Training Weapons
There are three types of training longswords: steel federschwerts, synthetics, and wasters which are made from wood. Our school starts people with synthetics for safety. Then as you get more experienced, you begin to work with steel feders. There are a few companies that make synthetics. We highly recommend purchasing from Purple Heart Armory. Federschwerts are primarily made by individual blacksmiths overseas in Europe. This causes some back ups on orders, but many have vendors in the US that try to keep them in stock. We recommend federschwerts made from Peter Regenyei. Please see the instructor if you have any questions.
Federschwerts
Often referred to as a "feder," Federschwert translates to feather sword. They are longswords designed to be flexible and blunt, yet still remaining historically accurate in weight and balance.
This is a list of all the different makers of feders with basic reviews: https://whowouldbringabooktoaswordfight.tumblr.com/HEMA_feder
Peter Regenyei's Standard feder can be bought from PurpleHeart Armory: https://www.woodenswords.com/Standard_Feder_Regenyei_Armory_p/ra.ls.std.htm
Synthetics
We do not recommend Rawlings or Red Dragon synthetic longswords as they are too light and cannot bind well. In addition, Cold Steel synthetics are too heavy and their balance is off. Cold Steel weapons tend to handle more like clubs than a swords and are too dangerous.
We recommend synthetics from Purple Heart Armory:
