The Armour Archive

Kevin M

I probably won't be making GWW, 6 month old baby and all that. I have a pair of the half finger gauntlets, and I love them. Sadly, the new ones came out a month after I got them.

It sounds like these weigh slightly less than the half finger ones (498-566 vs 585g).

Kevin M

How much do these ones weigh? I've got someone asking from the HEMA side.

Kevin M

My local group is a very big proponent of these HEMA specific jackets http://histfenc.com/productcart/axel-pettersson-fencing-jacket They've been designed together with a Swedish practioneer and far as I can tell (I do not own one myself unfortunately) they are glorious for protection, have you had...

Kevin M

$25 on the mercenary tailor bucklers.

Kevin M

What is the blade you've got in the pictures. I've got pretty small hands, but i'm trying to get a sense of scale.

Kevin M

Do you have a pic of the whole weapon and the blade alone?

Kevin M

Will there be any WMA type classes or Demos at Pensic this year? I've been watching some videos and this is starting to look like something I really want to try out. I'm not going, but there will be a bunch of classes through Pennsic University. Instructors include Ken Mondescein, Greg Mele, Christ...

Kevin M

Ok, since Ken posted, I probably should too. Some background. I am certified as a Provost at Arms (all 3 weapons) in the Classical Italian tradition and also hold a Moniteur (first level) certificate in foil and epee from the USFCA (modern fencing). I was also the student for Ken's Epee Prevot exam,...

Kevin M

I'll add my name with the caveats above.

Kevin M

Count Johnathan, I grew up in the SF bay area, so I have a pretty trigger happy biggotry filter. You ask why some of us might call you biggoted, here is an example. I took your second message in this tread and changed all references to rapier to instead refer to Black people. I think the results spe...

Kevin M

Actually, you're going to be in the Barony of Rivenoak. http://cynagua.org/rivenoak/ , http://groups.yahoo.com/group/rivenoak/ As has been previously mentioned the Wed Carmichael park practice is probably closest (about an hour south) There are also fighter practices in Chico on Sundays (about an ho...

Kevin M

$10 on the rapier pommels

Kevin M

I've talked to the DSEM Rapier, since he's local to me. He's open to getting the Hanwei Tinker and 5th gen arming swords approved (and the tinker longswords...). What he wants is people to go to their KRMs and ask to get experiments started in the kingdoms. (Assuming the blades pass the flex test) H...

Kevin M

I got an idea, we should introduce simitars, claymores and Katanas to rapier. It's all steel swords so it should be fine, game on! Just a quick comment, we do have katanas, scimitars and longswords in rapier. They've been there for a while, and I think we're fine with them. On a side note, while al...

Kevin M

Kevin M

I'm in for $10 on The Swordsman's Companion.

Kevin M

[quote="Ramius"]This entire essay was spot on and well thought out. Showed a lot of unbiased writing. Then near the end, he writes: [quote="Sir Marc de Arundel"]As I've grown, I've come to realize that it's not about WHAT they're doing, but HOW they approach what they're doing. I've seen too many "c...

Kevin M

My martial tourist destinations are:

Combat Con (WMA event in Vegas)
USFA Summer Nationals (in Reno)
Western Martial Arts Workshop (probably teaching this year)
Great Western War

I think I get to cover all my WMA/SCA/fencing interests this year.

Kevin M

First off I think that's a stripe, not a plaid

It would make a pretty nice victorian ball gown, or a 18th century men's ensemble.

Within the SCA period, i'm a bit stumped. Then again, i'm a late 16th century northern European... I like wool solids.

Kevin M

Moral of the story: In my experience the HEMA Alliance stuff tends to produce this "Control Uber Alles" attitude more than the SCA, and the SCA tends to produce "Club Him Like A Baby Seal" more than the HEMA clubs. No idea why but that is my experience. Note: Our assistant instructor did some dumb ...

Kevin M

Saritor wrote:
Count Johnathan wrote: Mr. Clements just rubs me the wrong way. I don't like him so I WANT to kick his ass. Is that better?
I'm pretty sure you're on solid ground there. And I'd imagine you're not alone in either the WMA or SCA community.

I'm totally behind this 100% percent. I'd even pay for tickets.

Kevin M

So I have a challenge to you all. SCA cut and thrust rules allow for longsword and sword and buckler fencing that is pretty much analogous to the HEMA tournament styles. With the adoption of similar tournament conventions, we can train with the same types of weapons. The only currently legal longswo...

Kevin M

Norman before I get into this, I want to say that I wholeheartedly agree that the SCA "rapier" rules are really a set of rules for thrust oriented swordplay, and that it's important to remember that when talking about other cultures in SCA fencing. I'd also say that the cut and thrust rules allow us...

Kevin M

I'm sorry, but to my mind, pseudo-katana and pseudo-broadsword (Vikingish) "rapiers" look ridiculously stupid to my eyes. They're NOT rapiers, they don't behave like rapiers, they don't LOOK like rapiers... It's the rapier equivalent of mad max armour on the battlefield. As a historical organizatio...

Kevin M

You should check with your local marshal, but since fencing jackets are generally considered as passable armor on their own, I think that with the jacket underneath you should be good. There is a pretty good board for japanese personae in the SCA at http://tousando.proboards.com too. This is just a ...

Kevin M

Go for it! When I first started fencing in the SCA, I wore Japanese garb. I think that undergarment won't work well for SCA rapier. Since the holes in the sleeves are pretty large on most kimono, a blade could easily pass through the sleeve and hit bare skin. Most SCA rapier marshals will have an is...

Kevin M

What I have wondered for a while is how much of his research materials were written for the wealthy "Dualist" since most of the soldiers of the time would have little access to books much less the education to read them. So I think that this really the wrong question to ask. I think that it's prett...

Kevin M

It's also worth noting that he dislikes pretty much every WMA group that isn't his own too, so I'm not sure that the SCA is special in this regard.

The ARMA vs WMA community thing is actually pretty funny when you think about it.

Kevin M

They are used for the Caidan Unarmed Combat experiment, which also uses a type of very modified shinai... I was down there for GWW and got a chance to work with these guys. It's an interesting experiment and heavily focused on I.33 and the German/Italian longsword tradition. Their rules are: http://...

Kevin M

These are also legal (or about to be so) in Caid's unarmored program. They're way better than the modified shinai that they've been using down there.

Kevin M

zippy wrote:what is heavy rapier compared to rapier in sca combat

Zippy,

In kingdoms that still allow foils and epees (light rapier), "heavy rapier" is used to distinguish the heavier more realistic weapon simulators.

For most of us, it's just SCA rapier.

Kevin M

Now for some advice. I would avoid working from Di Grassi and Saviolo. They are in English, which is a plus, but they both tend to be really hard to work with well. The Di Grassi translation is pretty universally bad (being done in the 16th century on the cheap), and Saviolo's format doesn't lend it...

Kevin M

To follow up on a couple of the other posts, a lot depends on what you are interested in. If your interest is in mostly thrust rapier, then you are probably looking at early 17th century styles. I would recommend reading Tom Leoni's webpage about rapier systems http://salvatorfabris.com/SectionRapie...

Kevin M

Has anyone here handled the Hanwei Practical Hand and a Half Sword - 5th Generation ? It looks sweet and Kult of Athena carries them for only $99! :shock: I have, and they handle nicely. Hanwei lightened both the blade and pommel on these and they handle pretty decently. Since they're lighter they ...

Kevin M

The West does require the basic rapier authorization before the C&T authorization, but there is no waiting period. I think this was put in place to make it easier for armored fighters to make the transition, since basic rapier is really a subset of cut and thrust. This is really nice for the WMA com...

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