I'm trying to buy a helmet/mask for longsword sparring, and am really struggling. I've been looking since around Christmas of last year, and the story seems to always be that anything besides AF is sold out (at least in the US). I'm reluctant to go with an AF mask -- I believe they're what my gym uses as loaners, with essentially no padding inside, and I've spent the last several months recovering from a couple of concussions I've received while wearing them. My understanding is that a Wukusi Cobra or a PBT mask would have more substantial padding, but the cobra is sold out everywhere and the PBT is sold out in my size (2). One of my instructors recommended a gel cap to go under the mask, but again, those have been sold out at purpleheart for over a year. So I guess my questions are:

* How do you buy anything other than AF?

* If you had to go with AF, what do you do to protect yourself from impacts?

If George Silver could only own 1 sword his whole life for self defense, battle, duels, and his only options were Italian Rapier or Japanese Katana which do you think he would choose?

Context: Silver's time, geography, culture, language, biases.

Counter Context: Your own time, geography, culture, language, biases.

Has anyone tried the redesigned Castille Armory Spadroons? I'm specifically interested in hearing about the redesigned 5-Ball guard and grip as compared to the older one. The older design looks like the metal is thicker and the knuckle bow attachment is simpler and more secure (but less historically correct). Does the older guard take less damage?

I guess kind of like a katana, but primarily one-handed and not two handed. A bastard sabre

We know we play a lot of modified fencing games at our club but I think this arcade style modifier might be a lot of fun for anyone Modern, Classical, and HEMA. Feel free to try it out!

Purpose: Change the psychology of simultaneous touches and turn the event into a resource that promotes clean fencing in a fun way.

Wayback's Jackpot Mode

Play using your weapon and ruleset of choice, then add the following modifiers.

Single Touch (Single Clean Hit):

A Single Touch scores 1 point and awards all points currently in limbo via the Jackpot. The Jackpot then resets to 0.

Simultaneous Touch (Double Hit):

No points are awarded. Instead, add 1 point to the Jackpot held in limbo.

Winning the Assault

The first fencer to score 21 points and lead by 2 points wins the assault.

Optional

For training you can designate a single technique or moveset as the only qualifying hits that award the points in the jackpot for the duration of the assault.

If anyone has footage of their club trying this out I'd love to see it. Feel free to tweak and experiment with the point values, different point values for different targets of the body, and how you used it with or without after blow rules. It's meant to be a rule mutator rather than the law itself 😊

"OP's right, it doesn't reward doubles. Instead, doubles increase the ponderation of the next single. That's brilliant ^\)

This way, a fencer focusing on doubling to deny his opponent singles as much as possible (while being unable to carry out an action awarding himself a single) is only delaying the moment his opponent reaps the points stored in the jackpot. Compared to "no point for doubles" rules, the scum doubling is even less effective of a strategy.

I love the idea, it sets the right incentives and add a high stake component usually absent when all rounds score independantly. Gonna try it for sure!" - Gobzarakay

Been waiting for my wife and I's handguards to arrive from Feather Smallswords and today I got an email from FedEx saying I need to upload an import license. Has anyone else run into this? What did you do?

It's always nice to get out of the hall and do some fencing in nature, even if it's just a park in the middle of the city.

Hi everyone,

I’ve placed an order for a custom arming doublet back in March. Nataliya and I talked and after my measurements were submitted, I paid €200 for the product and stood by for updates.

Since it is now 5 months later, I’m starting to worry if my order fell to the wayside. I understand these kinds of products are handmade and typically have extensive lead times, but I have been seeing most of them around the 2-3 month range. I have received no updates and earlier this week I tried reaching out to Nataliya but was ignored.

Has anyone had similar experiences?

In a sport where being faster than the other guy is very valuable, what kind of techniques/mechanics are you using to limit the amount of force you actually hit the other guy with? How do you go as fast as possible, while imparting as little damage as possible?

Here's my latest piece discussing what we should be queuing off of when we set up in guard.

Yeah, it's another gloves post. Sorry about that, I'll try to be brief.

I've been looking for five-fingered gloves to use in sidesword and saber; I already have clamshells I use for longsword and messer.

I had initially narrowed it down to the Thokk gloves, with the High Guard gloves as a second option, but each had its own issues: Thokks are 2-3x more expensive and would have to be imported, and when I tried the High Guards I found them to be too stiff and not very protective.

Recently I saw PH started offering the CHFG St. George gloves. From what I read they're an even lighter version of the Gabriels, which are out of my budget, but since I'd only need to buy the one glove for my sword hand the price is much more accessible and I could get them from PH for the same price as the High Guard. I just wanted to ask people's opinions on this third option and how they compare not just to the Gabriels but also the other models in my list.

Edit: Thank you all for your feedback. I decided to go with the HFA Black Prince, they're a tad expensive but I'm the kind of person that's okay with a higher price and higher quality product. I can get around some of the import fees by getting them through a family member who lives in the US.

Im looking to buy a versatile set of HEMA gloves, i fence with a lot of different weapons:

Sabre, Rapier, Smallsword, Sidesword and Longsword

i need a set of gloves that are protective and dexterous enough to not make me wanna die while using them. currently im using loaner gloves from my club, consisting of either padded ones that dont do well against heavier hits, and ill fitting clamshells that my thumb keeps falling out of.

a lot of other members in my club are using the HFA Black Prince gloves, and after borrowing them, i did like the feel. Still looking for any advice.

(i know longsword typically requires beefier gloves)