Someone found it! (Put a APB out on this book! part II)

I would like to thank Derek for finding the book I discussed in my post Put an APB out on this Book! It is The Cross-Time Engineer by Leo Frankowski. Now I just have to buy a copy :)

Put an APB out on this book!

I am trying to find the title of a book I read sometime around the age of 10. So I am guessing it was written in the 1980’s. I cannot, after a long and exhaustive search, find anything about this book. I know it was part of a popular series. It was loaned to me by a friend who does not remember the title either and I only read the first book in the series, leaving me very little to go on.

Here is the description of our perpetrator:

It is a Science fiction novel, a couple hundred pages long, about a man who is transported back in time by accident. If I remember correctly he has a common name like John or Richard. He arrives in Europe in the middle ages and in the middle of winter. Here he meets a barefoot monk who’s “feet are warmer then his hands” and gets into a fight with a knight. One of the parts I remember the most clearly is when the protagonist goes shopping for armor and weapons. He finds a folded steel saber or scimitar with a diamond edged blade. At that point the book flashed to the people monitoring him from the future; apparently, they had agents go back in time and plant items to help the protagonist. They say something to the effect of the “We planted the sword and if he had gone to another armor shop he would have found a set of full Turkish plate his size.” The protagonist knows a bit about history and fencing and I believe he is pretending to be a knight on a quest by the end of novel.

Please if you know this book, leave a comment and let's capture this criminal!