Consulting Swordsman
There is magic in sharp steel. The feel of a perfectly honed edge slicing through wood, leather, or other targets, it’s as if the thing being cut parts before the blade like the Red Sea before Moses. I’ve spent my whole working life with blades, first as a cabinet-maker, then as a swordsmanship instructor, so … Read more
I just deactivated my Facebook account. I did a bit of behind-the-scenes jiu-jitsu to keep my Author Page active, and the Messenger app functioning as before. But it’s now impossible for me to fall down the rabbit-hole without first clearing away a whole load of brambles. In a couple of months I’ll probably delete it … Read more
Every time I post something even remotely concerned with human rights on my blog, I get a slew of bile from all quarters. Most of it comes from my natural enemies, such as this moron responding to my post Fascists are poisoning HEMA: Or this one: That’s quite incontrovertible evidence that the post was worth … Read more
I’m reading Invisible Women: Exposing Gender Bias in a World Designed for Men by Caroline Criado Perez, and it’s one of those books that simply everybody on the planet ought to read. The raging unfairness she exposes has made me rethink a lot of things. It’s not like I was unaware of what was going on, … Read more
Surfing is both huge fun, and very hard to get the hang of. On my last trip Down Under I was offered the chance to try surfing for the first time in my life, and jumped at the chance. My friend Jen Rowland and her two lovely children Rafael and Maya took me on a … Read more
There’s a meme running round the socialz: post an image a day for ten days, with no explanations, and nominating a friend to take up the “challenge” each day. I was nominated by Nikodemus Siivola, an old friend who used to train with me back in the early days of my School. I was travelling … Read more
I arrived home from my trip Down Under a couple of days ago, and have been reflecting on why it was such a particularly good experience. I got to see some old friends, make some new ones, and even went surfing for the first time ever (I’ll be writing that up in some detail shortly). … Read more
It’s been a while since I last posted here, because I have been dashing about from pillar to post, or from Ipswich to Adelaide, teaching sword stuff to the koala bears, kiwis, and even the occasional possum. I arrived in Melbourne on Wednesday November 6th, after a pretty quick tramp across the globe. I flew … Read more
Greetings! I have been beavering away on the Fiore Translation Project, and have completed the work on the Stretto plays. Hurrah! You can find them here: https://gumroad.com/l/ftp4 I am now working on bringing the four parts of this series together into a coherent whole, starting with the defences of the dagger against the sword, and … Read more
I’ve been working on The Fiore Translation Project for about a year now, working through all of Fiore’s longsword plays out of armour on foot. The work so far has been published here on this blog in 24 instalments, taking us all the way from sword against dagger to the end of the zogho largo section, … Read more