Hi!

I have two mysteries for you this week. First up, what is this? Hint: they come in pairs.

The joint, in case you’re interested, is a wedged through-tenon. Not my favourite joint to cut, but this one came out ok.

And secondly, this is the St. George Church in Hanover Square, London. Why, as historical martial artists, should we care?

Answers by replying to this email… I’ll reveal them in a couple of weeks.

I spent a day last week with my friend Sergio Muelle of Twisted Horseshoe Knives, having a go at making figure-8 foil guards for smallsword purposes.

I mean, you can use a modern foil. Nothing wrong with them, so long as they have the French grip. But aren’t these simply cooler?

The process needs and deserves a long blog post.

These guards came out inevitably a bit big, and a bit rough (I wanted six usable ones, for reasons which will become apparent in due course). But they feel awesome in the hand. The foil on the right is the antique original we based our copies on.

The pommels were made by my friend Jan Kukkamäki, the blades are from Allstar (that’s not a recommendation. They arrived in pretty grubby condition, and aren’t the nicest blades in the hand, but I needed non-electric foil blades with a long tang threaded for M6, and they were what I could find. If you know of a good supplier of better blades, let me know!). And yes the leatherwork is crap, these are test pieces, and I can tidy them up later.

I spent last Saturday up in London, taking that photograph of St. George’s Church, and attending the annual British Watchmaker’s Day. It was awesome. I’m a wristwatch looney, without the budget to really indulge, but spending three hours entirely surrounded by people who get it was delightful, even though I wasn’t there to buy anything. I think it reminds me of the early days of sword events, where we were all just relieved to find out that it wasn’t just us and three friends who wanted to fight with swords in a historical manner.

My favourite watch of the show? Up against some very stiff competition, the watch I regretted most not buying was this glorious thing with an aventurine dial from Pinion. Oh my. At least it was on my wrist for a moment :)

No, I’m not spending £1350 on a watch. From a watch perspective, that’s very, very, good value, and not at all expensive. But it’s still too much money at the moment.

OK, here’s the solution: if everyone on this email list went and bought a book or course of mine, right now, then you know what? Aventurine dials all round.

Go on, you know you want to.

Wiki Updates

We are now up and running on the new server. Please check any wiki links you depend on, to make sure they still work. They should. Let me know if you have any trouble. I’m massively upgrading all of it, bit by bit. I’ve got Capoferro’s plates 5-16 done, with a spiffy new template and everything. Do take a look (here’s the wiki Capoferro hub page) and let me know if you think it, or the updated plates, need any changes.

Stand by for an extra email next week, on Tuesday 17th, the School’s 25th birthday. There’s cool free stuff coming :)

The most recent podcast episode is a direct result of my asking you, my newsletter readers, for things you want me to cover in the coming year. In this case, ageing disgracefully, sword in hand. And the conversation with Deborah was the spark that lit my current smallsword obsession.

On The Sword Guy podcast: Swords in your seventies, with Deborah Fisher

Deborah Fisher is a member and instructor with the Whidbey Swordplay Association, a historical martial arts club on Whidbey Island, a ferry ride north of Seattle, Washington. She specialises in rapier and small sword. Knighted as Dame Virago, she is a former assistant director and instructor for the Seattle Knights, the Pacific Northwest’s premier sword fighting and jousting theatrical troupe. And as Captain Highjack, she is the former leader of a very scurvy and entertaining band of pirates known as the Pirates of Puget Sound. We talk about how and why Deborah got into swords at the age of 50, and what her current training looks like in her 70s. We discuss how some physical and mental abilities change as you age, but how one’s peak is still an attainable future goal.

Deborah is a professional writer, specialising in instructional materials for teachers, health-care practitioners, and community youth advocates. She has written six books on positive youth development and served as a national trainer for the Minneapolis-based Search Institute. She is also a co-author of Stamp of the Century, a nonfiction book about the history of flight and a famous airmail postage stamp called the Inverted Jenny.

cheers,

Guy

​
​