Hi!

When I get to the end of a major project I usually clear my desk and have a general tidy up. It’s then very likely that I’ll spend some time making something physical. There’s something about editing video that makes doing woodwork a psychological necessity.

Pretty much the moment I hit “Publish” on the new Vadi course I went out to my shed and got to work cleaning and sharpening my most-used chisels.

As I was slotting them back into their rack, I thought it was about time I upgraded their home. I first bashed out a quick and dirty solution about 6 years ago, and since then I may have acquired one or two more chisels. Most notably the stunningly good Narex “Richter” set. I’d heard about them from woodworking videos online so bought the 10mm chisel, and loved it so much I bought the rest of the set. They are astonishingly good, regardless of price — which is about a quarter the cost of fancier brands. Probably the best price:quality ratio in the chisel world at the moment.

The old rack had slots that fit the regular set (1”, ¾”, ½”, ¼”) from the set they replaced, but there was nowhere for the 10mm (about ⅜”), so it was separated from its friends.

I found a bit of walnut that was long enough, though it had a chunk taken out of it (I forget for what), and came up with this:

Now my Narexes are all together, and my most-used chisels and screwdrivers all have a home.

(There’s a separate drawer for my carving gouges.) I also knocked up a birthday present for a friend:

And now I’m back to editing more video for more course content!

HEMA Bookshelf Vadi Facsimile is crowdfunding now!

My friend Michael Chidester is producing yet another glorious facsimile of an important historical martial arts treatise, in this case De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi, by Philippo Vadi. I was the second person to back it, and yes, I went for the gold ink add-on.

If you want a world-class top quality facsimile of Vadi’s work, here it is. At a very very reasonable price. Buy it and be happy!

Of course, it pairs very well with my new Vadi course, which is currently launching at a 40% discount (which expires on May 5th). See here for more details.

Finnish humour

Finns get a terrible rap for being dour and miserable and having no sense of humour. It’s simply not true. They do tend to be quiet and introverted, but they also produce things like “Kukista ja mehiläisistä” (lit. “About the Flowers and the Bees”, where in English we’d use “About the Birds and the Bees”). This is a 12 minute film that had me and my family absolutely wetting ourselves. We watched it on the Disney + app, but it’s available in all sorts of places. Here’s the IMDB link.

Watch through the credits at the end: the conversation continues with a series of wicked double-entendres. It’s very slightly NSFW, so be warned. It’s even better if you understand the Finnish, but it’s just fine with subtitles.

Cool stuff from the Internet

Antti Ijäs has been exerting himself again, this time finding and translating what is perhaps the earliest text on “Viking” wrestling, known as Glima, dating from 1785. From the abstract:

“Skúli Þórðarson (Skulius Theodori) Thorlacius’s (1741–1815) monograph on the marriage rites of the ancient Northerners (Borealium veterum matrimonia, Copenhagen 1785) includes an excursus into spectacles with a section on wrestling (glíma). Thorlacius discusses the topic with references to contemporary traditions, saga literature, and comparisons with ancient athletics. Thorlacius’s treatise is one of the earliest scholarly treatments of historical Nordic wrestling, predating the Viking revival of the nineteenth century. Acknowledging the recent surge in interest in the study of historical martial cultures, this article makes Thorlacius’s text accessible in its Latin original with an English translation and a commentary focusing on his sources. The edition and translation are followed by a critical appraisal of Thorlacius’s conclusions, with additional notes on the history and meaning of lausa-tök, a wrestling term attested from the early eighteenth century onwards.”

What I’m Reading

I first read Brightness Falls from the Air, in the late ’80s. It’s by James Tiptree Jr (the nom de plume of Alice Bradley Sheldon: a fascinating woman, go read her Wikipedia entry), and it’s the first sci-fi novel that ever really gripped me. I’ve re-read it maybe three times since, and enjoyed it each time, most recently last week. It’s about a group of interstellar tourists who arrive on an alien planet to watch a nova front (basically an exploding star), and see the local aliens too… and then the murders begin. (Kind of.) It’s quirky and weird and a product of its time, but something about it still grabs me at the fourth reading.

I’ve also started on Ageless: the new science of getting older without getting old, by Andrew Steele. It’s a very good overview of the causes of biological aging and what we can do about them. I’m only about a quarter through it so far, but it’s really interesting. Nothing actually new to me yet, but seeing it all put together by a computational biologist (with a physics PhD), who clearly understands his biology and views it through a statistical lens, is really interesting and useful. It makes a welcome change from apologists for a single approach (fast intermittently! take statins! just exercise! just take vitamin D!), and I’ll report back on what, if any, changes it makes to my current health practices.

cheers,

Guy

P.S. I’ve also been interviewing some very interesting people for the next season of The Sword Guy podcast. More details next time!

P.P.S. Please do share the Vadi discount link with all your friends who may be interested: https://swordschool.teachable.com/p/the-longsword-of-philippo-vadi?coupon_code=VADITASTICLAUNCH&product_id=6204895​