Hi!

I got back yesterday from the USA. It was a fabulous trip, beginning with spending a week with Jessica Finley working on the upcoming Abrazare course, and spontaneously also shooting footage for an entire other course: her interpretation of Liechtenauer’s longsword material. This is organised according to Liechtenauer’s 12 Hauptstücke, or ‘main pieces’. We went through them all one by one, and included a short “and this is how this concept appears (or doesn’t) in Fiore’s art of arms” for each hauptstück.

So, expect the Abrazare course in September, and with any luck, we’ll also have her Liechtenauer longsword course ready before Christmas.

We also got to fence each other (for the first time, which is weird given how long we’ve known each other). First smallsword, then longsword. It was an absolute delight. No pictures or video, this was just for us.

Then I went to Madison for my seminar with Chris Vanslambrouck. First up, huge thanks to Heidi Zimmerman who organised the seminar. It literally couldn’t have happened without her. And thanks also to Chris who co-taught the seminar, with related plays from Meyer. Given that there was also a lot of Meyer technique being taught that weekend, it was a miracle that we covered so much ground, so hats off to the students, who were all an absolute delight to have in class. I’ve assembled a list of the material we covered, some planned, some answers to questions posed by the students,which I’ll convert into a blog post with links to video clips etc in due course. All of the material is of course also covered in The Medieval Longsword, and The Duellist’s Companion.

While I was there, I got to meet Edwin Gilbert, who makes the only fencing mask that is worth having if you fence with longswords, and who is also the only supplier of horsebows to the USA. He’s also an absolute gentleman, depicted here giving my own mask a bit of maintenance and TLC.

I should also say that Edwin is looking to sell off the horsebows business so he can concentrate on making the masks. He’s asking for just the cost of the current stock, so if you’re interested in supplying horsebows to the USA, drop me a line and I’ll put you in touch.

If you already have all the books you want, but your friends don’t, we have now created Swordschool shop gift cards which you can find here: https://swordschool.shop/products/swordschool-gift-cards​

This week on The Sword Guy: Cutting and Calligrams, with Brittany Reeves

In this episode, I welcome back Brittany Reeves, who is the head instructor of Mordhau Historical Combat in Mesa, Arizona. She is a seasoned instructor, having taught across Europe and North America with a specialisation in test cutting with sharp blades. She is of course most famous for her first appearance on this show in Episode 22.

In our conversation we talk about the value of cutting with sharps, how the cutting tournament scene has been developing in the United States, and issues with sourcing tatami and getting insurance. We talk about potential alternatives to tatami, practising with moving targets, and how competitions are judged.

We then move on to talk about art history and Fabris. What’s going on with the images of people in the 1601 Fabris manuscript? Why might they look so weird?

As Brittany runs her own club, we also discuss her best and worst business decisions so far, and Brittany has a potentially excellent business idea for what to do with $1 million.

You can find the episode here:

yours,

Guy

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