As I sit here watching Braveheart, admiring Mel Gibson's claymore, I noticed the back scabbard that his sword is carried in. Two questions:

1.) How do you draw/sheath a claymore or similarly long blade from your back?

2.) What prevents the scabbard from slipping down around the wearer's waist under the weight of the sword and the movement of the bearer?

I believe that a back scabbard has a belt and a shoulder strap. apparently they do not cover the entire blade in all cases. I did a google image search (back scabbard) and it brought up some that only hold the hilt and tip of the blade.

Phil

As I understand it (after all none of us were actually there) with a sword the size of a Claymore you do not typically 'draw' the sword in the sense you are thinking. It is not a 'quick I have to draw thsi sword' action. You would generally take the sword and scabbard off as a whole, draw the sword and very possibly toss the scabbard aside or place it back over your shoulder as you see fit. The point being a Claymore is not a 'fencing' sword. It is drawn before going into battle and not typically sheathed / unsheathed during the battle. Claymore were more for incapacitating the horse that is charging you than a hand-to-hand weapon for fighting another foot soldier. After unseating the charging warrior, you would be at a severe disadvantage if a sword fight ensued and all you had was a Claymore. They are big weapons and not near as fast as other hand weapons.

Back scabbards for greatswords seem to not have existed historically. The period pictures show them being either carried hilt down in the hands with the blade going up over the shoulder or piled on wagons.

So how does Hollywood do something that doesn't work in real life? They Cheat. (Not to mention that probably every aspect of the weaponry in brave heart is *WRONG* for the period it occurred. (remember the princess he had an affair with. She was 9 when he was killed IIRC---makes you think a bit differently about that?)