Rassemblement and Counter: Favorite Épée drills at Joinville-le-Pont

Taking the proper starting distance: Heels together, arms extended, tips touching.

While foils and sabers dominate the pictorial treasure trove contained in the souvenir postcards sent from the French military collector at Joinville-le-Pont, épées start to appear in the first years of the 20th century….

25 years of Secret Sword History! (Actually, make that 30…)

Just when you thought there couldn’t be anything less interesting than endless Star Wars regressions, here comes The SHotS Origin Story...

Lines in the Sand: The ins and outs of 19th-century fencing spaces

—by J. Christoph Amberger (republished from a 2019 piece over at Duelingswords.wordpress.com)

What follows is a veritable smorgasbord of late 19th- and early 20th-century fencing images illustrating the development of early modern fencing’s combative spaces. You better pour yourself a stiff one.

Drills and bouts require an even surface for fencers to move on. Wooden floors covered with fine sand or saw dust were ideal. Less so, but still acceptable, were sanded or graveled walkways that would provide fencers and duelists with reasonably firm attachment to the ground. Footwork quickly created the danger of rolling an ankle—but when used as the background for a new-fangled photograph, sandy surfaces preserved an impression of actual movement for eternity…

Ancient Modern Épée Skills

Setting up a distance trap for fun and profit.