Vais ter a vingança brevemente hahaha.

It's a mix of a supple and strong grip, you need to adapt it at each given moment, either bracing if you're expecting a cut, but even during a cut you must keep it both firm and flexible as not be able to retain it's mobility. I have to admit it took me quite a while to be able to use it effectively with a sabre more than anything precisely because of all the cutting and high impact.

Cavalheiro, o uso que um homem faz ao seu colhão é pessoal e intransmissível. Peço perdão pela brincadeira. É sobretudo o tratado de Domingo Luis Godinho; que já surge um século depois do período desta espada, da qual evoluiu a guarda das primeiras roupeiras. Mas, dado que este modelo em específico é bastante pesado no pulso (o fabricante agora faz uma versão mais leve, melhor), é bastante diferente das espadas de século XVI que Godinho tinha em mente, a transição chamada de "ponta e corte", em alguma terminologia moderna.

@ haha muito bem dito, o uso realmente e muito pessoal. Então tirando o tratado do Godinho, existe mais algum que teria como referencia uso dessa espada?

Ainda bem que o @BernasLL decidiu responder porque esta resposta já vinha atrasada. A unica coisa que posso contribuir além do que o Bernardo já referiu é mencionar que a tipologia da espada poderia ser usado com qualquer outro tratado da época ou até um tratado de spada di lato (sidesword) precisamente por ser uma espada de corte e estoque, inclusive esgrima bolonhesa, mas isso é apenas se olharmos a tipologia da espada e a nada mais como época e local prevalência de uso.

Two things may have happened here. I saw the footage and spoke with both of them. 1- The initial thrust went to the mask, slid down and then rebounded up. I reviewed it several times and this seems the most plausible while editing the video. 2- If it didn't land on the mask first it would still have been a thrust to the neck which would've ended in the same result. This is one of the reasons we'll be ditching these steel tips. I'd rather have them stick than bounce all over the place.

@@EspadaNegra And with such light weapons, I doubt there's a problem with the force transferring when it sticks to the mask to worry about contusions, whiplash and similar injuries.

@@FiliiMartis that's also true, had it hit the arm, chest neck or face or snapping to either of these and then bouncing there would've been guaranteed damage being done.

Yeah poor guy had a round of bad luck with that one. At least there's an homage to be paid there. If you're wondering about moulinets from the wrist, it's about what you'd expect, it's front heavy enough for you to feel it but handles well enough in a strong wrist, so say if you're used to British military fencing with a lot of wrist cutting it can be easier for you to adapt to it, but otherwise I'd say it's pretty much like any other rapier I've handled.

Glad you found it useful ;)

Thank you! Glad you liked it :)

Cheers appreciate it! :) always nice to see some recognition of the work we're doing.

Be sure to let us know how it went! :)

Sadly these techniques were never meant to be taught as using the left hand would not have been allowed in a military context. I have taught these to some left handers in the club but granted they need to be adapted in order to work and sometimes they just won't work as well left handed vs right handed. - first technique works in the following scenario: Stand on outside guard, receive the cut to the inside, parry outward as an outside half-hanging guard, advance the right foot instead of the left (since we're looking from the perspective of a lefty). The tricky part is crossing your right hand over your left hand to grab the opponent's sword. Then instead of raising your sword from above, raise the point from below your arm. Unsafe but doable. You can also withdraw your left arm and bring back the point up. - If a right handed is in a hanging guard, you'll need to cut 4 but you'll lose a lot of momentum moving towards your left side. So you'd need to do a passing step towards your right side using that momentum instead to propel your opponents sword towards the left. This in turn would leave you wide open, but if the disarm was well made then you'd be able to cut him across the chest before withdrawing back into standard guard with the left foot forward. - Last two ones remain the same just mirrored. Hope it helps ;)

Glad you like it. The reviews are definitely planned, we just need a good setup (background wise) so we can film and have some quality content out there.

It's definitely a good way to get them started and have a good feel of it especially when they're under geared for steel.

