Author: corethree

A crazy Scandinavian friend and I though it would be fun to order a couple of these one-handed bearded axes from Wechter Arms.  We got them on sale.  I have beaten this one up for over a year now and its time to share my thoughts.

The Good

These bearded axe trainers are better than everything else I have tried to date.  Plastic trainers suck.  There are a number of methods of stopping a sword blade and defending with the top of an axe that don’t work with plastic trainers.  This axe design uses a soft rubber core sandwiched between a thick and strong outer leather outer. These things do a great job binding and blocking when plastic trainers just buckle, flop, and slide all over the place.

On the other hand, I have seen some rubber trainers be too rubbery and these seem to be nicely ridged yet still somewhat soft on impact.  That’s a hard balance to strike and I like what they have going here.

The profile of the axe head is absolutely awesome.  This is not trying to be a generic, neutral shaped axe. It is bearded axe without apologizing. More bearded axe techniques work with this than the other trainers I have used.  It features a wonderfully pronounced blade.

This trainer is suited for contact free play, and it has enough head weight and blade profile to showcase what the bearded axe can do.  I wish you could see how brutal of a disarm this thing can do in a hanging position. Just come visit and ask, I’ll show you.

The handle is interesting.  Its not a conventional shaped handle compared to others but it is really functional and I don’t think there is anything wrong with it.  It has proven sturdy too.  Just be careful, it’s a literal club that you are swinging at your friend.  You might want to pad part of it if you are not the kind of group that practices control.

The Bad

I talked about a balance between being impact friendly vs ridged.  True axes were very ridged.  The historical axe’s beard was designed to hook and pull on things.  I think this axe is better than many, but the beard is still too soft to do some techniques. Once it starts hooking things like shields and legs, I found it to be inadequate and unrealistic.  Those kinds of targets are really important and I wished the hook part of the axe could be improved in some way without compromising the impact friendliness. I have a plastic trainer that does a perfectly adequate job pulling and hooking compared to this … but it is way too light so I guess I can’t have it all.

I also found the axe to be lighter than I want it.  Some will disagree with me here.  I know that would make it less friendly during impact, but in freeplay I want to learn what a weapon can do.  If it is too light, I’m not getting an accurate picture of what it can do.

Really, the rigidness bothers me more than the weight.  I can always wrap some heavy gauge electrical wire around the head to bring the weight up.

The Ugly

The screw covers have busted off in parts.  The rubber that the axe is made out of is soft and sloppy like recycled tire rubber.  It looks like it was cut with a tin can shank.  When it hits wooden wasters and shields it leaves a nasty black streak and mares everything up.

Now, you probably think I’m being critical of the axe here.  I’m not.  Let me explain.  While you read that section if you were thinking to yourself “Ew, yuck, that sounds ugly.  I don’t want that.”  then this is not for you.  This weapon simulates what was used, historically speaking, by Vikings.  If you are bothered by the look of black rubber gunk on your shield or screw covers that you busted over your friend’s mask; then you should probably study something else.  Perhaps you would be happy with a nice f2 flex small sword.  You could study the gentleman’s rules for dueling to first blood or some crap like that.  Let the barbarians of the world study the bearded axe.  This is not for pansies.

Conclusion

In short, the idea of blending leather and rubber to make something that strikes this unique balance of impact, rigidness, and weight is unique.  It is a clever solution to a problem that has really not been fully solved.  I like this thing.  I’m using it.  When comparing it to other options, this is a pretty good choice.

Yesterday I completed a full readthrough of Meyer’s 1570 Longsword book.  This was not a quick readthrough; it was a long detailed one.  I spent time drilling and working through many of the devices.  I really studied every passage.  I took my time with this one.

I have many things that I have taken away from this reading.  I’ll share a few.

It took me time to understand.

Frankly I had to be doing this martial art for many years before I understood the manuals.  It is a strange horse-before-the-cart scenario.  And by the way, I have seen some students go strait to the sources with understanding from day one.  But for me, I had to do this for a long time before I could read the sources and really understand what they were saying.  I just lacked the concepts and fundamentals that I needed for them to make sense to me.  Eventually, that turned around for me. The most improvement started when I began studying Meyer.  I was at a place where I had enough experience to understand Meyer’s elaborate sequences.  I was able to connect the dots that would have eluded me when I was a younger practitioner. I could also see the lessons Meyer was trying to teach and I could apply them.

