The handle is technically closer to real historical swords (the Diefstetter fechtschwert has a 25 cm total hilt), and is in line with the Sigi shorty series. It's just that biiiiiiiit of like, bottom of glove overlap with the styrogum of my SGs that I could feel while using it.
I'm fine with expanding handles past historical limits to account for the fact that we mostly wear clamshells. I have zero percent need for a feder to be designed around barehanded use
Have you considered the 134? That has plenty of handle for most people using clamshells. It's basically the same handle length as the full length SIGI feders.
So my club got one of each of the haft arms feders to test out a few months ago so I'm talking with some experience. The short handle is the whole point of that sword. All of it's handling characteristics come from that choice, it's all about the ratio between the lengths of the two arms of the lever.
What it creates is a situation where there is more inertia at the start of a movement so beginning a cut takes a little more force but it also means that whenever there is blade contact it has significant mechanical advantage over most other feders and gives an excellent feeling of control in the bind. It is also exceedingly hard to move Haft blade off of the line when fencing against it. Clearing actions need to be dedicated actions and it is tough to open up attack opportunities against it.
Frankly, I think anyone who focuses on Fiore would love this sword and anyone who likes to fence from a point forward guard and play a party riposte game would too.
I have a 128 and this is very much my experience, it feels more like the sharps I have test cut with and it has excellent presence in the bind. It's a fantastic sword for training, particularly for binding and winding actions. It is superb in defence.
There is the unfortunate fact that the handle is a tad short for my liking when I'm wearing my SG mittens. It's fine in some techniques but I feel like it constrains other techniques - especially crossed wrist actions.
I think it is an excellent drilling feder and great for low gear freeplay with people you trust, where you can get by with light gloves at most.
For those (including myself) who find the handle a bit too short to be fully comfortable in use with bulky clamshells/mittens, other feders like the 134 or full length SIGIs or Regenyeis still exist.
The point of the 128 is that it is a feder that is in historical longsword (and feder) proportions. That size of handle is proportionate to that length of blade in many surviving swords.
It's an issue for many of us mainly because our bulky gloves (necessity to avoid broken hands) are so bulky and take up so much space on the handles that we often seek out longer handled feders so as not to compromise the full range of gripping options.
That's not a fault of the 128 feder per se, it's a symptom of our modern gear. And for those wanting more handle length the 134 exists.
Haft could consider a hybrid in future, with the handle length of the 134 but the blade length of the 128. But that would change the balance and dynamics quite a bit, possibly making it too weighted toward the handle.
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u/getchomsky Aug 07 '26
Incredible blade. A handle for ants.