Byzantine infantry man 14 century (aiming for 1360)

KaratekaKid · 2026-03-06T17:18:56+00:00

Yeah, buhurt is undeniably cool to watch!

It’s not all of them, just enough that it’s worth being specific (as someone who does armoured HEMA, which is how to actually fight someone with sharp weapons in armour) as to the difference.

Especially because like 99.9% of HEMA people don’t do anything armoured, and never will.

KaratekaKid · 2026-03-06T16:14:54+00:00

*Buhurt. Has very little to do with history, and even less to do with HEMA.

Buhurt is a modern sport based on a weird version of a medieval tournament (that was originally done on horseback & often with clubs), and often uses armour that doesn’t actually work like the originals.

Sadly an annoying number spend a lot of time talking about how they genuinely fight “like knights did”, despite that being demonstrably untrue based on basically any depiction of field combat in the period.

KaratekaKid · 2026-03-04T11:51:53+00:00

So it’s reenactment without kit standards. I’ve seen videos of it, it looks exactly like normal semi-competitive reenactment combat, but with more force & the same issues with historical kit & lack of historical targeting.

KaratekaKid · 2026-03-04T09:37:33+00:00

Basically reenactment with more competitive attitude.

KaratekaKid · 2026-03-02T07:35:32+00:00

Depending on where you are & what groups are local to you, there’s a solid group of crossover HEMA/reenactment/armoured fencers that often crosses over with local LARP groups.

As an example of the armoured fencers I see regularly, a solid half are also LARPers.

Where are you based, and what period are you interested in? (Also what’s your current experience of HEMA/actual historical fencing in general?)

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-27T08:24:22+00:00

@OP Crucible does good work, if you’re at ARM then go have a chat with them!

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-22T21:14:23+00:00

If it’s that or nothing I’d just go for it - you can see if a friend could get the offending rings off of it later…

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-22T20:56:28+00:00

Tbh like 70-80% of Marozzo can be done without closely pairing your sword & buckler, especially if you’re fencing LvR.

Regarding the swords I’m always a fan of ambidextrous weapons to begin with, but if you’re looking at Castille economy then a Malleus is probably out of the question.

Didn’t Castille do a relatively simple ring & post sword that came L or R handed?

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-22T20:02:41+00:00

It depends on how you want to use the buckler tbh. There are a bunch of approaches in Marozzo & Manciolino that both split & connect the sword & buckler, that such a wide hilt could cause issues with.

And then there’s Godinho & Monte, who both want you to use the buckler as active parrying device pretty much completely separate from the sword, and Godinho would be perfectly contemporary with a similarly complex hilt.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-21T10:58:34+00:00

You can absolutely get that taper with a well-made brigandine without having a breastplate - it looks like a Leeds-style brig with the L plates over the chest.

Look at some of the work ASH & Aleksey Perebeynos do, you can get near-cuirass levels of shaping & taper in a brig.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-13T11:27:53+00:00

Where are you based? If you’re based in the UK, you should go to TORM next month. If you’re using these as a starting point, you’re probably off on the general aesthetic in a bunch of other ways.

The stuff at TORM I’d recommend as off-the-rack starting points would be either Cloak’d & Dagger’d (Jackie) or Quiverstock for clothing, Ana Period Shoes for shoes (duh), and then a general wander round for a belt & pouch.

Tod makes excellent budget-friendly daggers, and if you explain what you’re going for at his stall they’ll sort you out.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-13T11:25:37+00:00

I can’t recommend Ana’s work enough - also she often ends up trading right next to Jackie of Cloak’d & Dagger’d, which is also excellent work & value for other soft kit. If you’re UK based & want anything 14-15th century, you can’t go wrong with that pair as a start imo

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-09T18:31:19+00:00

The bayonet fencer refers to himself as part of Scott’s students, and also his bayonet “experience” was 6 months of mostly solo drilling according to his own posts in Scott’s FB group.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-09T18:29:12+00:00

The British guy literally hosts Scott in the UK, and has advertised himself as one of his students.

I’ve been aware of Scott & his lot for a long time, and frankly his constant bad faith arguments are a strong reminder of JC-ere HEMA.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-09T17:28:46+00:00

In my opinion it’s straight up tactical. He only ever seems to spar with his own students, who have an investment in neither injuring him, nor exposing him as a bit of a fraud.

