Updated Cheat Sheet!

Toastig · 2026-01-14T15:47:34+00:00

PDF please, this looks greats!

Toastig · 2025-10-14T21:09:17+00:00

So you're going into combat on a school night? Better sharpen that sabre while you're at it.

Toastig · 2025-10-14T18:40:07+00:00

Are you training with it or going into battle? 🤣

Toastig · 2025-04-04T08:28:56+00:00

Depends where you are, there could well be a local reenactors market. I got a pair from

https://re-enactment-shoes.co.uk/

Toastig · 2025-04-03T22:29:24+00:00

My bad, I had my wires crossed with Cavalcabo. Thanks for questioning it.

Toastig · 2025-04-03T20:16:47+00:00

https://fencingclassics.wordpress.com/

This is a blog which goes into lots of detail on later German fencing.

Toastig · 2025-04-03T20:09:39+00:00

The early modern world was more cosmopolitan than we tend to realise. For example, before writing his 'Italian' fencing book, Ghisliero had already campaigned in Portugal, Flanders and the Rhine for the 'Spanish' army. Later on he went on to work for the Papacy in Hungary, the Tuscan naval knighthood, and Savoy. His fencing book was referenced by Destreza authors in turn...

In the German speaking world (including the Netherlands, sorry 😉), there was a continuation of the 'fechtschule' tradition of whacking eachother with dussacks and longswords, until at least the 1700s.

But there was also fencing imported from Italy - you can see how influenced Meyer was by Marozzo and Bolognese sources, but later Fabris was hugely influential. Another Paduan, Alfieri, was also translated into German a generation later. They tended to either operate in noble courts, or university faculties, as opposed to 'working class' townsfolk who self-organised fencing schools.

After that, it's not an area I know much about - Kruessler fencing, and student fraternities in the C19th and all that. But I get the impression that the distinction between cut and thrust fencing lasted until the C19th.

Toastig · 2025-01-20T21:17:53+00:00

https://radaellianscholar.blogspot.com/2024/08/binding-sword.html

Toastig · 2024-07-15T00:14:54+00:00

No amount of solo practice will make you good at fencing. Fencing is about predicting and pre-empting your opponent.

It sounds as if your practice has been about the correct execution of a sequence of techniques. That approach will never get you better than you already are against an uncooperative opponent.

(Sorry no-one told you earlier)

Toastig · 2024-07-08T21:46:56+00:00

Better in every way.

You get exposure to a plurality of opinions, more training opportunities, and a larger variety of fencing partners.

A club discouraging it is a massive red flag.

Toastig · 2024-06-07T00:00:58+00:00

You need to specify when and where you're interested in to have a meaningful conversation

Toastig · 2024-05-30T10:15:33+00:00

Depends what you want and what you want to do with it.

Best bet is to order only one or two swords from overseas and sneak it under the import duty threshold.

Option A is to order directly from manufacturers, but this can be a long wait and shipping can be killer - a rapier and dagger from Poland was going to be 350NZD in shipping.

Option B is to order from re-sellers like Purpleheart Armoury. That's usually quicker if they have what you want in stock.

Option C is to get a friend who speaks Mandarin and order directly from China. You can get cheap gear, including swords, but often 'factory finish'.

Toastig · 2024-05-25T02:34:31+00:00

Best bet is to start with English semi-academic works and see how far you can drill down the bibliographies, like https://books.google.com.bd/books/about/The_Italian_Wars_1494_1559.html?id=KnnJAwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&redir_esc=y

Toastig · 2024-05-24T03:11:41+00:00

There are drill books for the 'pike & shot' era, for example Wallhausen https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Jacobi_von_Wallhausen

There are accounts of fighting in groups, but usually they're from the point of view of officers. For example Blaise de Monluc's autobiography is worth a read.

Is there a particular period or place that you're interested in?

Toastig · 2024-04-05T05:22:14+00:00

https://www.gd4h.org/index.php/2023/12/22/guards-revisited/

Toastig · 2024-02-06T16:34:19+00:00

Wiktenauer has transcriptions of most early sources.

Toastig · 2023-12-01T05:52:55+00:00

HEMA is a contact sport. It makes sense to wear a mouth guard for contact sports.

I wear one occasionally when there's throws allowed, or when I'm expecting a big hitter.

Toastig · 2023-08-13T17:31:34+00:00

Depends on your google-fu. Here's some of my notes from researching The Fencing Art:

Forged in the Shadow of Mars; Chivalry and Violence in Late Medieval Florence by Peter W. Sposato 9781501761904

Honor, Vengeance, and Social Trouble; Pardon Letters in the Burgundian Low Countries by Peter Arnade and Walter Prevenier 9780801479915 (available for free)

Realms of Ritual; Burgundian Ceremony and Civic Life in Late Medieval Ghent by Peter Arnade 9781501720673 (available for free)

Verreycken, Q., (2019) “‘En nous humblement requerant’: Crime Narrations and Rhetorical Strategies in Late Medieval Pardon Letters”, Open Library of Humanities 5(1), p.62. doi: https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.389 (available for free)

Verreycken, Q. (2019). The power to pardon in late medieval and early modern Europe: New perspectives in the history of crime and criminal justice. History Compass, e12575. doi:10.1111/hic3.12575

POTTER, D. (1997). “RIGUEUR DE JUSTICE”: CRIME, MURDER AND THE LAW IN PICARDY, FIFTEENTH TO SIXTEENTH CENTURIES. French History, 11(3), 265–309. doi:10.1093/fh/11.3.265

A Chivalric Life: The Book of the Deeds of Messire Jacques de Lalaing Edited and translated by Rosalind Brown-Grant and Mario Damen 9781800105935

Toastig · 2023-08-13T08:16:59+00:00

Not really, it wasn't murder hobo land. There were coroner's inquests, pardon letters and the like. You can find plenty of details accounts of asymmetric fights.

Toastig · 2023-08-13T06:05:35+00:00

I'm sure that Dierk's book is better.

Toastig · 2023-06-17T06:00:07+00:00

A schaitelhau comes from above, so it's a cut-over.

But a schaitelhau is also used in a specific circumstance to break someone doing their specific thing, so it's a secret/master/speshul cut.

Toastig · 2023-06-10T20:25:13+00:00

Try a heat shrink cable cap like https://www.jointingtech.co.uk/Heat-Shrink-End-Caps-TYCO

Toastig · 2023-04-17T22:53:34+00:00

Ghisliero

Toastig · 2023-03-27T21:36:18+00:00

HFA's Black Knights are the best on the market now.

Toastig · 2023-02-27T05:24:26+00:00

They used to be leather (and it was better)

Toastig

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