Art of the Sword

This:  to my mind is the best way of responding to the USFCA certification. If you don't like something, do it better.

See the follow up post  here  with the completed heavy sparring glove. So I've given up waiting for someone to produce a HEMA glove that is lightweight, fully mobile and fully protecting. There are many out there, just beyond the horizon, that are promising but time drags on and nothing happens. Therefore I recently had some inspiration and decided to simply pool two different purchases, neither of which was good, to make something that works. Initially I'd bought these "Cherburg Gauntlets"  and I'm not going to review them as basically they are unsuitable for HEMA or any swordsmanship. It's obvious that whomever designed them never used them with a sword in their hand as the shell does not allow you to grip or swing a sword correctly. I also had the Absolute Force HEMA gloves which you can see my review here . Again I was not happy with them. It occurred to me however that between the two I probably had the workings of one good set of gloves: if I c

When considering potential injuries in historical fencing with the highest risk after head injuries, for which we have excellent protection with the fencing mask, it occurred to me that the trust with a relatively inflexible long sword to the torso was very high up there. Even a heavily rounded point will piece a human body with enough momentum behind it and in the unfortunate situation that both fencers are stepping towards each other at the same time as the thrust; well it doesn’t bear thinking about. While there is plenty of padding available it’s really hard armour that’s required here. Fortunately plastic plastrons for sports fencing are easily and cheaply available such as this: http://www.qpsport.co.nz/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=54 Problem is that this only covers the upper torse and getting accidentally disembowelled doesn’t appeal to me much either. So, my solution was to wear two plastrons one as normal across the chest and the other upside do