Where are you from? Maybe there's a club nearby? If not sometimes necessity is the mother of invention :)

@@EspadaNegra I live in Rio de Janeiro, in the country hahahah, I'd like to start something also but only watching and reading don't give me much skill, practice is very important :/

Oh I see. I'm not that familiar with the Brazilian HEMA scene I only know of two clubs that seem very far away from you. But if you grab a group of friends that want to start I'm sure you'll find plenty of support. :)

Grab some singlesticks , which are easy to make and historically how Roworth/Angelo would have trained , at least early on. The beauty of Roworths system is in its simplicity, this system was developed to be taught quickly and to people with little to no experience. This source though is a good fit for people with no instructor looking to self teach especially when paired with this KZbin channel like this.

@@jf5078 i'll look in to it, thanks pal

Thanks, glad you found it useful. It's our goal to keep making more of these but they're a lot more complex due to the setup (or lack thereof), so it's something we're always chasing up.

Thanks. Miguel's plunderhosen are from a Spanish store called Comteq ES. They have an instagram page where you can message them from (the website is still more or less under construction and it's missing a few things still).

Thank you!

So it really depends on a number of factors. With rapiers (and frankly with any other sword) duels would rarely go on for long and with your life on the line one would fence a lot more safely and without wanting to commit any mistake so the approach would be far more cautious. First blood duels that don't necessarily require the death of one of the parties could go a lot quicker but still with far less energy than a sparring bout when both fencers are safe. Lastly you can't expect both fencers to fight exactly alike. While one may be more on the defensive side, Capo Ferro for example does teach how to fight against a "beastial man", when you fight against someone who only rushes forward without any regard for their own safety.

@@pyark 'The duellists (1977) - second duel' Quite high energy and only last seconds. Very scary imoh!

No not quite. It's a thrust preceded by an offhand displacement of the opponents sword. Reason why my front leg moves backward is often for balance and I put my weight on the back leg without wanting to actually move forward and so that I can retreat if needed. Not the best thing to do as it does need some tweaking.

@@EspadaNegra Interesting, thank you. I hadn't connected the preceding use of the offhand. I wonder what dropping into a lower guard would do for it (probably not good for your knees).

Ok now I'm curious about which flex that was then haha.

@@EspadaNegra Sure...😄 ... you are fencing at Palmela Castle, a beautiful place on top of a hill. You have a nice stone tower as a backdrop, overseeing the village below. That beats renting a room in a local sports centre. And from the mic, I hear some wind, so you were probably not melting in the sun on that particular day. 😅 P.S.All castles should partner up and organise a 1-3 day HEMA event per year, be it demonstrations to the public, small tournaments, or free sparring. They just look the part for HEMA venues.

Ok I do have to admit that's quite the flex. Didn't see it from that prism. Granted this was an event, and they do host classes there every two sundays so that group has that going for them. But while the morning was relatively cool, we cooked in the afternoon.

@@EspadaNegra I'm happy to hear that... that you cooked in the afternoon heat as punishment for a nice venue 😈... nah, just kidding 😇. I'm happy that the castle already is doing what I was thinking about. It brings life to the old stones, right? You know what I mean, the energy of the fencing is transmitted into the venue as well. It's not a feeling that people lived there, but more a feeling that people still live there. It's such a beautiful win-win!

Yeah absolutely as far as I know it's the only municipality actively encouraging this. A few years back in 2018 I remember being at a tournament in a 17th century fort by the sea which was pretty epic as well. So there's always some activities, but some more regular than others.

Ah mine are Onitsuka Tiger Asics, but I've grown fond of pumas recently haha

So I'm using one from J.A. Arnanz which is a Spanish artisan, the blade is a simple pbt one. The one Miguel is using if I'm not mistaken is a club made one. I've "developed" a model using modern Olympic fencing parts. Epee blade Foil dish hilt French foil grip Sabre pommel (also depends if I can use a foil one for better balance depending on the blade) - Rui

Aw thank you, greatly appreciate it :) hopefully with more upcoming sparring footage I'll have more progress to show!

