Okay, now I want to see (longer) footage of you and your students sparring or fighting in tournament. I 100 % agree with you, but I see little to no footage online of fencers who do this. Maybe Martin Fabian or Oblinsky could be counted to leaning into that direction. But I want to see a full symbiosis.

wtf was it with ducks dude?

To me they the same thing modern fencing evolved from historical fencing both skills can be applied to one another the closest the same thing

“This week Stu will be making duck noises for 2 minutes straight…” Thanks for the video, really useful

If you think that feels curved, you should see the deep curved version. They arent kidding about strong

Im generally a fan, it is my second favorite training sabre. But you're totally right about the guard with being narrow. Even a 12" red dragon barely fits. But i will say the guard is near indestructible. The blade is nearing the end of it's life but the guard barely has maybe a nick or 2. I also LOVE the grip. Another complain is that i wish it was slightly less blade heavy, and the blade was slightly stiffer in the middle, so it flexes more in the last 3rd. Otherwise a great sword, even if id still take a kvetun over it.

I have to wholeheartedly disagree. The Sigiswords are perfect for first intention fencing. If you want to work your Vorschlag, get one. Reason beeing: Not once in fencing you will feel bad for explosively thrusting anybody. It turns of the concerns in your head, which will make you thrust more, which in turn is gonna make a better first intention fencer. More than any blade with more stiffnes that ends up making you feel bad, because it hurt your partner.

on that note about the schilt angles, what's up with Sigi doing this to the extreme?

I was going to get into HEMA, but having done traditional martial arts and modern combat sports, I've long since learned the value of combat sports, so I started modern fencing last week and will get into HEMA after a few years of training.

On a serious note, there is not as much need for a government body for HEMA as you think. You said it a dozen time, "we don't know what we are bloody doing." That's you my man, I know what we are doing, I don't care what others are doing, and I sure as hell am not going to listen to someone else tell me what my club is supposed to be. I see your point in having regulations on gear, practices, insurance, etc, but without enforcement, it's all meaningless. Lastly, even having the distraction of what is sport hema and what is academic hema won't help anyone because most people are a mix of two. At least in my experience. And having those definitions won't prevent mcdojos and bullshido schools and clubs from opening and claiming the name. And what causes an instant pushback is the way you talk about it seems like you just want someone with the authority from the government to come in and tell people to run a club the way you do it or be fined, that's what it would come down to, and we won't have that.

In our club there is a nice mix of approaches and interests, age groups (18 to 65), people from lots of different backgrounds... most are somewhat interested in the history of it, some more in the sport aspect. The German scene is growing, healthy and very diverse.

People wearing sneakers/brand sports shoes for HEMA and using smartphones bitching about (unproven to my knowledge?) sweatshops in a niche, expensive and elitist (due to price of entry) sport is incredibly funny. Now qc is a whole different can of worms, even if 90% orders are fine (and reviews/ratings from random people online, not just youtubers getting specifically made-for-review gear, seem to indicate it) the risk of getting a sub-par piece of gear protecting one's health... Yeah that is a giant problem.

I’ve found sup fen’s equipment better than spes. Although that’s partly due to spes becoming lower quality over the years.

F

Cheers to the editor, this one had me absolutely guffawing

Im actually extremely excited, iv just found out you guys have a club in my area and ill definitely be popping by in the next few weeks!

I've always thrown half the stuff I've bought away or destroyed it by chopping it up to try and make it work for me. I've wasted thousands over the last 20 years and have also had to change my 'perfect' kit out for an ageing changing shape and dump perfectly good items because my neck vanished or my gut doubled in diameter. LOL. So for me, HEMA has been an evolving (or even devolving) kit problem for the entire span. I don't think it stays static and from the whole pile of stuff here in my man-den, I draw nine different kits for different purposes. And with getting old, I now have to use a set of arming lists or I'll forget something. :-) As for this video advisory, well done there. I've been looking at current kit specifications and and been drifting about wading through all the stuff confused. This neatly does the job. Cool!

