Postby David Kite » Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:15 am
Hey, Jeff!
My next weapon to learn will be (Medieval) swords & buckler. I say Medieval because at this point I *think* there are subtle yet major differences in the usage of Medieval and Rennaisance swords. Of course the major reason for this is my next sword will be Albion's Museum Line "Solingen" which seems like it will be perfect for S&B work! Besides that there seems to be plenty of material out there so there's bound to be something I can interpret practicably (sp?) on my own.
That said, I have done some work with rapier (the thrust-only kind; what we consider the "true" rapier) before, but being almost exclusively a solo practitioner I found it a very difficult weapon to gain any real proficiency with. It seems to be mostly about counter-timing more than anything, which is something you can't learn solo so I've dropped the weapon temporarily. However, you have a steady group, so you may have greater success than me. One of the biggest problems for me was that I also couldn't understand the manuals very well. Even the ones in English were very difficult for me.
If you're interested in learning (Rennaisance) sword and dagger/buckler/cloak, which I think would be quite different than rapier work, there are also several manuals to look in to. Di Grassi is a manual I know covers just about everything. The English translation is in the ARMARIA, and when I read it, I noticed it mostly boiled down to a handful of simple techniques (principles I guess) common in all weapons. He does utilize cuts, but he's a real fan of thrusting, so he may be a good one to study if you plan on branching into rapier later on. Another goodie is Silver, whose wording can get pretty thick at times, and Swetnam, who I know deals with swords, but I forget off-hand if he works with bucklers at all.
Hope this helps.
David Kite
ARMA in IN
