Massed Assault: The Choreography of Group Instruction

Group class vs. individual lesson?

The armed and police forces of the world had their choices made for them by virtue of the very number of recruits needing instruction.

But how did they get them to look good from a distance…

Fencing Art: The Survivor

He managed to escape being turned into shell casings in World War I. Melted down for war reparations during the Weimar Republic. He dodged the Nazi leveling of Breslau in 1945, and the Red Army’s knocking over what was left.

And since he ended up behind the Iron Curtain, in a different country, he even escaped the politically correct B.S. that imprints modern Germany…

Secrets of the Sword: How to maintain a perfect edge

The purpose of this site is not just to make you spend hours on end surfing and downloading free pics we paid an arm and a leg for to acquire.

Our mission is to discover to you the true Secrets of the Sword.

Revealed today: How did cavalry troopers make sure their blades had a perfect edge?

Sword Shows: See you at the Timonium Cow Palace

If your idea of fun is spending a morning rifling through 1,000 tables full of antique weapons, we have just the thing for you.

Like every year since 1955, the Maryland Arms and Armor Collectors Association is putting on its sale and trading show on March 17-18, 2012 in Timonium, just north of the Baltimore Belway.

We hope to see you there!

Kombative Knick-Knacks: Tin Men Mensur

Who’d possibly want a matched set of tin figures staging a Biedermeier-era Mensur?

Err… yes, who indeed. Possibly the same kind of person who has a sextett of Spelter and bronze fencing figurines staring at his desk?

This one we haven’t acquired—yet. But would accept it from our Leibbursch any time.

Antique Weapons Update: Saddam’s Sword Sold

There’s no accounting for taste.

Two weeks ago, we alerted you to the opportunity of buying a sword once owned by the late Saddam Hussein.

The prices achieved on this auction have just been posted…

American Stick-Fighting: Hell comes to Frog Town

It’s all well and good reading the foreign imports of fencing and fighting manuals published in the United States in the 19th century. Especially the one or two stick and staff fighting books.

But the Yanks knew their way around a stick all by their lonesome.

Dashiell Hammett includes a great fight scene in his 1924 short story “Nightmare Town”…

Dueling Tactics: How to scam a break during an épée duel

Based on the historical record, a duel with sharp épées was an unpleasant affair. Chances were that three feet of needle-pointed steel might transport you from the terrain to the Happy Hunting Grounds with considerable pain and suffering.

So who’re you to judge the little “trucs” that might get you a breather during your affair of honor…

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”…

Free Resources: Fabris’ German edition

Who’d have thought that university archives would ever change their time-honored policy of keeping non-academic riffraff out of their collections—and even throwing their rara open to the Great Unwashed?

The Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, where I spent many a semester doing things other than visiting libraries, has recently put a copy of Salvatore Fabris’ “Italiänische Fechtkunst” online…