When I started I trained solo for such a long long time, practicing against a target or just doing lot's of exercises, most of these I still keep today and I just add more on top of them depending if it's sabre or smallsword. And if anything you can always come back to these videos, and even so, feel free to ask, I'll always reply, I'll always try my best to take a look at videos and comment if requested, and I may even do a video just to address some concerns you may have if a comment isn't enough. Whatever the case though, don't let anything stop you! :) - Rui

These are the 350N pair.

Thank you! :)

Thanks, I have a planned release schedule of a video every Monday until middle of September, should be plenty of content to keep you all happy haha. The video series will then go for a pause until I can get back to filming more sabre content but I might go back and resume Capo Ferro's plates before that.

There are several things here. For starters none of us are english natives so some reply in portuguese, some are very camera shy as this was this video was actually one of the first ones to be filmed. I always throw them curve balls and things they don't expect while also getting some banter going on. Doesn't necessarily mean they didn't know the exercise, just didn't remember the names or were just too afraid to answer and get it wrong. Once the exercise started rolling they instinctively remembered things without me having to correct them, just give the commands and instruct the newcomers.

Glad you like it!

Ah yeah this is a custom one off spadroon by them with an 1803 slotted hilt haha. And of course you can, you just gotta ask them to make it for you :P

Thanks, happy you enjoyed the video. Funnily enough, british fencing had very little prevalence in Portuguese systems, most of what you see that's named as Portuguese is actually french. There's a foil/smallsword treatise of 1804 by Teotónio Rodrigues de Carvalho which hailed from what is now Brasil, and his system is based on french fencing. Same thing happens with Osorio e Gomez, it carries some, very few british references but the over complicated nature makes it clearly french inspired. I believe this may have happened due to all the french influences of the time which may have been stronger than the british ones, which to me is odd since we have the oldest military alliance so it would make sense to adopt a more british approach. The only british source being used comes much much later (1878) in the form of an adapted re-wrtiten copy of William Tuohy's Instructions for the exercise of small arms, field pieces, etc., for the use of her majesty's ships (1859)

On an added note, keep in mind that Osorio and Gomez was a smallsword treatise with sabre being exclusive to horseback which is a trend of the time in portugal. Even Teotónio Rodrigues de Carvalho was about the same thing but that was an exclusive foil/smallsword treatise.

@@EspadaNegra that is interesting. I know that smallsword treatises were used early on in the 1800s (and back) by the military, as you mentioned, but was the smallsword still seriously considered by officers as a primary weapon by officers even well into the 1840s? I would have thought the sabre (or at least the spadroon) had thoroughly overtaken it by then. Granted, there would have been some swords designed along smallsword lines (mostly the Belgian and the later US M1860 field and staff officer swords come to mind, if I'm not incorrect), but I believe they would have played a more ceremonial role?

Yeah early 1800s and even before there was a prevalence of smallswords being used by officers true, so while Teoteonio's treatise does make sense, the latter one from 1842 would be a bit of a stretch. But since both are actually and technically meant for foil, one could argue as the foil being the preparatory sword for smallsword, and then the smallsword being the basis for everything else. And when we consider feints to other body parts that are not just the torse it does open some possibilities. But yeah by 1840s smallswords were not nearly as used as sabres but it also does vary and there's always some overlap. Smallswords could still be used to settle disputes, and as a dress sword, but details are a little hazy as I haven't researched much that late.

Also would love to know what system you go off of I love learning new pallasch systems all I got is american british german and Austro-Hungarian

It's not the best cutting sword no, but I think a lot of people underestimate the kind of damage it can do. If you ever drop by Portugal let us know ;)

System wise I'm using all my knowledge from british military sabre applying some small things from Valville's Contre-Pointe and just making it all a bit more thrust centered.

I thought i had replied to this but for whatever reason the comment didn't get published. Oh well. Keep going at it with these exercises (and a few upcoming ones) and you'll be cutting from the wrist in no time you'll see ;) I did remember i do have a training regimen that I could probably post as it might be useful for some. Just on wrist conditioning/mobility/strengthening.

