Days of wrath, and other festive fun...

This weekend saw the charity bash at the school, with fifteen fighters and over 100 fights in 4 hours.
Bearing in mind that the competion was so close to xmas, I was incredibly pleased with how many folk turned up; many of whom were fighting for the first time. Overall winner was Luke Rose who won every one of his fights as well as showing some great teetering on the edge of the ring skills.

Here is one of his early fights.

£350 was raised and has been sent to Shelter. I'm incredibly proud of you all chaps.


We are off now until the 3rd of January, but as a special treat we are posting up clips of solo walkthroughs of Joachim Meyer's longsword wrath section, more will be coming, but here are two to begin with.

And we are back!

  At last an update, merely to say that up the class schedule is set up until xmas. Mondays: Rapier. Tuesdays: dussack/staff. Wednesdays: Sword & buckler. Thursdays: Sword & buckler. Fridays: Longsword. Now we have internet again there will be more updates coming. In the meantime; I hope you enjoy the video of Zeb and I working through the a play from Meyer's wrath guard.  

Class updates.

Monday: from now till the end of the year is going to be rapier. This has proved enormously popular with the group working on material from Cavendish, Fabris & Thibault amongst others.

Tuesday.
Meyer staff and dussack. A split lesson drilling with long staff and hack and slashing with the dussack/messer.

Wednesday/Thursday.
Sword and buckler, working with I.33 and cavendish.

Friday.
Longsword.  Working a combination of styles.

As soon as the wifi is up and running we will have more updates.  Including some new and interesting projects coming up.

Two Days of the Blade 2013

Another Two Days of the Blade is nearly upon us. And half the places are already gone.
Day one will be myself teaching single sword, based on the "Truth of the Sword" by the Marquis of Newcastle. This will be the first time this system has been taught in hundreds of years, as the manual has only recently been resurrected from it's papery tomb by Gordon Hamilton and myself.
It is a fantastic system, valuable to every student of swordsmanship, regardless of their style.
Day two will be the wonderful Rob Runacres, the workshop will be based around the rapier and dagger of Fabris, but with insights from other sources and Rob's experience with the pairing.
Click the image above to visit the two days website for information on how to book.

Danelli Armouries, basic rapier and custom pappenheimer review.

Yesterday I took possession of 6 basic model, and my personal pappenheimer rapier from Marco Danelli, and I wanted to go over a few things about the weapons, and the experience of dealing with Marco. Customer service, this may be a strange one to start with, but it needs mentioning here because... At every single point of dealing with Marco I have been kept in the loop. If there is a delay which may affect the items delivery time, I was let know, if there was anything to do with materials, I was let know. I was made welcome at his workshop and my thoughts commented on with honestly and clarity as to if (or not) that option was possible or wise...In one word, fantastic. The basic rapiers. These are 42” bladed, cup hilts, the cups are rolled and fastened by two screws, the screws are hard to put in, which made or a lot of swearing till we realised they are angled slightly to hold the cups better and more firmly in place. There is plenty of room between the cup, rings and cross, for varied grips (one or two fingers over, Fabris, or flat up Thibault), without any discomfort. In fact comfort is very much a feature in even these, the basic models, The blades are hollow ground and widen to toward the tip and feature a very good distal taper which helps the handling even more. Handling. Stunning. I can say no more.

The pappenheimer. The blade is wider than the basic model but features a lot of the same characteristics, again 42” strong distal taper and thickened tip. Obviously the weight is a feature, but it is just that an additional presence in the blade, but offering no detriment in handling. It is beautiful to use, and has that same exceptional comfort in the hand that is a feature of Marco's work. The quillons and shell, are well finished, with the hammer marks left on the inside of the pierced plates as a mutually agreed aesthetic touch. Handling. A little heavier in the hand than the basic models, but it's what I asked for and what I like. Fantastic. Overall. I haven't mentioned money here, my feeling is I got much more than I paid for. If you look at comparable items on the market I think these win hands down. Their handling is superior to any other rapiers I've played with. And dealing with Marco is a delight. I will be buying much more from him in the future.

Danelli armouries click here:  http://www.danelliarmouries.com/

A little Meyer for you.

For all of you expecting the harsh, clash of clash on steel. Here is a brief clip of the sword play of Joachim Meyer, of course this is a slow run through. but the idea of these techniques are: observation, timing and redirecting rather than fighting the momentum of the blade. Longsword is running in every class until the end of July.

The first prize play!

It has been a long time coming, but at last the first student has been given the right to challenge for his prize play within the school. This is not an honour earned lightly & reflects the hard work and effort put in by Luke.

The prize is very simply the first assessment,  but as any within the school will tell you, knowing enough and demonstrating that knowledge well enough to be considered for grading and promotion to scholar: is a long, hard journey. 

His obligations of rank will be:
To make the challenges as stated.
To teach a lesson on the weapon and principle of his choice.
To make donation to a charitable cause.
To fight the stated challenges.

The hour of his prize will be announced soon, all members of the school please offer your support, I hope that soon, more of you will be fighting your prize.