I made a post similar to this a while back and most people said to find a larger area so I can work on my follow through and my foot work. Also please be nice I've learned everything I know from YouTube and the advice given on my previous post.

I'm on the fencer on the left and currently I'm preparing myself for a smallsword tournament. What do you think?

A team from vierWindenPG club, Montenegro took all the top spots at the "BabyShark" longsword tournament in Belgrade, Serbia.

HF Armory TSG Sidesword! It's my first sidesword, and I must say it's even nicer and I like it even more than I was expecting!

While reading up on Bardiche I came across this picture on the Wikipedia page alongside a more traditional axe and two bardiche. I have never seen an axe/polearm shaped like that before and I'm very curious if anyone has any info on it?

I know there were some styles that used two swords, so I was curious if there are any historical records of using 2 cutlass or something similar. What books or schools should I be looking for to learn this from? Thank you for the help and if this is the wrong sub I apologize

This book was written just under a year ago, it was mainly born out of the frustration of not been able to read the work during my recent History MA, if you are a fan of early modern English fencing culture it is a very interesting read.

New release: George Hale, The Private School of Defence (1614)

First published in London in 1614 by John Helme, George Hale's The Private School of Defence occupies a distinctive place in the corpus of early English fencing literature. Predating Joseph Swetnam's better-known School of the Noble and Worthy Science of Defence (1617) by three years, Hale's treatise is less a technical manual than a polemic directed at the public teachers of the Company of Masters of Defence, then in decline amid the ascendancy of Italian rapier method.

Hale's central critique is pedagogical: public instruction, he argues, fails because it is undifferentiated, teaching "all men alike, without observing the nature of the scholar," rather than adapted to the individual student's build, temperament, and capacity. His own self-description as "a man myself defective" is not incidental; it structures the treatise's recurring preoccupation with how judgment and method may compensate for physical disadvantage, articulated through a framework of strength, judgment, time, distance, and place that he explicitly terms "geometrical."

The work is dedicated to Prince Charles, then fourteen and the future Charles I, situating it within the courtly dedicatory conventions of the period while also making an implicit claim for fencing's status as a legitimate liberal art rather than a mere trade. Hale's engagement with continental authorities, notably his reference to Giacomo di Grassi, indicates familiarity with Italian theoretical literature, even as he resists wholesale adoption of foreign method in favour of an argument for principled, adaptive instruction.

This edition modernises spelling, punctuation, and orthography (including silent resolution of the long s and i/j, u/v variation) while preserving Hale's technical vocabulary and rhetorical structure. It includes an editorial introduction situating the text within its historical and martial context, a glossary of period fencing terminology, and a bibliography of primary and secondary sources for further study.

Available now:

Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0HM5FKT56 Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0HM5FKT56

Lulu (Paperback): https://www.lulu.com/shop/george-hale-and-andy-taylor/a-private-school-of-defence/paperback/product-q6wn8m4.html

The footage of me being hit in my ass(I'm the left one)

Very painful and now I walk funny.

Hello, searching for people in the phoenix area interested in practicing rapier hema in a park. I am interested in drills, treatise reading, and casual sparring.

I am aware of clubsin the area, but I am interested in free, and being in a park, and less instructor structure.

Hi there, I've been using the SPES Locust 350N pants for the past year or so, and while I do find them good for protection, lately I've been wanting to switch over to pluderhosen since the pair I have is a little large for me (got it on a whim since I was desperate for gear and I got a good price) and I would also like to be a bit more "stylish". I was wondering if anyone knew where to get a good pair for relatively cheap, and if they offer the same protection as other 350N pants. I'm not looking for anything too extravagant. I was also wondering if they weigh more/less/the same as locusts. Thanks in advance

So I'm looking for gloves that would be suitable for both HEMA and reenactment. Some people at my local HEMA club use steel gauntlets.

I also really like Gothic-style gauntlets, which I believe these are. I've borrowed similar ones from a friend a couple of times, and now I've come across another pair on Facebook Marketplace.

Do you think they're worth buying for HEMA?

Price is affordable for me all those slightly high.

Edit: not for longsword

Edit 2: alright, Ive heard you

Hi everyone, I've recently found myself wanting lighter fencing pants. I am moving away from puffy pants and I'm looking for pants that are basically Olympic fencing pants, but black. Because I don't want to worry about having white gear to get super dirty. Thanks!

How's the Spes Renaissance Doublet in terms of protection? Is it enough for longsword or sword & board? I plan on wearing a hardshell plastron on underneath, just worried about there being only 2 layer composite on the upper arms as opposed to the officer's jacket which is 4 layer.