It's a custom made one by blackfencer.

Happy you like it. Cuts 3 and 4 for me are also very easy, and for some people some cuts will come more naturally than others even if you're working against gravity (think of smallsword and rapier, how some people have a natural tendency to go nails up or nails down depending on their own anatomy). Yes it does require some conditioning and some wrist strenghth (I'll cover the 6 cut cutting drill in a future video). So there's a lot to dissect on that last comment there. Remember the 1796 was not meant to be used on foot but rather on horseback, and although a horseman is also expected to fend for his life on foot, the sheer weight and balance of an LC would naturally force the use or more than just the wrist (iirc it does have the nickname of wrist breaker for a reason). Radaelli/Del Frate and to some extent Merelo all use a very different kind of sabre that can be lighter in some instances more than others, but the nature of the system does enforce cutting from the elbow instead of the wrist so they do have a benefit to some extent. I do have a video of going up against someone doing Radaelli and you can see how I barely adjust from my Roworth background seeing as cutting from the wrist comes much more naturally and end up exposing less of myself when cutting, granted I was tired after a full day of sparring so I do make plenty of mistakes there. - Rui

Thank you, I found that was one of the major flaws in every other video. When I started this some 10 years ago there weren't nearly as many resources as there are now but I always wanted to really follow his instructions and really showcase how he intended to have these practiced. Glad more people are finding these useful!

It's a mix if I'm being honest. In the coming videos you'll see me pull back cuts only as a safety mechanism but truth be told you don't need to apply a lot of force, the sabre itself carries a lot of momentum and if you pull through with the cut it can cause some nasty damage. If you apply more force than needed the damage will be greater as well, but the curvature of the sabre allows you to use less strength to get some nasty cuts.

Thank you! Definitely still a lot of work to be done on that department but I'm glad it's coming off nicely.

If we're looking into earlier swords that can fit into the system, pretty much anything can. Hangers, cutlasses, mortuary hilts, as well as broadswords who predate the first patterns that came in 1796 (which obviously do fit into the system). If we look into any other broadsword sources the same principle could be applied to some extent. If they were used by the time this system came into effect, I doubt it because they would need to be up to military standards so to speak. Hope that answers the question.

@@EspadaNegra "Hope that answers the question." Not quite, but I think I've posed the question in a wrong way. I'll simplify it and spit it into two parts. 1. What is the oldest (pre-regulation) sabre that we would recognise as a military sabre? Let's stick to British or related to it, let's keep hangers and cutlasses out, and the years can be approximate. So I just look at it and go, ah, a British sabre! 2. When do we see the start of military sabre as a fencing/fighting system? Again, let's stick to British and the years can be approximate. I'm asking this because as far as I know, we had sabres in used way before the 1796 regulations, and thus I assume dedicated fighting systems existed before as well. Btw, it's fine if we don't know. It's also fine if people don't consider anything pre 1796 to be part of military sabre and use that year as a proverbial line in the sand. For me, the entirety of 1700 is a blur. Simplifying things, the 1500s are the years of the sideswords and Italian Wars, the 1600s are the times of the Thirty Years War and religious wars where we see rapiers and rapier hilts even on broad blades, and we also see mortuary swords and the like. The 1800s are the times of military sabres, without a doubt. But 1700? We have hussars in the East, so that's military sabre. But in the West? Even when I go to Wiktenauer, the list of 18th century fencing masters has only two names. So when do we go from mortuary swords and the like to sabres hilts and sabre fighting systems? That's what I'm trying to figure out, because in Britain, this either started way before we (I) typically think about it, or really late compared to the rest of Europe.