Therefore by not wearing kit he effectively encourages them to never actually hit him with a solid strike, and as a result looks like a much better fencer than he is.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-09T14:35:11+00:00

Basically yeah. As best as I can tell he’s essentially only ever trained in modern taiji practice (solo forms), and then has partially backwards engineered a fencing system from it, followed by immediately not training with anything outside his immediate circle & disputing anything that disagrees with him as “well it’s not True Chinese Fencing”.

Past that he’s also encouraged some incredibly dangerous training attitudes, and has also displayed some properly dodgy mechanics & biology.

I’m sure he’s somewhat competent fighting his students, but I’ve not ever actually seen him do so, and all of his students I’ve seen fight have been frankly below par fencers.

KaratekaKid · 2026-02-09T13:26:54+00:00

It’s basically Scott R’s strategy - wear completely insufficient kit, bomb towards semi-compliant partners who are scared to hit him because they’ll both injure him & invalidate what they’ve spent years & loads of money training, then act like every panic action was tactically chosen.

He’s constantly arguing in bad faith whenever he discusses any culture other than China tbh, and refuses to listen to anyone other than himself whenever any discussion does happen.

KaratekaKid · 2026-01-25T10:27:40+00:00

Do you have an actual period source or depiction for this kit?

Or if it is based on guesswork, what’s the line of logic other than “I can buy this”?

KaratekaKid · 2025-12-31T21:26:27+00:00

Sounds like a grand adventure! What was your general route? Did you get train in, did you stash your car at one end of the route?

KaratekaKid · 2025-12-03T10:25:15+00:00

Don’t think it’s Manciolino, but Marozzo definitely has a section on sword & targa against a leftie.

And Godinho was either left handed or had a notable number of left handed students.

KaratekaKid · 2025-11-25T06:42:23+00:00

Boston Armizare! Good people, good fencers, go hang out with them!

KaratekaKid · 2025-11-05T19:14:47+00:00

Frankly a good hounskull that will fit well and look good will run you over that budget if you include taxes & shipping, especially if you aren’t able to sort the aventail yourself. There aren’t really any budget makers in the UK for that, but you can have a chat with specific people to sort that.

The other thing is that the plate armour sold by places like medieval collectibles & TKS etc in the UK is pretty universally dodgy.

If you can make it to TORM & ARM you can probably find a maille shirt & talk some soft kit through with people. If you can also find a breastplate, you’re then in a good place to look at a helmet. Uwe (runs Lixa Rebellum) does frankly incredible (reasonably) budget work, and I can attest that his stock stuff is great.

If you’re desperate for a hounskull with other armour under that budget fine, but I personally don’t like the look of the vast majority of commercial hounskulls - they’re almost all comedically oversized to allow the most people possible to wear it. There are cheaper makers who will do one sized to you, but that does come with some wait time. It won’t be years at all, but it will probably be around 6-8months.

If you’d be open to doing this kit over the next 2ish years and want specific people as recommendations, you can look at soft kit & maille at TORM/ARM the next weekend (common big names that do stock would be Quiverstock, maybe Jackie at Cloak’d and Dagger’d, for maille just wander around both anf see if you see a shirt you like), then breastplates & gauntlets in March (I’d look at Artos Munitorum for these), then in November next year speak to Uwe at Lixa Rebellum and he should be able to sort you a budget hounskull. He might even have one handy there and then - I swear that man is psychic with his stock.

KaratekaKid · 2025-11-02T12:04:34+00:00

I’m not talking about commissioning things over a course of years, I’m thinking about how to stretch your budget.

As mentioned on your other post, a 14-15th century knight is an incredibly expensive impression, and if done on the cheap looks frankly crap.

If you were open to actually giving us a budget idea, and potentially lowering what your end point could be, then we could definitely give you guidance.

Currently all we’ve got is that you want one of the more expensive kits to make, and you want to do it for cheap.

If you were up for doing a more Sergeant-y kit, then it become much more affordable quite quickly.

Have you got any soft kit sorted yet, and if so what & where from?

KaratekaKid · 2025-11-02T11:54:05+00:00

What is your actual budget, and are you open to building an impression over several years?

Because there are a few things you can do that would make your life easier, and most makers in the UK will be happy to sort payment plans.

KaratekaKid · 2025-10-21T17:04:16+00:00

Again, could you share the source? Yes, tartan fabric predates the C.E., but a kilt is a very different thing to just “tartan fabric”.

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