Shoe box base

Planing the sawn side of a thin bit of wood (about 15″ by 6 1/8″ by 1/4″)  presents some challenges as the wood will buckle if clamped in the width or length, and there’s not much edge to grip anyway. My snazzy solution is to use double sided sticky tape to make a temporary full … Read more

Striking by the numbers

One of the difficulties of training in any art is the lack of measurable feedback. Every body is different, and there is little we can do to provide objective goals. Enter the tape measure. Readers familiar with my Max Your Lunge approach to developing a good rapier lunge will see where this is going… In … Read more

Shoebox, in oak

Another project commissioned by my dad for my mum. Here’s the problem: A 20 year old shoe box with their shoe cleaning kit in. It is falling apart. So will be replaced with a similar sized box in oak. We start with a piece of sawn lumber from the woodyard.  I don’t much care for … Read more

Armour progress

  My armour is coming along, and hit a milestone yesterday. My arming jacket finally had the necessary pointing holes for attaching the arm pieces, which have been ready since December. So this is the first time they have been tried on properly. And oh my, what happy bliss to be clanking about in STEEL!! … Read more

New Beginnings, part 1

On Tuesday March 5th we began the 2013 Spring beginners’ course. The goal of the course is always the same: to provide a safe and approachable way for interested people to begin training in the Art of Swordsmanship. As usual, we start them off with Fiore’s Art of Arms, not least as this has the … Read more

Performing Art

Finding myself at odds with a colleague regarding what it is fair to call “Fiore’s Art” (or indeed any other historical master’s), I have decided to get down on virtual paper my views on the subject. It is obvious that coming from a different time and culture we cannot ever perfectly recreate the Art as … Read more

Real Swordfighting

Fiore dei Liberi. Real swordsmanship, for sure.

What is Real Swordfighting? What do you consider “real swordfighting”? For some, only tournament bouts really count. For others, there has to be a corpse by the end. My answer to this vexing question is below. When I was a little boy I want nothing more than to learn real swordfighting. My mum told me … Read more

Down under again!

The second day of the Sydney seminar began with revision and expansion on the first day’s work, taking some of the dagger plays into a freeplay-type context, then going over much of the sword material again. This established a base, upon which we built an understanding of how the material fits together, and how we … Read more