Frank Docherty has recently opened the North West London School of Defense. The school has been added to the organizations page here at At the Sword.

A bit about the instructor:

I have been trained by Maister T. Brown for the last 15 years and have progressed to become his senior instructor. Along with studying at his school in Mill Hill, I teach in the North West London school of defense.

And the introductory level studies:

Within these levels both unarmed and weapon skills are taught, the weapons that are taught at these levels areCudgel, Backsword, Quarterstaff, Sword & Buckler, and Sword & Dagger.

Risto Rautiainen over at MyArmoury posted up quite a few images he took at the Tallinn Museum. There are some pretty good shots of various types of armour and weaponry, including a Zweihander, a wooden club, several axes and polearms, maille, and some suits of plate armour.

Messerfechten (fighting with a messer, or long knife) appears to be one of the burgeoning arts - books are beginning to be published on it and it seems more and more people are experimenting with it all the time. Looking into it for my own personal studies, I’ve had a tough time finding a waster.

After a bit of research, I’ve found two makers, one American and one European. With Intent Wasters out of Wisconsin makes all their wasters out of a secret type of plastic that reacts much more like steel than wood - it bends, it slides, and it doesn’t bounce very much. Their messer waster is available for purchase at a price of $90 (without the price of shipping or tax), but is not posted up on their website yet.

Glorymade produces both wooden and steel messer trainers, but does not seem to have an English version of their website up so I am unable to provide pricing information.

Over at SwordForum a large number of short clips have cropped up of Khridoli, a Georgian martial art purportedly still taught by living masters. Some discussion has taken place as to the historical and martial validity of the techniques, and some have posted articles that reference the same group of individuals.

My personal opinion, after watching some of the videos and noting the connection to a documentary, is that what we see here is little more than well choreographed stage combat based in various historical sources.  As many pointed out the techniques appear to be both a mix of Fiore and German masters as well as traditional stage combat shield-striking.

More news as it comes.

The Guild of Armoursmiths have posted a rather good video showing a number of techniques with different weapons including longsword, messer, dagger, wrestling, and fighting in armour.

Take a look: (link)

Over at SwordForum a few longsword videos have been posted by an individual for critique. The videos are of freeplay, and the responses are both helpful and informative in their own right. There was some interesting discussion about the differences in interpretation and the differences between the masters themselves, especially regarding postures (leaning forward v. remaining upright) and the use of longer swings and greater zufechten distances.

Read the rest of this entry »

If German combat strikes your fancy and you are looking for some interesting and information reading, head over to The School of Battle. Hugh Knight adds his “ramblings on various matters pertaining to the practice of medieval martial arts” occasionally, so be sure to check back now and then.

Take a two heaping servings of Deeds of Arms, a a helping of general medieval and renaissance knowledge, and a few modern political musings and you’ve got A Commonplace Book. It’s worth a look.

This is the first post on what I hope becomes a somewhat valuable resource concerning Medieval and Renaissance martial arts. For more information, please see the about page!

Thanks for dropping by!