It is well established that wooden wasters are a valid historical training tool. The cost of a steel forged “practice” sword was just not conceptually practical for youths, professional mercenaries, and renaissance civilians. In the historical context, the reason for using wooden wasters is really obvious and well documented by many articles (here is one I recommend.)
Today’s context is not the same. We live in the day of the $200 VB steel practice sword. I can point out a few things I don’t like about those; but for $200, in stock, and shipping that only takes about a week … it’s a game changer in our day. Proper and good wooden wasters today, however, are obscure and hard to find. The balance and quality of what I have seen available has actually been going down in the last few years. The only waster I can actually recommend is the NSA line. And the maker just retired. It looks like a place called Duncan Arms has take over production and I am yet to test one from them. In any case, a “tolerable” waster is a $100 expense and made to order (you will wait months.)
With ample plastic options, affordable steel, and the cost of a good wooden waster … are wooden wasters relevant in today’s context?
To many schools out there, no, they no longer are. It just does not make sense to most schools.
But I’m not most schools and I say heck yes, they are relevant. Allow me to share with you my reasons why.
- Plastic sucks for everything but practicing on a punching bag. Its bullet proof, cheap, and the worst option. For many reasons we don’t use them. The “safe” ones bind at the weak like a wet spaghetti noodle and many valid historical techniques are frustrated by the way they bind and bend.
- There are variations of freeplay that make the softer landing cuts of a lighter and rounder wooden waster more desirable than steel for some students. I like to use steel when I can use steel, but some of the drills we do are great with wasters, especially with newer students. An example of this is the continuous cutting drill where we go into Krieg and practice fighting in it for about half a minute without any stopping. We don’t stop just because someone gets cut in the head. It just keeps going. It can be fast and the contact can be heavy at times. It’s a great time to practice the devices and learn to turn a fight around and regain initiative with concepts such as the master cuts.
- The needs and demands of a training tool are really driven by the things your group does. Each activity and training drill demand different things from the tool. We have every kind of training sword available in this group and I find that I still pick up wooden wasters as a preference for some things. I use steel most of the time; but not all the time. I never pick up plastic unless I just want to beat on a pell at full power, and after I’m done, I’m always reminded of how much I hate plastic as it slips and slides all over the pell instead of biting in.
- In large classes with lots of new people, loaner wooden wasters make lots of sense just like they did in historical settings. Large classes demand economical solutions and new practitioners really can learn the basic movements just fine with a good waster. When they are ready to get into more serious study let them buy their $200 steel practice sword on their own.
- Some student’s value historical aesthetics. Training with a wooden waster seems more historically valid than plastic and it might seem more historically valid than steel swords in the $200 price range. If the steel sword you want is $500 (that price range does yield better historical training swords) then getting a $100 waster to train with until you are ready for the $500 steel makes plenty of sense.
- I practice all over the place. I practice with groups and solo in parks, trails, homes, churches, random fields, you name it. When I’m new in a location I like to use wooden wasters starting off. In some locations I will use wood exclusively. It is just less likely to freak out people and security guards (also people). It is good to have an option that does not scare lawyers as much as steel. I could use plastic, but, plastic sucks and when people see a group practicing with plastic, they think they are seeing a weird sport. A group training with wooden wasters seems more historical because it is.
Wooden wasters are still valid to me. It is kinda sad the market does not seem to be growing the available options as is the case with steel and plastic. Maybe some day I’ll get fed up and just start making them myself … even if its just for myself. It would be worth it. There is just something about history.