      
Toll Free Order Line 1-800-745-7345 Arms & Armors Inc. Arms & Armor was founded in 1982, and is owned and operated by Christopher Poor. Chris has had a life-long interest in weapons and armor, reflected in his time spent as a professional jouster. This first-hand experience, plus scholarly research, provides a working knowledge of weapons and armor that few others achieve.Arms & Armor crafts a wide variety of items, with the majority of work done in the Medieval and Renaissance styles. Each replica is researched and modeled from examples found in museums, private collections, and other historical sources. Our goal at Arms & Armor is to recreate the look and feel of the original in all respects. Literally to allow you, the customer, to get the best replica available today. A 16th century person would, hopefully, not quickly recognize a difference between one of our reproductions and a piece made in their own time. This means that all items are crafted by hand, so each piece varies slightly from any other. This hand-crafted attention to detail and commitment to authenticity has made us popular with museums, collectors, and reenactment groups around the world. We feel the excellence of our products is what the discriminating collector is looking for and demands. We hope your purchase from Arms & Armor exceeds your expectations.
Our Weapons
Our Armor
Frequently Asked QuestionsWhat is your guarantee against breakage on your swords? We guarantee our swords to stand up to anything the original swords would. They are made of high quality steel and are fashioned for strength as well as authenticity. We will replace the item if there is any problem with workmanship or materials. The use of the sword may well create problems as they are a specific tool designed for one purpose, to poke or chop holes in human beings. While we do not advocate such use, a sword would never and should never be used to hack apart concrete pillars, 57 Chevy's, PVC pipe, Logs, or any other object Hollywood decides to have cut in half. We reserve the right to decide if a piece has been abused and therefore has nullified the guarantee. We do offer a stage version of most items which means leaving a thick non sharp edge so that a lot of edge to edge hitting will not overly damage your sword. Edge to edge contact would have been avoided by period fighters as it can quickly ruin a sword. In fact special swords were used for tournaments and practice with rebated edges which are the same as our stage edges.
Our blades are made from 6150 steel in mst cases. We use a combination of forging and stock removal. Most people are surprised to learn that the blade makers of the middle ages and renaissance period would have used manly stock removal to create their blades. They would build decks, that they would lay on, above large watered powered grinding wheels and run the sword back and forth across it. Then do the finishing by hand and polishing wheels. It is more efficient to grind a blade then to hammer it out as well as one can be taught to grind a blade relatively quickly compared to forging a good blade, which can take quite some time to learn. If you mean by live edge, are they sharp? Yes our weapons will arrive with an authentic edge on them. We do offer a rebated or stage edge which allows one to hit the blades edge to edge for mock combat and stage work without overly nicking the item.
The techniques used by ancient metal manufacturers to produce steel for knives and swords were quite varied. Often the key element to the process was how to incorporate inferior steel and iron into their product and still have a workable item. This was due to the fact that high grade steel was extremely rare and valuable and in many production areas a hit or miss type of process. Folded and cable welded blades were produced in Northern Europe and the Orient. The smith taking good and average steel to form the core of the blade and saving their best material for the cutting edge. The pattern welding process used by the Norse smiths is the most common method of production for "modern damascus steel". There is very little true damascus steel produced today. The material that was known to Medieval and Renaissance Europe as Damascus Steel was actually made in Persia and India and called Wootz. It acquired the name Damascus from the Syrian city which was the chief way point on the trade route to Europe. Wootz steel is produced by a mixture of iron and carbonizing elements with flux being baked in an anaerobic environment for long periods of time. This will grow high carbon steel grains in the soft steel and iron body. The ingots were then forged at lower temperatures and for shorter periods of time to control the carbon migration that occurs during the shaping process. The differing iron crystals (pearlite and martensite) in the blade would create the famous "watered satin" effect that makes damascus steel so distinct. This is one of the reasons it acquired its reputation, as any European smith using his usual techniques might ruin the high carbon qualities of the wootz. The resulting blades stayed sharper longer than normal blades of the period due to the fact that the Damascus (wootz) was of a higher carbon content and more consistent in quality (from the start) than its European counter-part.
We do not use stainless steel in our products. The reasons being that it is not authentic in any way and the alloys that impart the stainless quality also decrease the sword blades strength and toughness.
