Fantastic Weekend05:04 Dec 05 2007
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I was offline most of the last week, mostly for good stuff....
Imzadi arrived late Wednesday night/Thursday morning to spend the weekend and go to a SCA event on Western European Defence (fencing). There were classes on everything from armor design to maintaining persona during a bout to in-depth seminars on the systems developed by Capo Ferro, Swetnam, and St. Didier. I really enjoyed the class on the biomechanics of fencing.
At the end of Saturday's classes, I snapped a picture of a couple of fencing masters who were crossing blades and discussing how their styles differ. Watching them and listening to their discussion was like sitting in on a master class.
I did a little shopping as well, getting a beautiful new fighting dagger and a gorget (neck protector, required for fighting) for myself. My love also has a new gorget, not that I had anything to do with that. ;)
I snapped a couple of pictures of a lady's fencing gear because it was really gorgeous. She'd also done a neat trick with a string run through the seam allowance of the skirt to be able to lift the hems slightly for fencing and still maintain a decorously hidden ankle for walking around.
By far, the most incredible part of Rapier Academy was getting to see the Oakshott Collection of medieval and Renaissance weapons. They brought in somewhere around 25-30 swords ranging in age from 300-600 years old. Now, granted, you can go see some things like these at a museum, but this was very different; they had us wear white cotton gloves so we could touch them, turn them over, pick them up, and get a feel for the weight and balance of the blades...
The oldest one I managed to snap a picture of was a medieval longsword, dated to somewhere between 1480 and 1500.
There was a pretty Italian rapier with a semi-swept hilt that dated to about 1570. I had to pick it up and check it out. The balance on it was extremely sweet, about half a finger's breadth forward of the finger hole inside the hilt. It felt incredibly light and fast because it was balanced right on the tip of the index finger when held in a standard classical fencing grip.
Another Italian rapier dated to 1580; this one was designed with a much more beautiful swept hilt design. The balance wasn't quite as much to my liking, as it was just a shade more tip-heavy; however, that shift in balance toward the tip also made later-period rapiers much more accurate. Note that these blades are still the flat blades rather than the triangular smallsword blades that would come into vogue in the next century.
The other rapier there was a slightly later style with a seven-ring swept hilt, which incorporated the later "clamshell" at the base of the blade to protect the gripping fingers. While beautiful, with a slightly heavier blade to balance the heavy hilt, it's just too heavy for me to be comfortable fighting with. It would be great for a practice blade for building endurance, though. ;)
What I believe to have been the prettiest of the blades they brought actually had some damage to the hilt. There used to be a bow on it behind the cup hilt and quillion crossbar to protect the knuckles, and that bow was broken off at some point in its history. This dates back to about 1640; not very many things look this good at 350 years old besides vampires and rocks! Both the cup hilt and the pommel are pierced completely through in many places in the pattern. The cup hilt depicts a hunting scene above a lion's head on each side, with the rest of the space filled by a floral pattern.
There were two English blades from the period when the transition from flat blades to triangular blades was occurring. One was done with what would become a more common "smallsword" style quillon and knuckle bow but no clamshell or cup hilt, while the other kept more of a swept hilt shape to its cup hilt. They're both 17th century blades, but the one on the right is dated a little earlier than the ca. 1680 given for the one on the left.
As the movement toward the triangular-bladed "smallsword" continued, blades got very light; these are the ones we associate with the classic swashbuckler movies and the Musketeers, as well as The Princess Bride. There were several of these, but my favorite was the "black and white" carved hilt below.
The later blades are not my interest, but Imzadi, whose persona is a privateering sea captain, really loved the two sabers there. The first was a fairly simple one that he just decided to pose with (shown at right). The pictures below are of him and the other blade he liked, including a detail shot of the pierced and etched blade.
Neither of us are too big into the basket hilts that wrap all around your hand, though they offer great protection. They're too restrictive for a proper fencing grip and not really conducive to anything but saber-type slashes. This one was really pretty, though.
Oh, yeah, I got to reconnect with a few people I haven't seen in far too long. And I got to spend lots of time soaking in the hot tub too.
Imzadi and I spent most of Sunday curled up just enjoying each other's company... and mourning the fact that he had to head back home. He'll be back from the 29th till January 2nd so we can spend my birthday and New Year's Eve together.
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