The Sword Guy Podcast, episode 37 James Hester has been involved with HEMA since the age of 15, when he began performing fight shows throughout New England. He then set his course as an academic … [Read more...]
A glossary of medieval Italian fencing terms
As this awesome comic shows, many students find the new, foreign, terminology a major barrier to learning swordsmanship. (You can see the whole strip here; this is just one panel) I get it. I … [Read more...]
How to recreate historical swordsmanship from historical sources
I have just created a syllabus for creating a syllabus. You read that right. The end product of my Recreate Historical Swordsmanship from Historical Sources course is a complete syllabus for the style … [Read more...]
Seeing the future: training foresight.
There are few things that all martial artists agree on, but I think this may be one of them: “it’s easier to fight someone if you know exactly what they are going to do”. To predict their actions. To … [Read more...]
The Book that began it all: Francesco Novati’s Il Fior di Battaglia
Yesterday I went to visit my friend Peter Mustonen. He’s an arms dealer; but our kind of arms dealer: gorgeous antique swords, knives, guns, armour, shields; you name it, he has a delicious example. I … [Read more...]
This belongs to you. Fabris’s Sienza d’Arme, the best rapier book ever, yours free.
I have the enormous privilege of owning an original copy of Salvatore Fabris’s Sienza e Pratica d’Arme, printed in 1606. I bought it from Sr. Roberto Gotti, of Brescia, in 2014. It is in incredibly … [Read more...]