The tang is the portion of the blade that is covered by the cross guard, grip and pommel. It is traditionally of a tapering profile which passes through the above items and was peened over on the top of the pommel to hold it all together. The tangs on our swords are quite sturdy by comparison to original swords which were often quite narrow and thin. Most original swords have an upper section of softer metal welded to the top of the sword which included a few inches of the blade and the tang. Many modern tangs are pieces of threaded rod which are welded to a stub tang which is often less than an inch in length. These type of hilts are notorious for breaking at the weld point. You should always check the tang construction on a sword if you are concerned about its usability. I am currently doing a project about mail. I was curious about the background of it. Do you have any information that you would be interested in sharing with me? Mail armor was constructed from thin wire rings which are interconnected on a basic 4 in 1 pattern. That is that each ring has four other rings passing through it. The rings are traditionally riveted or pinned shut. This was done with very small rivets or by a special tool that would punch a bit of one side of an overlap through the other. Because most modern mail is not riveted they use much heavier wire than an authentic piece has. Traditional mail would have been made from 20-26 gauge wire while most modern mail is made from 14-16 gauge wire which increases the weight quite a bit. Mail is excellent in stopping any type of draw cut or most slashing attacks, however it is almost ineffectual in stopping thrusts with narrow weapons such as arrows, spears, spikes and sharply tapered sword blades. Ring Size: Most original mail I have seen runs between 3/16 and 5/16 on the inside diameter of the ring. Modern reproductions use a larger size with the heavier wire. I think 5/16 works pretty well with 16 gauge wire.
The breastplates can have backplates made for them. A simple backplate runs about the same as a breastplate.
I am sorry to say there is no historical sword that has survived the ages known as Excalibur. In fact there is no positive proof that the Legend of King Arthur is based on any actual people or incident. The closest historical reference that can be found consists of the mention of two chieftains of the Roman-Brits named Arturus in the period after the Romans had left England. If there is any connection between these men and the legend, it is unknown. If there where an actual Excalibur it would look like a Roman spatha most probably. I do not have any info on weapons of Malta but I would guess they are similar to Southern European and North African weapons of any period chosen.
I hope he told the story really well. I am afraid to say that the sword makers trade is not knowen for its honesty or truthfullness in some quarters. I hope you are happy with the item you purchased and the price you paid for it. That is the only true test to a weapons value. I would write and ask him for documentation if you are interested in finding out if it is a replica of an historical item. I would bet (a lot of money) that it is not. That does not take away from the efforts of the craftsman who made the item, but a little sad they have to make up a story when the actual history of weapons is far richer and more interesting than anyones imagination. PS. I would also take any claims of Movie and TV credits with a large grain of salt. If there were as many movies using swords and weapons as there were makers who say they have done them, that is all there would be to watch. Check the credits if there not there they didn't do it.
From Armor to Daggers:
Armor full suit 45-60 pounds depending on style.
The longest sword I know of that was actually made for use as a weapon runs 76 inches in length and is at the Royal Armories in Leeds (IX-4). This is a fairly extreme length most two handed swords are shorter, averaging about 68 inches and weight between 5 and 6 lbs.
A knight in armor for battle was very mobile. If he wasn't, he would be susceptible to attacks from behind or from a faster moving unarmored opponent. In fact it is recorded that some knights were able to leap into there saddles from a standing position beside there horse. It is completely untrue that an armored man was unable to get up after falling. The old story about a knight being winched up in a crane to get on his horse is a figment of Mark Twains imagination i.e. "Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court".
They are called fullers. Forged or ground in some blades they were created to conserve valuable steel by using less metal than a diamond cross sectioned blade. It also strengthened the blade in the plan of its width on the same principle as the I beam. When steel became easier to acquire the habit of using them declined, until fashion brought them back in vogue. The fullers have absolutely no ability to increase blood flow from the wound as is often mistakenly believed, as well as the often repeated and absolutely false belief that a blade can get stuck in the human body due to suction. The only way to get a weapon stuck in a human body is to jam it between bones of sufficient size and mass to lodge the weapon firmly.
