1/1. Are your messers suitable for fencing/sparring/tournament use?

All of our blunt messers are made to be used for sparring and training, including tournament use as well. There are though considerable differences in the recommended use case of our thin and thick blunt blades, about which you can read more in the Article „Thick or thin, blunt or sharp?”

1/2. Can I order an Adorian/Gustav messer with a blunt blade?

Due to safety concerns, Gustav and Adorian are not available with blunt blades, neither as standard nor as custom products.

The short, wide, thick blades have virtually no flexibility, which would make even blunts of these messers extremely dangerous in thrusts, and hazardous even in cuts since the flexibility of the blade absorbs a considerable amount of force not just from thrusts, but from cuts as well.

Making such short blades flexible enough to be suitable for sparring would on one hand make the sharp and the blunt variants behave very differently, while also making the blunt blade more prone to damage, not even speaking about the visual differences the modification would cause.

1/3. Can I use your messers with XY gloves?

Based on our own experience and the feedback of our customers, all of our messers and dussacks can be used with most protective gloves on the market. However, we can not guarantee, that the exact glove you’re inquiring about will fit f.e. in the shell guard of our Dorothea dussack as there are multiple variables to this, the most significant being the size of your hand and the sizing of the glove you use.

1/4. The grip of the messer is too short / I can not execute XY technique with the messer because the grip is too short. Are you making messers with longer grips?

Leaning towards historical accuracy versus modern expectations will always be our priority and the grip lengths of our messers are already in the upper portion of the historical spectrum. Our designs are based on a wide range of data available from confirmed historical original pieces and the extensive study of period artwork.

With that said, we do not offer an option for a longer grip.

In some rare cases, customers reported the grips being too short for carrying out certain messer fencing techniques or being too short for them overall. While we do have years of experience in HEMA – even if we’re unable to meaningfully practice it for years – and know that our messers are suitable to be used for grappling techniques even in bulky gloves, we admit that in some cases you might have difficulties with this; mostly depending on the size of your hand and glove, as well as your fencing style and level of expertise in said techniques.

1/5. The grip of my messer is shorter than advertised, what happened?

If you order your Gottfried or Günther messer with a solid CC1 or CC2 pommel, the grip of your messer will be shorter than the base model to compensate for the exaggerated difference in the weight and PoB that the pommel would cause. The PoB of the messer will still be closer to the crossguard compared to messers with our base grip construction.

This change is described in the product description of the CC1 and CC2 pommel extensions.

We do not offer the solid CC1 and CC2 pommel extensions with the grip length of the base models of our messers.

1/6. Are your sharp blades just sharpened blunts?

We are aware that in many cases, makers and manufacturers sell the same product with and without sharpening, calling the unsharpened pieces „blunt”.

In our workshop, each of the available blade types of the same messer has virtually identical outlines except for the size and form of the tip. However, the geometry of the cross sections is vastly different not just between sharp and blunt blades. Even the thin and thick blunt variants of the same blade are very different to keep the handling characteristics of the same messer with different blade types as close to identical as possible, while also ensuring that the blunt variants are safe to use even in the heat of tournaments.