Research and Discussion Forums

It's possible, but back then wasn't the whole study of generalship and command an exercise in how to employ mixed units in formation against the enemy, with experiments in different make-ups, formation sizes, and densities? It seems unlikely that the experienced French would screw the pooch that bad...

As you've been discussing, many historians say the English arrows wouldn't have been all that effective against plate armor at Agincourt. Studies seem to confirm that longbows of that draw weight, though damaging, wouldn't have slaughtered the French knights. History confirms this, noting that the F...

I think a common cause of this problem is swords that don't have quite the thickness in the strong as an original, since starting with thicker stock means more overall grinding and higher cost. This thinner forte then gets a big fuller ground into it, which makes the sword lighter but worsens the fl...

Scientific American had an article an article called "The Birth of the Modern Diet", detailing the tremendous changes from the medieval diet of the 1500's to the modern diet in the 1600's. Anyway, eating habits and table manners are highly conserved. You'll notice that in polite society pe...

Ah, but it's interesting though, isn't it, because we all sometimes get hit with a thrust that we're trying to counter. So we swing at the thrust to strike it aside without actually always knowing whether it's going to connect or not, and by the time we know whether it will land it's too late to sto...

Oh, you mean George Silver! Well why really bother, as I happen to have an rare unwritten copy of "A Full Accounting of My Notorious Brother the EDGE-BLOCKING Unpatriotic Francophile Italian Spy and Self-Doubting Swordsman" - Toby Silver, Gentleman, 1602. <img src="/forum/images/icons...

Looking at the Talhoffer plates in another thread, showing a thrust to the chest with the blade edge's vertical (snags on the ribs), brings up another point about the edge/flat. How do you swing to break an incoming thrust when it may already be poking into you by the time you make blade contact? Or...

Hmmm... Following this line of reasoning might give one possible interpretation to Plate 4 1. Weschel breaks ochs 2. Unless ochs twitches into a thrust of wrath 3. And the oberhau used to break the thrust of wrath fails if the thruster twitch back around to deliver a sturzhau. So in 2 and 3 we see B...

Thanks Joachim, Now you've got me contemplating plate 1, and I do think it's related in a couple ways. For those following along at home here's the three plates. Plate 1 Plate 2 Plate 3 I think Talhoffer uses them as a teaching aid, kind of like war-workplace safety posters. Maybe he's not deliberat...

So if I'm following this right then on plate 3 the man on the right (who I'll call Bob) is wounded by the thrust from the man on the left (who I'll call Adam, just to alphabetize them) explaining the blood on Bob's chest in plate 2, and that during the displacment from above, or as a result it, the ...

That's okay Jon. I'm used to heated discussions on swords, but we should ratchet it down a bit <img src="/forum/images/icons/laugh.gif" alt="" /> Part of this heat probably gets back to how we're attached to our own concepts of how to beat on things, and this very same familiarit...

I am also surprised that Silver thought gauntlets could be compromised by wrist cuts. But he did. Maybe I have interpreted it wrongly - if so, explain, don't just make noise. The light blow to the hand is very effective in unarmored fighting or against maille where it breaks fingers, and against a ...

Post deleted at George Turners request as off-topic.

Jon, you illustrate my point better than I could solo. You'll note there are complaints here about those who clutch to any textual phrase to justify their preconceptions. I said moving your sword two feet wouldn't accomplish anything, as it's just a light wrist blow, and you reply with Godfrey. Here...

Jon, Since you have positioned yourself so that you have a leverage advantage, his force is useless. Depending on the technique and how the angles work out, you can use the force of his blow to "bounce" your sword into the riposte, or his sword may be jolted away uncrossing you for the rip...