Art of the Sword

"Made from the same high-quality leather and stitch construction that sets our Swordsmans' Gloves apart from the competition, we have added a super-dense martial arts foam, along the fingers, thumb, metacarpal bones and wrist. The quilting pattern is specially designed to allow for superior mobility in the hand, fingers, thumb and wrist." You can find at: http://revival.us/lightsparringgloves.aspx Ordering from Revival in the USA is fine, though their postage is a little on the pricey side. Despite some dodgy behavior in association with payment of authors through Chivalry Bookshelf they receive a lot of kudos from me as the original HEMA goods supplier. Edit: after posting this I decided my gloves could do with replacing and placed a order for new gloves. When they arrived it turned out that I had been sent two right hand gloves. Unfortunately since then despite emailing them through several different stated email addresses I haven't been able to get a response ...

"This gauntlet offers serious protection and mobility to those who need it! A deeply bifurcated finger shell, lobster tail (3 Finger Style) articulation and a reinforced thumb make our glove a force to be reckoned with. After beta testing the initial sets we came back with our improved model that has taken to heart what you the community said you wanted in a gauntlet. Available in M and L." You can find it at: http://www.afinternationalsporting.com/product_info.php?products_id=169&cPath=8 Firstly abit about the Company. Ordering from the USA was no problem and they responded well to email inquiries. The postage was swift and well packaged. Total kudos for AF for making a range of HEMA specific items. Pros: It's deifnitely nice and light, so a big win on that regard. Protection wise it's also quite good - it can take a snipe at the hands, though I wouldn't trust it to take a full Wrath cut. The reinforced thumb is a good touch. Cons: I don't l...

http://histfenc.com/productcart/axel-pettersson-fencing-jacket "A fencing jacket designed with the help and suggestions of Axel Pettersson, to serve the needs of the Swedish schools of historical fencing ("Gothenburg Historical Fencing School" in particular). " A quick review of this bit of kit. Firstly though before talking about the jacket. Ordering from SPES, a Polish company, couldn't have been easier. They were quick to reply to any question, their English was excellent and the shipping was super fast. Pros: 1. It's a real pleasure to don something that was not designed for re-enactment. There is velcro and a zip rather than fiddly little ties or large metal buckles. There has obviously been no concession to creating an "authenticity" look in terms of machine stitching and it is a very solid garment. While the design has dispensed with the re-enactment orientated guff the cut and fit of the arms has clearly been inspired by historical ...

"4. Camp (as in fencing) or stand low with your toes out, knees bent. and your left elbow close to your body"  The Inn-Play: or, the Cornish Hugg-Wrestler by Sir Thomas Parkyns I came accross the above quote online and it got me to thinking. I don't think Meyer, or any German treatise, tells how you should stand down to the details of how to point your toes. Comparing the quote to the images in Meyer the main difference would be that when in Beginning and End stance you extend one leg out straight and bend the other as a base. It was the feet that I found interesting and what Meyer does, varying from a few degrees off centre to almost 90 degrees turned out, it's a very broad church. This is the kind of variation you see in the treatise in all different stances: Back foot turned out Both feet only slightly turned out Front foot turned out  From some testing it appears to me that turning either foot 90 degrees improves ...

I found a length of steel barrel in my garden (1m long, 2inch diameter, 5mm thick bit of steel) and for a while I was using it as a sword waster. Recently as the weather has been less than perfect I started developing these little exercises as my rainy day indoor training. It's quite straight forward, all without stepping: Exercise 1: Zornhau Start in the guard of the Day (here I adopt the guard from Goliath because I don't want to put a hole in the ceiling!) and push the barrel through into longpoint. I don't let it drop below the horizontal. I'm doing it nice and slowly, in complete control and repeat until I can feel it in all the muscles in my forearms. Exercise 2: Krumphau Simply moving the barrel from one side to the other and back again, don't let it drop all the way til it's pointing at the floor, make sure you maintain control at all times. Again, repeating until I can feel it in my muscles Exercise 3: Zwerchhau ...

If you haven't read the "Little Book of Pushups" by Guy Windsor do so immediately. Very cool.

"All combat happens vainly, no matter how artful it is, if the steps for it are not executed correctly" - Joachim Meyer There are three steps in Meyer: The step   The basic "step" is outlined in detail in the Dussack cutting drills rather than the chapter on stepping in the Longsword.  Basically to go forward you move your lead foot forward a pace. Job done. This step might not seem like much of an action however if you start in Beginning stance and throw all of your body and weight behind it into a forward leaning position in End stance, you can generate a lot of power while only moving a short distance.    After that there seem to be several options:  1. you can recover this lead foot, like a mini-lunge 2. or take another step forward on the lead foot (particularly in the Rapier) to a proper lunge distance 3. or gather your rear foot to take another step forward "pull your rear foot up to the forward right one, so that you have anoth...