From the HEMA Blogosphere

Despite the fact that we’ve just had the sword in one hand, the grips, the blows, and the guards, this seems like the true beginning of the longsword section, because Fiore begins ...

When making something to a specific size, you often have to follow a pattern. But a normal paper pattern will catch on fire. So you need a slate. Any piece of rusty sheet metal 10-12″ a side will work for most patterns. Put chalk dust on the back of your ...

Greetings,There are questions which are going to be asked about this particular post, like what is he on about? That is simple. There is the propensity for the Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA) community for re-inventing the wheel rather than taking perfectly good examples of things and either just using ...

Fiore’s guards of the longsword form a quite complete mechanical overview of the system of movement that Fiore’s art requires. If you can move fluidly through the guards, with every guard transition forming a blow, or one of the voltas (meza, tuta, stabile), then you are probably moving as Fiore ...

Hello HEMA friends! This time I want to show three “Plastron Exercises” which in general are practiced with the instructor. I’ve made a selection of three “easy” exercises which can be executed with anyone of your fencing friends which want … Continue reading → ...

This Fiore Translation Project is a monster. Transcribing and translating is fun and quite easy (because this manuscript has been in my head for over 20 years now). The commentary is easy too- it just pours out in a kind of free-association torrent. But editing the videos? Uploading them to ...

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Maybe this quote from the Art of War might not be the most applicable excerpt, but regardless you could always stand to learn a bit. ...

Welcome back! The last page of guards looks like this: And it includes coda longa, bicorno, frontale, and dente di zenghiaro la mezana. Posta di coda longa ...

This short videos shows five exchanges that I had during my last tournament. Unfortunately it is not a selection of the best ones, simply because I had not the camera with me during the tournament, so it was not possible … Continue reading → ...

I’ve taken up indoor climbing as a hobby. Nothing too serious, and no hanging off skyscrapers. Some friends of ours invited me along, and it was fun, physically and mentally demanding, and ...

There is literally nothing more satisfying for a writer than seeing their books in the wild. Normally this happens to me at seminars or events, but sometimes my readers are kind enough to send in photos from far flung places. Dan Weber, for instance, took The Medieval Longsword camping with ...

This week on This Old Helm®: We take a mediocre reproduction helm with a unique locking mechanism and transform it into a bombproof and versatile tournament helm.

Hello HEMA friends, here is my new video, this time we explore the world of armours which is a greap part of HEMA that sometimes is left aside. Mauro Carapacchi and Signorini Marco are two Italian historical fencers, two armour … Continue reading → ...

The guards of the longsword follow on from the blows, which were preceded by the ways of holding the sword. I see this as a progression: hold the sword like this; make these blows; the blows create the guards. It is axiomatic that in Italian swordsmanship “between two guards lies ...

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