These swords were born out of my interest in German long sword. When we first started training, I made a few wasters (training swords) out of hickory. I was able to get the weight and balance very close to that of a steel sword. These sufficed for a while but wood doesn't behave at all like steel during use. When making contact with another waster they bounce. They don't flex at all and don't slide at all like steel in the bind.

I happened upon this high density polyethylene one day and thought it might make a good material for wasters. This particular formulation of hdpe is the same as the type used to make cutting boards. It is not quite as stiff as plain hdpe. I machined a few wasters out of the material and found that they worked very well. After trying some different designs I settled on a configuration that has been working very well. The design has the same weight and balance as a steel sword but also behaves very much like steel in the bind. It has some flex like a steel blade and they slide against each other the way steel blades do as well.

They weigh right around three pounds. The overall length is 48 inches with the blade being 36 inches long and the grip being 9 1/2 inches long. The cross guard is 5/16 inch diameter stainless steel with a clear rubber jacket and is 10 inches across. The pommel is a mild steel slug which balances the sword at 5 inches in front of the guard. The blade is 3/4 inch thick, 2 1/5 inches wide at the base and 3/4 inch wide at the tip. If interested in acquiring one for personal use, I may have a few unassembled blades still around depending on how long its been since this was posted. The cost for a finished sword is $125.

On a few later examples I added a steel ring just in front of the guard to help protect the hand but have since found this to be unnecessary.