parti-coloured arming tents. One of my favourite weapon styles back when I was a semi-badass was bastard sword, which is sorta the iconic High Middle Ages weapon. Many armour sins can be hidden by a surcote.  Of course, this means I have to get off my duff and register some heraldry!  

Progress report 1

It's been five months since we moved back to the good ole US of A.  Culture shock in areas of life, no doubt about it.  This is a SCA fighter blog, so let's stick to the SCA-centric.  The first shock was holy cow these guys hit hard!  My armour, optimized for speed against young Army guys, is not up to the task. Especially the street hockey leg armour.  Luckily, my armour boxes arrived with our partial household goods shipment, so my reliable heavy leg armour can be pressed back into service.  A little black paint and they will be squared away.
The second shock was not really cultural, but an awareness of how much my skills have fallen off.  I am still confident against less experienced fighters and do well enough.  However, against the higher end fighters, I'm all at sea.  However, that's not really a bad thing per se, because you can't learn if you aren't challenged.  Believe you me, I'm going to be challenged!