Asgard Cup Hilts

These are also called "plastic cuphilts", "rubber cup hilts" or "Baldar Baskets". These cup hilts are designed specifically for SCA heavy combat, made of a high-density, high-durometer, injection-molded Santoprene material. They have a slight amount of flexion that significantly absorbs shock normally transferred to the hand when blocking a blow with the hilt, and can withstand repeated blows with a sledgehammer, even when laid keel-up on a concrete surface. They're lighter than bar hilts and almost all sheet-metal hilts, never dent like the latter or break welds like the former, and are probably going to be as ubiquitous as the Baldar Blunt is in (shafted arrow) combat archery.

Like all conventional cuphilts, your marshal will probably require you to wear at least back-of-the-hand protection while using these; check with your local marshallate.

In appearance, they're an unobtrusive dull black, and on close inspection look like machined UHMW (Ultra High Molecular Weight polyethylene). The overall shape is reminiscent of a Schiavona Hilt, though of course they're one-piece with no piercings or openwork. Three keels, a reinforced throat plate, and a flanged rim add greatly to protection without sacrificing light weight, and thick tabs fore and aft allow attachment to the weapon with hose clamps or multiple wraps of strapping tape, as well as being rugged enough to allow for an unsupported screw directly through the tab into the rattan. (Diameter of rattan opening is 1.5".) The two-tab construction also leaves the pommel clear for attachment of a pommel weight, and coupled with the lightness of the hilt itself, allows you to fine-tune the balance of your weapon. Unlike any other non-metal cup hilt we've heard of, these are neither assembled from chunks of plastic nor made from something else; they're specifically designed and manufactured for SCA combat, with thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours invested in design, mold costs, and prototype runs. If you haven't seen one, you haven't seen anything like it; if you've never used one, you probably haven't found the last hilt type you'll ever use...