The Sickle Fighting of Paulus Hector Mair (Part One)

Sickle Combat!

[@schizoidboy]

Realizing how sharp a sickle can be these are pretty scary techniques.

[@grantcarter3]

As always informative and very well done. Thank you

[@Silatbule]

Great stuff! Love it. Almost identical to Madurese clurit(sickle) techniques that I was taught in Indonesia. Good to see the same applications were taking place in Europe in the 1500s.A truly devastating and almost clinical weapon.

[@purebaldfury]

Thanks to all for the kind words! When we go through the second half of Mair's sickle our goal is to show a cutting demo to give an idea what this tool turned weapon could do.

[@DRIinDorchester]

Ouch! That's gotta hurt!!! Great video, guys.

[@tiamat9989]

Beautifully done!

[@cvbpo]

love it i learned some sickle but of an diffrent kind can not wait to use these methods of this type

[@Taniger12345]

I was wondering when you guys would put up some more pieces from the Exotica. Good show as always.

[@ReeceNelson6]

awesome work guys!

[@slapmagnit]

@DragonnSlayerr The continent of Africa is right across the Mediterranean from Europe, he probably traveled by boat. The Mali Empire, though winding down by the late 1500's, did a lot of trade--particularly with gold. Wealthy Africans living and traveling in and around renaissance Europe wasn't that uncommon.

[@oscarbear1]

very interesting. good job.

[@djemps7983]

@antonsaidmeatloaf No, they are certainly serrated sickles. This allows the tool to better cut various grain and other plants. You can still buy a modern serrated sickle online these days. It is called a Grass Hook. There are examples of serrated sickles all through the centuries, as far back as ancient Egypt.

[@Ashbakhaaz]

great video! Could someone source the music, by the way?

[@3rdEyeBlinking]

For second there i thought this was about Ken van Sickle.. But: This is very intresting indeed..

[@purebaldfury]

@ @ entmage the sickles are serrated. Here is the place I bought sharp versions, (not the ones we used in the video): drillspot com search for serrated sickle or grass hooks

[@herobinemuto9963]

You forget the hammer

[@godthor85]

seems to me like this style has a high potential in close combat fighting (not the nice style where you shake hands afterwards, rather the military style where one is dead at the end), and is impossible to do full speed training without gettin hurt seriously

[@sergireig]

Do you have the Part Two, maybe?

[@ME-hm7zm]

+Sergio Reig I know, right?

[@sergireig]

+Michael Eversberg II Yeah, i still waiting, sniff...

[@Mittilgil]

Забавно, что у Паулиса описанны типичные "крестьянские" орудия.

[@MichalBreslau]

Nice but why would someone fight with sickle against sickle? It would work only if two angry peasants with sickles would start a brawl.

[@DragonnSlayerr]

could someone please explain the african at 0:47?

[@NilAthelion]

Sure: Europe at the time was pretty impressed by Muslims (Arab and African). The first crusade was a successful surprise attack, but everything else after that had gone pretty south, and everyone was impressed with Saladin. Meanwhile the Moors had done pretty impressively on the Iberian peninsula, and the Europeans were sufficiently impressed that they more or less copied knightly ideals of chivalry and knight-errantry from them. Moorish fighters were particularly known to be loyal and trustworthy. Consider, for example, the commentary on Liechtenauer, the main source of the German art of fighting: "Master Liechtenauer learnt and mastered [the] Art in a thorough and rightful way, but he did not invent and put together this Art, as it is stated before. Instead, he traveled and searched many countries with the will of learning and mastering this rightful and true Art." - Nuremberg Ms. 3227a Or, perhaps, consider the role of Othello in service to Venice, as per Shakespeare (somewhat later than Paulus Hector Mair, to be sure). "Othello is a brave and competent soldier of advanced years and Moorish background in the service of the Venetian Republic," as Wikipedia blandly sums it up. Nobody at the time found that to be distractingly unexpected, just unusual at most. So... why the African fellow at 0:47? Because African/Moorish fighters were around and because they were well respected to the scholars of combat in that period. Mair, being a fighting arts fanboy (seriously, have you read his book's intro?), probably felt compelled to include them in his work as a matter of history.

[@NilAthelion]

Also crops up again (same fellow, perhaps?) in sidesword: upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d5/Paulus_Hector_Mair.-_Two_fencers%2C_one_of_African_descent%2C_wielding_an_early_rapier_De_arte_athletica%2C_Augsburg%2C_Germany%2C_ca_1542.png

[@NilAthelion]

On the topic of Muslim/Moorish chivalry, lovingly compiled by the Knights Templar of all people (?!), with impressively good sourcing for everything: www.knightstemplarorder.org/muslim-chivalry-templars/

[@NilAthelion]

The source for the Nuremberg Ms. 3227a quote can be found at the start of "Anonymous fencing advice": wiktenauer.com/wiki/Nuremberg_Hausbuch_(MS_3227a)#Contents

[@TheKriegSchool]

wiktenauer (dot) com/wiki/Treatises

[@slaanghoul]

LOL, what a joke. sickle fighting. hahaha

[@slaanghoul]

Your stand are all wrong too. Never put your blade or behind your head. Always keep your blade in the front for perry and attack. Your first stance is stupid and you will get kill.

[@lancerd4934]

That's only true of modern fencing. If you have a sword which has good hand protection you can do that. Medieval fencing and knife fighting of all periods use withdrawn guard positions to prevent shots/grips at the hand and/or arm. Medieval sword arts emphasize countercutting into an attack from a withdrawn position rather than static parries. Knife fighting emphasizes parrying by distance or grappling to control the weapon hand. Sickles are closer to knives than swords and lack any sort of protection for the hands. That and the short length means a lot of the time you are either far enough away to parry by distance or close enough to grapple. In either case, keeping the hands back except when attacking is a good strategy. This isn't just made up either - they are doing what they are instructed to do by Martial arts masters from the 16th century when sickles were commonly carried tools and readily available as improvised weapons.