The Best Sword Show: See you March 16 in Timonium, MD!

Same time, same place. Every year in mid-March, the Maryland Arms & Armor Collectors Association puts on a monumental sales show.

Hope I’ll see you there on Saturday!

Current Auction: Another “Transitional”

A few weeks ago, we examined Eight Dueling Épées.

Today, we noticed a variant of one of the older specimens up for auction: A cousin of “The Transitional”…

Words to live by 2

“Associate with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for it is better to be alone than in bad company.”

—George Washington

Weapons: Eight Dueling Épées

Among the mountains of scrap metal that have changed hands via eBay in the past couple of years, fencing épées pre-dating the 1920′s were few and far between. Even more rare were dueling épées—true épées, that is, made for the very specific purpose of a French-style duel with thrusting weapons. We’ve picked 8 dueling épées from the Amberger Collection to check out a couple of details…

“Are those your fingers on the ground or are you just unhappy to see me?” Smallsword fight to the death, early 18th century

Duels look so pretty on the screen and in paintings. But sometimes, the dying that was done was not quite as pretty.

Especially when two men engaged who wanted to make sure the other was carried off the field feet first…

Swords in the News: The Sword of Lalgarh

Nobody tell us we’re Euro-centric.

(Okay, we are, so sue us!)

But that doesn’t keep us from scouring the world for interesting stories relating to the Sword. Like this one from India, where an ancient sword is a living symbol of resistance against outside aggression…

Hark the Talking Camel: The Six Degrees of Henry Angelo

The Talking Camel is a writers’ site that Secret Archives Press is trying to get off the ground.

Since we’re not exactly fighting ‘em off right now, we’ve recycled an elderly article that ran maybe 10 years ago in FQM. Possibly, you still might enjoy it.

Patriotism may be the last refuge of scoundrels. But it’s also  one of the great sources of historical irony. The War of 1812 created one such irony, as far as the canon of classical fencing literature is concerned.

This one is quite complex, as indeed anything should be that manages to connect personages as diverse as a prominent member of the Boston Tea Party, Mad King George, the Hessian mercenaries—and the ubiquitous fencing master dynasty of the Angelos in a game that makes the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon look as one-dimensional as a Partridge Family reunion special…

Wiggle on…

Antiquariat: Forget Facebook, get into fencing books!

Still enraged about Facebook’s recent facelift? We say “Get a life!” Even better—get into something that hasn’t changed one bit in 100, 200, 500 years:

FencingClassics announces it has joined forces with actor-fighter-antiquarian Jared Kirby, to make both antiquarian fencing and Historical European Martial Arts resources and bibliophile appraisal services available to practitioners and collectors.

Henry Angelo: Strategic Planning in Running a Salle

Running a successful fencing club takes strategic thinking. Especially if you’ve built your business on your reputation as a fencing champion. After all, champions are not self-appointed but made—by meeting challengers.

The Angelos had first-hand experience in this. And Henry Angelo seems to have been good at playing his opponents…

Tricks of the Trade: Johann Andreas Schmidt, 1713

Don’t you hate when that happens? Your opponent suddenly turns Luke Skywalker and starts using his foil with two hands…

No worries! Nuremberg’s Exercitienmeister Schmidt knows exactly what to do!