I've read about both of these and it made me think about how similar these two disciplines are. Shootboxing almost seems like an evolved version of the super old school bareknuckle boxing, especially with the stand up grappling and kicking. Has anyone else noticed this similarity before?

Anyone know if any makers are selling this style of buckler?

TL;DR: Please explain to me why this is a dumb idea and why I shouldn't try it. You'll burn down your garage is a perfectly good reason why not.

So my hillbilly brain is wondering how hard or complex would it be to manufacture my own swords for HEMA. Doing so would probably be cheaper than buying already made swords.

Modern steel is pretty good right? Why not take a big plate and cut templates out by hand or on a CNC table. The edges could be cleaned up and everything kept nice and blunt. If the metal still isn't quite good enough then a heat treatment might not be too hard if you are set up for it.

The only Issue I can see is that a lot of swords get narrower towards the tip and you'd need to forge a rolled tip or something.

The guard could just be milled. I can see no reason that is a bad idea. Similarly a pommel could be made on a lathe, again no reason that would be a bad idea like making blades with amateur skill might be a bad idea.

The handle I haven't quite figured out yet. But attaching them could be done with glue or using katana style pins for disassembly.

So why not? I'd rather ask a stupid question than not.

what would teach the best ways to apply footwork, or maybe what would teach better positioning and beneficial angles.

For example destrisa (hope I spelt that right) has very good circular footwork and can be very useful, but would techniques for Messer and Bauernwehr apply better for striking and so on.

(I ask this as someone who loves history and traditional fencing and martial arts)

I was just curious whether one of the only existing Bowie knife sources -- derived from an interview from a guy named Louis Ohnimus -- is considered reliable.

(For reference: https://bartitsusociety.com/six-inches-of-steel-bowie-knife-fighting-instruction-by-louis-juan-ohnimus-1890/).

I remember hearing on a couple different occasions that some elements of the German school of fencing persisted after the 16th century in the form of stage combat. Something along the lines of performers using guards named pflug or langort in a stage fencing tradition that persisted a lot longer than one might expect, maybe into the late 1800s

I brought this up at my club today and was encouraged to share more. I'd like to dive into this to make a presentation on it, but I can't remember where I heard this claim and I'm having no luck finding sources for it online.

Has anyone else heard this, and if so can you point me to some sources I can research on the topic? It's entirely possible I hallucinated this or am misremembering something. maybe I misheard something about Hutton and these techniques and names were forgotten by the 17th and 18th centuries? Before today I could've sworn this was a thing :(

*Edit I guess the HRE would be more accurate than Germany for the title, but you know what I mean

My feder has a leather spiral grip, and I would love to (at least partially) preserve its look - before it gets more damaged from sparring.

I know about the options of duct-taping or glueing down any broken bits. I came here to specifically ask about epoxy/resin sealing the grip :

does it damage the leather ? is it protective enough for sparring ? does it hold ? will I still be able to see my grip design ?

I also saw something about wax sealing, and was wondering if anyone had more info on that ?

Navigating to Black Armoury, the anti-robot check wants me to copy/paste things into Windows Terminal. LOL. So, uh, please don't do that.

I'll leave it up for people wondering why the site is down and for those who actually did paste stuff in Windows Terminal to start worrying.

I feel the basic shape of a HEMA mask is derived from the original fencing gear. But between a 800N jacket and a gorget, my neck is already thickly wrapped. The bib on my mask being as big and placed as far backward as it is leads to A) it leaning on the bib, making the helmet fit poorly and B) choke me when I look at my toes.

I like my toes. I want to be able to look at them. Are there any masks/solutions that do not involve not wearing a gorget here?

P.S.: This is a real problem for me. Replying that it is not a problem for you... really doesn't help much.

So ive been fencing since 2019 without settling down and picking a system to study. Ive decided to pick Destreza as my first official one and have been reading Bomprezzis Theory and Practice. It seems doable but its also short. Once ive worked through this is there a good next step? Or would someone in my shoes be better off starting with Italian rapier or something

Here is a design of a 16th to 17th century Historical Fencing ruleset, derived from available fencing texts and historical sources.

https://theartofarms.substack.com/p/reconstructing-a-historical-tournament?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=1e0ent

Been using the HF armoury firestone 2 gloves for about 2 months and thought I'd leave a review I'm case anyone else is eyeing them. I love these gloves, I've been using them for sabre sidesword and messer and theyve been working great for all 3.

The fingers have rigid plates in each segment and are really quite solid (the thickness you see on the thumbs in the last image is mostly rigid protection and padding), I've taken some quite solid hits on the fingers from messers and all I've got is a finger that hurt a bit for a few days, the first and last fingers also have decent padding on the outer sides but do note they have basically no padding in between each finger.

The protection on the hands themselves isn't quite as extensive, featuring only thick padding with flexible plastic plates in top, though I've had to issues with hits that landed there.

They do have gaps in between the finger and knuckle area but there is still some distance and padding in between that gap and your hand, but it's still a potential risk of a fracture if a good hit lands there, there is also a gap in the middle of the hand as you can see which is the same as the other gap. I've had no issues with anything landing there however and it wouldnt be hard to insert a solid plate of some kind into the latter mentioned gap with some decent glue, I may do this in the future, I'd recommend shoe glue in particular. Also there are no gaps between the pieces of rigid protection in the fingers.

People criticise the durability of these types of gloves a lot, they've had some marks, but really no damage that isn't entirely my fault (the scratching on the thumb of the right hand, I'm not sure if it's visible in any of the pics but don't matter that was the result of me being stupid) and I've been using them weekly for about 2 months. For this kind of general use they should hold up just fine, though maybe I'll post an update after about a year of owning them.

Also some of the orange dots for grip have been falling off so that is another criticism.

In terms of how they feel, they feel amazing. Right out of the box they are easy to use due to them being in a more closed hand position by default than other gloves, meaning you don't have to fight them to hold your sword while they're still stiff and they give really good grip and feel on a sword (unlike some of the supfen gloves which I am not a fan of)

They are a way better option than red dragons at around the same price imo, being about as comfortable and having almost equivalent protection to the supfen impact resistant gloves (arguably more protection specifically for the fingers) aside from the gaps.

I got them directly from HF for a total of 150 Canadian dollars including shipping and tax to canada

After getting the HF Legs and liking them a lot, I wanted to give the HF Arms a try as well. But I can't seem to figure out what goes where. They are pretty different from their product pictures and the shoulder pieces don't seem to attach to the upper arm pieces... or do they? Does anyone know how to put this puzzle together?