I don’t know when that time will come for others.  It takes time doing this to understand the sources.  But being a member of the MFFG and having people I could ask to share interpretations was really helpful and helped move me along.

In any case; during this reading, I was ready.  Never before has a reading of the sources made so much sense to me and improved my understanding so profoundly.

Meyer’s 1570 work is a Rosetta Stone.

Meyer has a real and unique style that bridges the gap between the 1300’s longsword of medieval knights and the new world of privately armed Renaissance civilians.  It is a unique perspective and twist on the art of the longsword.  There are many things in Meyer’s teachings that may not be of interest to a military purist but; consider how valuable it is to know Meyer before studying Ringeck.  Ringeck, or any master in the tradition of Johannes Liechtenauer, did not explain the principles of authentic historical longsword in the kind of detail that Meyer did.  The link in the terms and teachings is obvious.  By knowing Meyer, Ringeck makes much more sense.  Adapting from Meyer to Ringeck is much less confusing compared to studying Ringeck without the benefit of having Meyer explain to you each device in full detail.  As Ringeck teaches the lessons of Liechtenauer’s verses, Meyer has already taught you numerous lessons in them and has elaborated on the meaning of the verses with pages of deeper commentary and explanation.  That’s because Meyer wrote a comprehensive book for both the skilled and beginning student.

On that point, let me make one more important thing clear.  Meyer wrote his book in the format of a distance learning text book.  In his opening remarks Meyer states:

… the knightly and noble art of combat at this time has gone somewhat in decline with many people …

Meyer, 1570 (Translation by Jeffery L. Forgeng)

Therefore it is no wonder that this free knightly practice has not only come into decline, but also somewhat come into contempt …

Meyer, 1570 (Translation by Jeffery L. Forgeng)

Because Meyer knew that the art’s living tradition was dying he states this:

I have not only learned the praiseworthy knightly art of combat from skilled and famous masters, but have also now practiced it for many years, and have instructed young princes, counts, lords, and nobles in it, and was graciously and kindly requested by your kind princely grace on many occasions to write up this praiseworthy art of combat in a sound order, and publish it openly through the press, and to let it come to light for the use of many people of our nation; so I no longer wished to resist this gracious and kind request, and have therefore in the name and through the fatherly grace of the Almighty, brought together that which I have learned and experienced with care and work in this praiseworthy and sophisticated art over many years, and compiled it in the most comprehensible order as seems possible to me in this treatise, in the consoling hope that it should be very serviceable to many people of high and low degree, who value and care about the art of combat, considering that, as far as I know (not to speak to anyone else’s detriment), nothing of the sort has come out in German before.

Meyer, 1570 (Translation by Jeffery L. Forgeng)

There you have it.  “… compiled it in the most comprehensible order as seems possible … hope that it should be very serviceable to many people …” Meyer tried to make the entire art immortal with his text book.  A professional historical instructor from history wrote you a distance learning text book on this subject … and it’s the only one in the German longsword tradition that was this holistic.  Here you go.  Here it is.  I can attest, after reading it; it’s the real deal.  This text has blown my mind.  As I have read Meyer’s commentary, opinions, and teachings, I feel like I have gotten to know him.  He is a great and noble man.  His teachings are clever and wise.  Studying with him has been … in his own words “free, good, and pertinent to honor and manfulness”.

Perhaps Meyer’s style may not be for you as a whole; but I assure all practitioners that there are things for you here that you can only learn from here.

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.

We have been meeting weekly for about a month now. It is just great to do this martial art outside in settings like this. This is my favorite training tree. Everyone should have one. Yes you can borrow mine.

Fun trivia, who knows what the thing hanging from the tree is?

Last Saturday I had a rapier practice. Not Meyer rappier but much later, true rapier. It really is a lot of fun. I appreciate the different approach of the weapon and the history around it. The sparing is a ton of fun too.

