Ken,

No I havn't.

Henrik

Johnathan, No to both. No complaints. What complaints I do remember getting in the first few years, was for wearing my 40 pound hauberk during most of a Tournament and then taking it off and fighting without it for the last few combats and so supposidly having the advantage of not being weighted dow...

Avery, In my opinion a monarch reigns solely to serve the populace. He/she must always put the populace's interests before one's own. Using the power of the office to benefit oneself or one's friends is a misuse of that privilage and should never be done. It may be unfortunate that friends, family o...

Johnathan, I had not remembered in detail when I first used a basket hilt, but in reading through TI #9 , where my article is describing how to make basket hilts ( on pages 15 through 19), I found in an article on general sword construction details by Tom Conroy aka Thumas O'Conaire (later on in tha...

Vitus, Sorry I didn't make it more clear in the last paragraph of my reply. By more aggressive combat, I meant that yes the basket was used much more confidently as a blocking instrument than cross guards could ever have been. So hanging back to really protect a vulnerable hand was no longer a conce...

Aaron, Change - weapons & shields to fight with, clothing and armor to wear, - because it would be more realistic and look better which adds to the ambiance of a non modern activity. The purpose ( in my mind) was to remove the modern and enter the historic or fantasy quality of another time - at...

Jofthepeace, I mostly stopped fighting in competative Tournaments and wars in the later 1980's. After that I may have fought in as many as a dozen or so , spread over the years till now. So I really missed the change in combat that the introduction of thrusting made. I don't know exactly when it was...

Aaron, I wish all the information that we have today were available back then. The technology as well as the historical information such as the fight manuals, archaeological discoveries, cultural knowledge, arts and crafts, costuming,food, etc as well as modern tools and methods for producing weapon...

Jofthepeace, Yes we did fight any way that seemed useful - at first. If a fighter went down on the ground and was still able to defend and attack from that position, the conmbat continued. If not it was halted till the fighter was ready to continue. The tradition of fighting from the knees was part ...

Vitus, Well of course we had no hand protection in the beginning other than leather gloves of the garden variety. So any blow which hit the hand or fingers was not only painful but potentially could cause broken bones. The aluminum blades that we experimented with were perhaps the most painful to be...

Isabella, Yes, Nora was a fencer who wanted to fight with us guys. I was one of the few , as Paul says, who was willing to hit a lady, but only in a fair fighting manner. Nora was smaller than I, perhaps 5 foot 5 inches tall and 130 pounds to my 6 feet, 180 pounds. When I hit Nora, it was to her lef...

Diglach, I miss some of the old pagentry , too. More would be good sometimes. Better look ing kit would be too. I think leading by example is a good technique. Then no one feels unduely pressured to change. Make change desirable and others will follow. Henrik ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++...

Frau Hirsch, I think most of the issues you list are more of personality and conduict issues than they are of format and equipment issues. My near miss eye injury that I mentioned in my earlier reply, was not caused by the weapon but by inadequate armor. I recognised that fact and immediately welded...

Vitue, I do have some from 1966 amd after and I'm working on doing that and hope to make it available in the future. However it really isn't particularly useful. The exposure is mostly bad, the action is mostly unremarkable and not likely to be any different than just anybody who has no combat exper...

Leo, Keep in mind my personal level of awareness and interest is far from what many others in the SCA have, and it is mostly something I gained over the years after I became a member. My dislike of wrap sots, for instance came only after understanding how important blade presentation can be. I wonde...

Johnathan, I fear you ascribe too much importance to decisions that were made in the formation of the SCA. I can't think of any that weren't either pragmatic or self serving in some way- or both . In the matter of chosing rattan to make sword blades from, it was tried about a year or two after we ha...

Ken, thank you for the ivitation. I just saw a you tube clip a couple of days ago, showing some Viking style training work at the pell , catching spears and with padded target gloves, etc. It looked rather interesting. I would like to find out more of what you describe. When and if that may be possi...

Jester, These are questions each of us needs to answer for ourselves. The answers depend on each person's perspective. What each of us wants to get out of our involvement in the SCA. What I enjoy may not be what you enjoy or vice versa. On the other hand you may like exactly what I like. More likely...

Leo, I first became aware of the importance of blade presentation in the nid 1980's when I organised a cutting contest at a local tournament. I thought up the idea of using 2 liter soda bottles filled with water and capped, which were hung from an overhead support, as cutting targets, for sharp blad...

I'm glad to hear that combat archery is less distressed abroad than here in the USA -where legal liability issues are too strong an influence, unfortunately. The use of wooden arrows with rubber blunt tips , at the Hastings reenactments that I've participated in, was a strong influence that helped m...

Arngrim, I'm happy to respond. First let me say that as far as I knew, no one had any knowledge of any fight manuals as regarded European combat styles, back in the 1960's and 1970's or even later. I don't know when they became known to martially interested people, but I'd guess it likely wasn't til...

Hi Arngrim, The purpose of early SCA "heavy combat" was simply to fight with medieval weapons such as swords, both single handed and double handed types, maces, axes , spears and any other non gunpowder weapons we could think of in a mostly "knightly" fashion. Back in the beginni...

Diglach , my friend,

No way ! This is the best 45 years i've had and I hope to get another 45 that are just as much fun out of the SCA. I hope you do to !

Pax !


Henrik

Aaron, in the sense that I wanted to do fun stuff, the SCA is exactly what I wanted. However in the sense that I don't like some things in the SCA, no it's not what I wanted. What the SCA has always been to me is a fertile field in which I can play ( putter around) or plant seeds and try to grow new...

With respect, even though it is your creation, do you think your opinion should be the ultimate goal of what the SCA should be thiving to aspire to? Have your expectations been met, surpassed, not yet realized? Seeing what members are capable of achieving in this day & age, what direction would ...

As far as answering the priviously posed questions, again I have a somewhat different perspective than Sigfried. In many cases I tend to agree with him and in others I have a different opinion since my experiences are more recent and more varied . I still attend several Tournaments each year as well...

I've just read Dave's (Duke Sigfried) comments and although I don't disagree with them, I had a different perspective. The first Tournament was intended to be unique with no particular followup. It was a costume party with a theme of coming from a place where "Swords were worn". The fact t...

The SCA's Equestrian Minister is looking for a successor to take over administration of that office, at present. Contact her and the SCA's Corporate level Marshal, if you are interested in applying for the office. This is the coporate level office that administers the Kingdom level Equestrian office...