I'm 15 and I really want to get into HEMA but I don't know the age ranges for certain programs

Agreed, HEMA doesn't know what the hell it's doing. Suicidal peasants flailing around with swords. Without living traditions to learn from it was always an experiment doomed to failure. Still fun though

The whole "copying" take is everywhere in almost every hobby, sport, even in tech, and etc. To me SF is similar to Title in the boxing scene; tons of similar designs to very renown brands, while still being affordable and quality enough to hold their own, and now diverging to make original product. Companies copy each other all the time but if a big company copies a product from a small renown hobbyist workshop; that would cause a lot of bad tension in the community. In this case however, I agree with the notion that making the hobby/ sport more available for entry by via competent cheaper product is a positive thing. Just that bigger brands then need to step up to be the best of the best.

My fencing club warms up with games that explore historical techniques then make those movements smaller and hyper-precise to see if they have applications in the sport. Sometimes they do. Sometimes it's just fun but the fun is why people come back.

On a useful not you can get them for £40 with the club discount down from the £53 at the time I'm looking it up. The shipping cost does add in, but also the knight shop sells so much useful kit you'll probably be ordering something else anyway. Their shipping is actually quite expensive if I remember correctly so I wouldn't ever be ordering just one thing.

Great video Stu - all about those adult to adult conversations, also harks back to the founding principle of D-BAD!!

I R BESTEST

Enjoy your videos! Keep them coming :)

I'm in Canada. Where is Hema?

But has anyone asked: HOW is Hema?

SUPFEN are the best, period. Best price and quality. The thing about copying is bullshit... Gringos always want to complain about something. If a club is banning supfen gear then let them rot in hell. I dont care about those clubs... Nobody is going to participate in those events. You attack SUPFEN, you attack people with less means. Without supfen, people in south america simply wouldnt be able to buy gear... Those complains come from maintained people. if you make your own money, you spend it however the F you want. Fck U and your 2000$ gear.

We use them for thrust training because they are very soft and forgiving.

We have a lot of SF kit in our club. Not only is it great value but we can get it customised to the hilt. Their more recent stuff is much more original than some of their earlier kit may have appeared. I own enough kit from various makers to see that there are similarities and differences in all of them

Also, if you want a £30 sword that you can fight your mates in a t-shirt with, today we have Go-Nows. Which deform less, are less slippy in the bind, and give you less welts through your t-shirt and inadequate Red Dragon gloves while remaining £33.60 plus postage. Bit of a no-brainer, really.

I'm kind of late to the party, but I think it'd be important to consider that all the gambeson and protector designs are modern interpretations of the same pieces from 5 or 6 centuries ago.

Imagine you have a national governing body and all of a sudden a commercial self defense and bjj club joins to offer real fucking swordfighting (based on escrima). I dont have to imagine.

I make my own trainers and gear over the years I've gotten pretty good at making swords and if i get better i might start a club and try to disseminate historical fencing on my city

Great video for people getting into the hobby, our club basically recommends the same stuff. However I think it's worth mentioning false economy here, because it's an important issue facing someone getting into the hobby on a budget. Is your goal, as a cash-conscious new starter, to pick up a synth and get stabbing as cheaply and quickly as possible? If so, Red Dragon has you covered. However, there's another possibility - which is having the goal of reaching Steel level gear with the absolute minimum of wasted cash along the way. If that's the case, I'd skip over Red Dragons completely in favour of a SupFen bundle (which if you email them, they are happy to edit to your preference). As Stu says, the RD gloves are nonviable for Longsword. You need clamshells. The RD shins aren't exactly great either. The RD jacket (while safe) is something of a heavy horse blanket. If you only want to buy each type of PPE once, and you're certain your end goal is Steel Longsword - I'd skip the RD step completely. Side note: a lot of HEMAists run under-sock hockey shinpads (such as the Adidas Lux or cheaper equivalent) and KneePros with their fencing pants, rather than over-the-trouser shin options like RD and Supfen offerings. When you're on a budget, it's also good to know what order to get things in. For HEMA, it's "Weapon last. Protection first." because you can easily borrow a sword. You don't want to borrow sweaty jackets, masks or gloves. To take part in basic drills and light sparring with foams/boffers and synths - Mask, Gorget and Gloves. To do more intense sparring with synths, and drills with steel, add jacket, elbows and forearm plates. Once you've got that in the bag, get leg PPE (first knees, then shins, then pants, in order of importance) and a mask overlay to make you steel sparring ready. Steel sword last. No matter how much you want one, or how pretty they are. No point in owning a feder when you've got broken hands.

