The unfair advantage: The subtle differences in 19th century French dueling épées

Reduced weight.

Upside-down mounted blades.

A sneakily set handle.

Early attempts in gaining an unfair advantage with épées de combat.

Meet J. Christoph Amberger

This site’s editor, J. Christoph Amberger, was born and raised in West Berlin, Germany. He studied in Berlin, Göttingen, Aberdeen, and Annapolis and holds an M.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College Graduate Institute. After Obtaining his J.D. from the University of Baltimore School of Law in 2015 and passing the Maryland bar, he is now an attorney in Baltimore City.

Fencing Nudes: Duel Naked!

One of the leading search terms that brings novice FencingClassics readers to our site is “topless fencing”.

Who’d’a thunk?

And since we thrive on giving people what they want, we’re happy to oblige… with images of duels between women in various stages of dress and undress…

Weapons: The Subtlety of the Modern Sports Sabers

Collectors of modern sports weapons face a bit of a dilemma. It’s almost impossible to tell a piece of recent scrap metal found in the back of the club armory from a weapon with at least budding historical value.

Luckily, some old fencing equipment catalogs provide a clue at dating and contextual placement. Like the 1938 catalog of Vince Fencing Equipment, Inc., which provides some clues to early sports sabers…

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…

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?

Weapons: The 1796 Light Cavalry Saber in the War of 1812

For Americans, the year 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the War of 1812.

What kind of edged-weapons gear and literature can we dig up from this period?

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…

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!

Family Reunion: The Kirchoffers, together again!

Nobody say that FencingClassics isn’t community minded!

After more than a century, we’re reuniting father and son Kirchoffer, famous French fencing masters from pre-Word War I Paris.

Or at least a small part of their correspondence…