During the practice I pulled out a couple of dusack(s?) and did some warm up drills with an opponent. My training partner commented after a while that he had a much harder time in freeplay with dusack than rapier. Dusack was new to him, but him and I both remember when he was first introduced to rapier.

I thought it interesting and asked him why. It seems that cutting with windings really is something that takes time to get comfortable with. Rapier is so much fun to pick up, learn some basics, and play around safely with someone. Cutting sword forms demand a lot more control and fundamentals before freeplay really opens up.

Or so I’m told.

I decided to put an FAQ on the page for those who are new. It includes a link to the reading material I recommend people start with. is there a question missing?

School is starting this week. I don’t know what the heck happened to summer. I really don’t. As I look back on it, I can see that a lot of things did happen. I’m just not sure I was ready for it to all be over.

Our study group practices were really erratic. But we met in small groups multiple times a month all summer. Two people joined the global MFFG and five people practiced the 700+ year old German sword arts here in my fields (not counting my oldest son or my wife.) It was a good time and I am so glad to have this tradition in my life. It has been a meaningful part of my summer. I am excited to see this study group continue to form and train.

As summer ends, nothing really changes for us. Fall will provide better conditions for training and my availability will be unchanged. My doors remain open to my brothers of the sword.

In a distant entry below I posted a picture of myself and another training in the snow in a temperature of eight degrees. I used to tell people that is what dedication looks like. It hurt to train in that and we didn’t care. We were pretty serious.

I don’t know what the temperature was this last Saturday when our study group of three trained in the middle of the day but it was equally insane! … Yet, there we were, swords in hand.

It looks like we are doing some I.33 sword and buckler on top of the Meyer longsword core. I hope that continues. Onward!

I found some two week old inquiries about the club in my spam folder today. I’m so sorry about that. I hope to have fixed that problem and I have responded to those inquiries.

Our study group is not unwilling to study anything with authentic source material. But, we do tend to emphasize Meyer. It is interesting to see many new HEMA groups take an indifference to Meyer. I have heard Meyer’s material become labeled as overly fancy, experimental, and too stylistic as opposed to the other German longsword sources.

Is Meyer overly stylized and fancy? Maybe. But it is astoundingly clear and complete compared to other Liechtenauer based sources. When we talk about “texts” and “sources” it is not always clear that there are big differences from one to the other. Some “texts” are just study aids or incomplete snippets of advice while some go further to document a fully martial art system. Meyer is a rare gem that attempted to document a full art. Meyers material:

• Describes the basics of combat from the guards, to footwork, to the cuts.
• Defines and explains the language of Liechtenauer’s art.
• Breaks down Liechtenauer’s verses with commentary and instruction.
• Describes a detailed strategy for longsword fighting; commenting on how to apply footwork, techniques, attacks, deceptions, initiative, timing, and a wealth of fighting principles.
• Categorizes a number of tricks called “handworks” that are defined, described, and taught at length.
• Describes specific methods of practicing and training, telling practitioners what to practice and how.
• Teaches full lessons through Stucke, sequences of described actions between two fencers with commentary.
• Illustrates a significant amount of the text through plates containing fighters drawn in 100 different positions (I just counted myself, this is just the longsword section too). These positions are cleverly re-referenced in different parts of the text so that one picture depicts multiple different actions.

What amazes me about Meyer is that it goes deep. There is a lot there to study. You can spend years studying it intently, drawing more and more revelations month after month.

Now, it is true that Meyer does not teach thrusting integrated into his longsword section (he teaches it, but saves it for the third section of his book.) That is annoying to me and a product of his culture’s tournament context (very different tournaments than we have today BTW). So I do understand people who stylistically prefer the way Ringeck or others might teach combat. By all means, study the earlier texts. But I wager that a good Meyer foundation is a huge advantage in studying earlier texts.

No other Liechtenauer based text has the deep and clear detail that Meyer’s two manuals have. Why would anyone ignore or overlook Meyer? Even if the style of it is not for you; there is a lot in there that is. I swear by it.