So I went ahead and talked with Nick about this, mostly because I can't trust myself seeing as I'm recovering from surgery to be able to formulate thoughts clearly. First we need to understand that sabres themselves and the way they evolved so to speak, and then used wasn't something new. Swords may have looked somewhat different to many others that came before. The long curved sabre blades with relatively compact hilts derived from the hussar and light cavalry trends sweeping across Europe. Britain’s first ever light cavalry regiment was formed in 1759 and used a simple cavalry sabre that we could consider the first. However, basket hilt broadswords and sabres were considered the same family of weapons and taught and used the same. Even the terms were often used interchangeably for both weapons. Therefore the style used with, for example, the 1796 pattern swords was not brand new, but in a long lineage of back/broadsword (think of Angelo's posters, or any broadsword tradition for that matter, etc). Some new language and teaching methodology was introduced around this time, and the swords began to take on their sabre like appearance drawing heavily from Hungarian, Polish and Austrian cavalry swords mostly. So, the 1700s was a period of basket hilt swords as well as many double shell military swords. The change from basket hilt swords like the Mortuary and dragoon type hilts did not happen overnight, but the transition began in the 1750s, and by the 1790s was largely complete, as the last cavalry type basket hilt was the 1788 heavy dragoon model. Remember that a lot of this terminology is very modern as well, like with anything hema related we always try to find umbrella terms for each sword and where they would fit best inside said category. In Britain in the 18th century, sabres and basket hilts (broadswords) were the same thing, just one began to become more fashionable than the other. The trend across Europe was also very similar with Walloon and Schiavona, haudegen etc type swords being popular in the early 18thc, and what we would recognise as sabres becoming extremely popular from around the mid 18thc onwards.

Thank you for this well framed answer, and get well soon! Indeed, this is what I was looking for. So starting with about 1750 we see sabres being adopted in Britain. And 1796 (i.e. introduction of regulation patterns) should be seen as the finishing line for a process, not the start (an important shift in perspective; it makes sense now that I think about it, you make something a regulation when you know what you want to stick with). I guess between the time of the rapier and the time of the sabre, in simple terms, I should think of the basket hilt period. You are right about the names' problem. Backswords, broadswords and basket-hilts were used in the period in a certain context, which is why my brain did not group them together. But now, I'll just think of them all as basket-hilts, with the shell-guards Walloon, Mortuary swords and the like being a subset. It's simpler like that. I'll probably revisit this decision, but for now it suffices as a mental place-holder. P.S. And a bonus thanks! This is the first time I ever hear of Haudegen. I mean, I saw them before, but I was never exposed to the name itself. And here I thought I heard of all sword names in the European area. 😄

I won't lie there is a degree of getting used to it and controlling the blade as you whirl it back into guard. When I first started, just take it slow and go step by step until you don't have to think about it. While on this stage avoid passing the sword so close to you but rather circle it in front of you. It will take some time to fully be able to control it with the correct grip, but overall switching grips as demonstrated does help in controlling the sword as you cut and recover. I do have a lefty in the club as well but the same principle is applied by both left and right handed fencers all around.

Glad you found it useful! Fingers crossed the remaining videos will be just as good :)

A pleasure! :) de nada!

Yeah even though this is just for fun there's always a takeaway out of it. In this case it's even more interesting seeing as all the blades have the same length but behave so differently depending on how they're used.

Having spoken with Catarina and Pedro who made the rotellas and the video itself, they gave me some feedback. But basically it help up fairly well against synthetic since they didn't use steel, but that was about it, they haven't used these in a while so it's hard to assess the longevity. Hope this helps shed some light. Personal two cents is that it should hold up nicely but take it with a grain of salt as more testing would be needed. - Rui

@@EspadaNegra thanks

Absolutely, and it's also very useful not only to build the spring for the lunge but also to quickly be able to shift your right leg back as Roworth mentions.

Thanks!

I'm basically filming my instruction to the class with everyone as quiet as a mouse, but I can't control what's happening outside the hall, usually there's a basketball game at the same time on the hall next to ours which can be annoying. Adding music I did try but it messes up my voice as it doesn't get picked up on that easily. I need to grab a directional mic and aim it at me as the lapel ones often fails and I'd have to film the whole thing again. Sadly my editing skills aren't that great for audio removal.