can we all agree that saving money and swearing are some of the best things in life (and getting some great advise as well i guess) 😅

I approve of the swearing.

As a guy that believes everybody deserves to fence, I absolutely love this topic 👏 👍🙏

Ya. I ordered a shield fro purpleheart. it was 110. but it was 350 CAD by the time it got to my door. I like purple heart stuff. but shipping and import charges + tax. Get you right where the sun dont shine. Id probly get something from US if shipping and stuff was more reasonable. for a full kit from supfen, shipping was like. 100 dollars. but its from pakistan. and I got some extra doo - dads too. not just a full kit. was still under 1000. i bet purple heart would be near 2500 or even more for what I got. not purplehearts fault. its Trumps lol. SUcks for them in a way though. But if I wanted a custom jacket id probly get AP NG coppy from supfen because they will customize for you. and id get what i want less then 50 percent of what the purpleheart verson sonst. because it dosent come form the US . at least thats how it is for canada

Used one tonight and it really felt like half way between a hema sabre and sports sabre. Really light and nimble, though I’d worry about beats and parry inertia. Think I might have to get one…

I'd like to see a review of where sword fighting has been done really well, for comparison. It's where most people have their first introduction to it, so be good to hear thoughts on what people should and shouldn't take into account when thinking about joining a club and learning for themselves :)

I know it's what all the cool kids are doing these days and probably helps with algorithms and channel publicity, but I really have no interest in 'reacts' or 'picking apart Hollywood' videos I'm afraid. Happy to just listen to Stu chat about things that are a bit more directly relevant to the hobby like kit reviews or topical discussion! Would very much look forward to some bout reviews though - tactics tried by the fighters and mistakes made, areas to improve for each of them etc.

Great review, could you do trousers at some point please.

Think it’s quite handsome. But it feels so slow- feels like I fence at x.75 speed. It does seem to rather terrify opponents in a cut, and binding/winden feels solid. Defence against helicopters is hopeless with this.

😴 𝚙𝚛𝚘𝚖𝚘𝚜𝚖

It’s officially the banana sword now 😂 tbh I thought the opposite in my hand, felt more straight but I guess that’s everyone’s different views on it 😊 I still want one!

Would love them to keep the hilt design, but taper the blade a bit more and start the base width around 20mm.

Agree, i do for 15 Years Wing Chun with lots of Sparring and for 3 years now BJJ so.. In Wing Chun were using knifes as well but in a Knife fight you will get cut and even when youre good in boxing the fight often turns to a ground fight and under pressure youre maybe able to use 10% of your learned skills.. And with todays morality (opponend has hidden Knife or is bigger maybe also with martial arts Background or multible opponents with kicks to the head while youre on the ground...) only advise is be aware of the Situation.. Most Situations can be de-escaladed with your mouth better than with fists.. But there is 1 Situation where i might use a Wakizashi and tanto. . In the case someone breaks forcibly in my house with intention to harm my family, therefore i would Accept jail or death... Thank you for youre helpful content.. Id like to try hema here in Germany one day .. i think its an Interesting Sport with Interesting people

Oh and I can second the shout out for Tim's scabbard. I've several from him, and another in the works. Very high quality.

Sigi Gothic is a beautiful sword. I completely agree, Stuart, it's sweet spot is second intention from watching others use it. I've got one on order. :)