I borrowed Wukusi for a couple of sparrings a year ago and found it loud, hot, bigger on top than I wanted and not very comfortable. But also, just in a couple of months three of the fellow fencers I know had an eardrum injury. Some of us do hundreds of competitive fights a year and times of that in sparrings. Also, personally, I do more longsword now than ever, and when I'm rarely getting hit with a zwer, it's coming, I know, rarely means sometimes, not never. So, my admiration goes towards the effort to solve this problem. I want your opinion on both a problem and on this particular solution.

If you use Wukusi Cobra, can you please give your opinion as a long-term user, also may be adding the information on the weapon, level and competitive and sparing recency and such. Also, may be you have some other thoughts and ideas, how is it in comparison to rugby cap + mask + good overlay?

So I bought a jacket at the end of August hoping to receive it for a comp I had end of September. I'm in US and the seller is in Canada so I thought it was possible but thats not the issue. I never received a confirmation email but via the sellers website I could see the sale went through and via my bank I could see the sale as well. After a couple of weeks and no communication I was curious but the website says to wait a minimum of 15 business days before item ships so I was patient. After the 15 business days I reached out to the seller and a week later they told me to respond to the email I received for duty fees. I replied that I never received that email and asked them to resend the email and a week later they did. I paid immediately and within another couple of weeks the item shipped.

I received the item early October and the jacket didn't fit. The issue was the cuffs of the sleeves. They were very tight. All the listed measurements per the seller's website fit me and I already have a Spes jacket in the same size that is actually smaller per the measurements listed on Purple Heart. Again to State it clearly a Spes Medium fits me, I ordered a medium from this seller that shows larger measurements on their website and this jacket fits everywhere except the sleeves. Neither purple heart nor this seller list the sleeve measurements on their websites. It's very surprising how tight the sleeve cuffs are on this jacket. I'm not a big guy and I could barely get my hands through the sleeves of this jacket. After trying to put it on I had a very hard time getting my hands through the sleeves. It was actually panic inducing, I felt like I was in a straight jacket bc I couldn't get my arms out. I had a friend who is smaller than me try on the jacket and he had the same issue and I had to help him take the jacket off.

After I recognized this issue I messaged the seller the day I received the jacket. I explained the situation and I had several questions one of them being "are the sleeves on the large bigger than the sleeves on the medium specifically at the cuff?" I asked this because per their sizing chart the Large and medium sleeves are the same length. I'd assume the large sleeves are bigger in diameter but I really don't want to pay return shipping and wait all that time and pay another duty fee on an assumption. I also asked about their return policy because the website states a 10 day window for returns. I got no reply for a couple of days so I messaged their FB page and after a few exchanges got a reply that said to go through their customer service email. They replied via email that day and didn't answer any of my questions and said they'd get back to me with the measurements. A week later they sent me a list of measurements. It was maybe three sentences listing a cuff measurement and a sleeve length measurement with no reference to the specific jacket or size. I found it surprising because I asked about measurements on a large but the measurements they sent are pretty close to the measurements I took on my medium and the measurements they sent for sleeve length don't match their online listings for medium or large. So I asked for clarification and it's been a week and still no reply.

That was a quick overview but the issue is really the communication. It's been at a rate of one email per week or less and they have never answered all of my questions. Their website says they dont do refunds but they eventually said they'd honor my exchange. At this point I paid the fee for the jacket plus shipping then a later duty fee which is included in fine print on their site but it is stated it's not likely. So I'm $330 USD into a jacket. ~$200 for the jacket, $50 for shipping, $80 for duties. At this point I'll have to pay $50 for the return shipping and I'm not sure if duties get refunded. Then there's the exchange. If the email they sent measurements on is for a large I'm not confident the large will fit. As the measurements they sent are pretty much what my current jacket measures.

I'm not sure how to handle this. I'm not going to go hungry over this but it seems like a huge mistake on my part. I really don't have a ton of expendable income and I'm relatively new to HEMA. If you've ever felt like you made a terrible purchase this is it for me. I don't know what to do. Maybe this seller will let me get other other products that I don't really need or want of equal value. I don't think the large jacket will fit based on what they've sent in measurements if those were large measurements. An XL would fit like a tent. Sorry for the long post but any input is appreciated.

Hi everyone! I hope this post falls within the guidelines but let me know and I'll delete it if not!

Im an artist and hema enthusiast (longsword) and participated in a couple tournaments already, but am yet to see an artist table there, its mostly gear and swords. I know artist alleys/markets/cons what have you are a separate thing, but I believe there is a cross section between hema people and knights/medieval looking artsy stuff enthusiasts so maybe having an artist table at an international tournament is worth a shot. This year I have a chance to participate in a tournament event as an artist so that said, what would you personally be interested in when it comes to art? Is it stickers or prints, maybe mystery packs with full on characters and illustrated props there? I'd love to hear your opinion!

P.s. its in December so I thought maybe calendars too? lemme know!

A hauntedhau

I am the Fencer in black, my friend is a semi beginner