This is another wives tale of the weapons world. It causes a deep puncture wound because a triangular blade is very stiff and even a wound of 3 inches was often fatal.
The Morning Star or Morgenstern was a pole weapon. It consisted of a 4 to 6 foot shaft with a large wooden block or ball affixed to the end with several large spikes protruding from it. It is not a flail as some game books have misidentified it. Sometimes referred to as a Holy Water Sprinkler.
Any type of impact weapon with a flexible joint is considered a flail. They are developments of the agricultural flail used in threshing grain. They can be pole type weapons to the shorter all steel variety with a spiked ball on the end of a chain. The chain is quite short as control is difficult to impossible with a heavy iron ball on the end of the chain.
We concentrate on production of historical items, something similar to the comic rendition of Thor's Hammer was not like any type of actual war hammer used in combat. The type of hammer usually depicted is based on a style of forging hammer, A three or five pound short handled sledge would be the closest to the Comic version and can be bought at any local hardware store or lumber yard. Of course the hammer represented as Thor's have been artists renditions and have no need to be actually usable as a weapon.
Sorry but we do not sell our component parts unmounted. We have had some problems in the past with very poor quality constructions using our parts being passed off as manufactured by us. While I do not believe this is what you would do, we have had to suspend all such transactions to ensure our quality and reputation. The only option I can consider is for you to send us the blade and we could mount it up for you. The cost of such an operation would run between 200.00 and 275.00 depending on the amount of work to match your blade to our parts. As long as the blade is of reasonable quality this can be done.
All of our weapons are designed and manufactured to match the originals in style, balance and durability. The difference in price is dictated by the amount of labor to produce the item to the desired finish. There are no short cuts taken with the less expensive pieces they are just easier to assemble.
Any object has a center of gravity around which it will spin if thrown. This usually corresponds to the balance point. The art to throwing any type of weapon is to gauge the revolutions needed to cover the distance from you to the target. This is quit easy, with a little practice for hand axes ( our Viking axes) and certain daggers designed for the purpose. These daggers are usually of one piece construction and not equipped with cross guards and pommels. This furniture will add undo stress to the dagger when it is impacting with a target and make the item very end heavy.
We do not take on apprentices in the old way of the guild system. This was always a way to basically get slave labor and the actual teaching process was very minimal. We prefer to hire new people when the need arrives. They start at the bottom and work there way up to the more complex and difficult tasks if there talent allows.
We ship our items all over the world. We have had just a few countrys unwilling to allow delivery though some times the import duties are horrendous. We have recently had two refusals by foreign custom services one for Japan and one for Canada. Please check the restrictions on your locality.
The books I would start with are the Osprey Men at Arms series and are available in most hobby shops and comic stores. They are an excellent source and can give you a good start on what was used in a particular area of the world. Each volume will have a bibliography to work from for further research.
We can do identifications for a fee. Contact us about what info we need to start or you can stat the research yourself as there are some excellent online resources. One of the best places to start tracing such things is Sword Forum .com
or try
for older or foreign pieces.
The following swords maybe used right or left handed #162 Milanese Rapier, #135 Saxon Military Sword , #111 Gustav Vasa Rapier , #127 Cup Hilt Rapier, #084 Venetian Rapier. Also #120 the stage Gustav Vasa Rapier.
Check out item 085 on our website this type of sword is Irish and one of the few distinctly ethnic sword styles, as no other nationality ever seems to have adopted this style. Also the Claymore was referred to as the Irish Sword by both the English and the Scots early in its development.
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Arms & Armor Inc. ·
1101 Stinson Blvd. · Minneapolis, MN 55413 · USA
Copyright © 1995 - 2003 by Chris Poor, Last Updated 5/2003
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We chose our materials to resemble the attributes of those materials used by the original makers. Our blades are made from 6150 carbon steel. We temper these to a hardness of approximately Rockwell 50 (a modern hardness scale about the average hardness of the very best original blades). The pommels, crossguards, heads of weapons, and other three dimensional parts are cast in a softer tool steel or bronze. This approximates the iron and bronze used by Medieval and Renaissance weapons makers. The grips are made from wood, cord, and leather. Our choice of materials and attention to form guarantee excellent quality replicas. Designed to be the best available today.