a messer.... now that I have played with one in real life I want one for my character but I cant make up my mind on the stats, I was thinking arming sword stats with a lower dtn and higher thrust but I want to hear what the experts have to say.

a knife?

I'd use the same stats as a dagger, maybe a little better on the cut.

He's referring to a "Langes Messer," I believe. Use Falchion stats for it (it's just about the same thing), possibly lowering the DTN by one.

Jake

What about a falcata?

Maybe the man(or woman, can never tell with message boards) was referring to a 'grosse messer'? I don't know if that differs from what Jake mentioned or not as my german is rusty. The falcata though was a roman sword was it not? And was it not also primarily used for hacking and slicing but not so much stabbing and thrusting? *shrug* More stuff to ponder, I guess. What about stats for a threshing sickle?(like a scythe but more curved and thin, without a pole)

-Ingenious

Ashren Va'Hale wrote: a messer.... now that I have played with one in real life I want one for my character but I cant make up my mind on the stats, I was thinking arming sword stats with a lower dtn and higher thrust but I want to hear what the experts have to say.

Jake nailed the answer for me. Thanks!

There's currently some debate about the difference between a langesmesser and a grosse messer. Between what my collegues at Ochs in Germany say and my own experiences in the Vienna arms collections and with period manuals, I'd say that a langes messer is about the length of an arming sword but with a longsword-length handle, suited primarily for one handed use. A grosse messer is more longsword or even greatsword sized, and is really only suitable for 2-handed use.

Salamander wrote:

Out of curiousity, which Langenmesser was it? Who made it?

As for stats, I agree with Jake, the weapon could be an evolution of a falchion. If it isn't, it sure does seem to share a lot of charactersitics. I have never held or trained with one, so....

Jake Norwood wrote: There's currently some debate about the difference between a langesmesser and a grosse messer. Between what my collegues at Ochs in Germany say and my own experiences in the Vienna arms collections and with period manuals, I'd say that a langes messer is about the length of an arming sword but with a longsword-length handle, suited primarily for one handed use. A grosse messer is more longsword or even greatsword sized, and is really only suitable for 2-handed use.

Salamander wrote:

Out of curiousity, which Langenmesser was it? Who made it?

As for stats, I agree with Jake, the weapon could be an evolution of a falchion. If it isn't, it sure does seem to share a lot of charactersitics. I have never held or trained with one, so....

A langesmesser, or "long knife," was a common german weapon. It had a sandwich-style grip like on modern kitchen knives and a somewhat curved blade, like a relaxed falchion. The weapons are clearly related in function, though not neccessarily in origin. Falchions have a pommel like on other swords (usually a disk), but messers have a more knife-like non-pommel end. There are good pictures of so-so reproductions of each at www.museumreplicas.com, I think.

Jake

DOH!

My bad. That's what I get for skimming. I can't answer for Ashren, but I've handled the MRL models, and they're actually pretty good. The langesmesser wasters I've handled were made by some guy in Germany and by Brian Hunt in Price, Utah.

Jake

Hahhahaha, that's my fault. I was annoying Jake with an endless stream of babble about how cool it was to be fanboy #2 (right behind you Ash) and hetman of the NC chapter of TROS fanboys.


LMAO

YMMV

I bought my messer waster from Hunt as well, shattered after one findente despit emeticulous care. And the findente was at 1/2 speed.

I was most disappointed. However, I paid 1/2 what it would have cost from purple heart and you get what you pay for.

If anyone has bought the purple heart messer let me know.