My brother-in-law Juan Carlos is a mediævalist in his spare time. He makes his own chain mail; and yesterday he showed me a brochure from Albion Swords, a company that makes swords designed to look and function like authentic period swords.
I was quite impressed. Before looking at the photos, I never fully appreciated what a terrible weapon a sword can be. It's limited by very short range, of course, but within that range it's a killer.
He told me that Americans can buy such things without restriction, but within Europe it's not that easy. He has his eye on one of the blunted sparring swords, designed to handle like a real sword but not to kill quite so easily. Apparently these can be bought without problems.
