Reverse knife fighting

[William Savage]

am i correct in the assumption that dagger fighting in the middle ages was done blade down?

does anyone know if they teach "regular" or reverse knife combat in the military today

and can anyone see why we dont issue our soldiers 20" daggers? arent they still the best?

[Joachim Nilsson]

Talhoffer has got a whole bunch of plates in his manuals where the swordgrip is utilized.

[Martin_Wilkinson]

I don't know about the middle ages, but there are two (to my knowledge) guards in Marozzo's knife fight, and i read that as one blade up and one blade down. Marozzo is 16C, if that's any help.

[Mike Cartier]

Meyer certainly has both grips

[Jay Vail]

Meyer describes actions for both the forward and reverse grip. However, most of his techniques involve the reverse grip, at least as far as my translation (by Forgeng) is concerned.

Indeed, most actions with the dagger in the Medieval MS are with (and against) the reverse grip. Peterson claims to have surveyed contemporary artwork for use of the dagger and claims that the overwhelming majority of depictions of dagger use involve the reverse grip. As an example, look at the Mac (can spell it) bible. There are numerous examples of use of the dagger and all but about two involved the reverse grip, including a number of interesting examples of dagger fighting on horseback. (I had thought that dagger fighting stuff on horseback in the bible was an aberration until I say a 17th century Japanese painting depicting use of the tanto on horseback.)

Don't like the reverse grip myself.

[TimSheetz]

I used to not like the reverse grip but as I do more dagger work I have come to enjoy it immensely.

Had a chacen to test cut with knives against the cardboard tubes that carpets are rolled on - very heavy duty...

But with the reverse grip.. "It was just like butta.'"

Peace,

Tim

[Logan Weed]

20' is pretty cumbersome for something that may never actually see use as a weapon.

[TimSheetz]

What???

I don't get what you are saying.

Tim

[JeffGentry]

Hey Logan

when I was in the Marine Corps I carried my own personnel 14 1/2inch bowie almost everytime we went to the field, i could see a 16/18inch combat dagger being no problem to carry.

Jeff

[TimSheetz]

Logan,

I guess you were talking about knife lengths... I wasn't sure when I read your post earlier.

I think Jeff is right.

I carry a 12 inch on my field gear (which I really don't wear very much any more).

Back in the day when I was Infantry, I carried a 21 inch machete, too. (And that was back before I was actually dangerous with hand weappons! )

Tim

[Martin_Wilkinson]

When i do Sword and Dagger, i use a 12 inch viking saex... the length is nice, it's not too long, and not too short, for defensive work.

Martin.

[Guerin Samuel]

Does a sword not good for reverse fighting?

[terry brown]

Does a sword not good for reverse fighting?

If you visit here:

http://www.aaoema.com/forum/general-dis ... eian-3542/

Then click on this link:

http://aaoema.com/Two-Hand-Sword-Translation-SECURE.pdf

then go to page 8 of the PDF you will see an early 15th century depiction of the two hand sword being used for a one-handed downward thrust.

[Andrew F Ulrich]

Does anyone know if the following historical account is accurate (about 8 paragraphs down)?:
http://www.gutterfighting.org/StyersBowie.html

If so, it might help explain why they don't anymore.

[Guerin Samuel]

Thanks terry brown.