Birthday greetings from my sister!

papermama:

Made with Paper

(via anniepopannie)

unicornsandcarrots:

Respect au Maitre. Honneur aux armes. #fencing #escrime #fechten #scherme #salute #foil #competition (Taken with instagram)

The foil of Damocles? Anyway, that’s a great name for a young fencer, or perhaps that’s the name of his school. 

(via iamafencer)

Want to improve school performance, and help solve the health care cost problem? Start with walkable and bikable streets!

“Childhood obesity rates are soaring, youth participation in sports and other active pursuits is plummeting, and a generation is coming of age with little understanding of the joy and freedom of unsupervised play. There’s a simple solution—but all across the nation our schools earn a failing grade when it comes to letting kids ride their bikes.”

I don’t quite think the principles acted in accordance with Saviolo’s book On Honor and Honorable Quarrels, but I have to give it four out of five rapiers!

A friend is competing in the Art Takes Manhatten competition. This is one of his entries.

musingsofafreifechter:

chivalrykeep:

art-of-swords:

Facts about Rapiers: Rapiers Were Heavy & Slow

(Since so many of you reblogged the Rapiers, well, here some facts about these weapons)

Contrary to popular belief, from a modern perspective, these pretty weapons, the rapiers, were rather long, heavy and slow swords; in fact, rapiers were as heavy as most single handed swords of the day, and heavier than modern cavalry sabres. In contrast, later small-swords had a weight about one third of that of a rapier.

That the opposite perception prevails is attributable mostly to the 19 century novelists who projected onto the renaissance the vastly faster sword play of their own age. This trend was further accentuated by the motion picture industry which has and continues to present rapiers as capable of all the adroit blade to blade actions of the modern sport fencing weapons.

The reason behind the rapier’s heft were numerous, but probably the main one was that it was initially opposed by heavy weapons and thus blades had to be sufficiently robust to withstand their onslaught. In any event, it was this weight, plus the long blade, that imparted to the rapier a slowness of point that restricted it to fencing in single time.

Whilst the rapier may have been an acceptable dueling weapon, George Silver’s objections notwithstanding, its long blade must have placed it at a disadvantage in self defense situations; It was slow to draw and difficult to maneuver in crowded or tight settings. Nevertheless it offered sufficient advantages, over the alternatives, to make it the weapon of choice for over a century and a half.

Source & Copyright: Chris Evans on Sword Forum

I feel as though I should provide some further commentary.

While rapiers are significantly heavier than most people think they are — on average, heavier than a longsword, for instance — they’re not actually “slow” as such. Fighting in single time is less a restriction in historical forms of fencing and more like a default, so lengthy, “heavy” weapons made sense. Consider also that the rapier, while able to cut, isn’t designed for the deep hewing gouges of arming swords, longswords or broadswords, the cut instead being more subtle and powered by the wrist. 

In fact, a rapier cut is more like an intermediate between two thrusts. Most forms of European fencing have their practitioners move from guard to guard with offensive and defensive techniques — one is always acting or in a position of readiness. Since all rapier guards have the sword pointed towards one’s adversary, and all techniques move from guard to guard, a cut can serve to reposition for another thrust while threatening an adversary. 

Another way the rapier makes up for its weight is via its emphasis on the thrust. While it’s debated to this day between fencers whether a cut or thrust is the more effective and efficient means of attack, it’s well-known that thrusts are faster, courtesy of travelling in a direct path towards their target. Furthermore, a thrust can contain a parry within itself if it closes the opening an adversary is attacking, just like a cut. 

The rapier’s major weakness is its obsession with the thrust. A guard with the sword pointed at one’s adversary is easily taken offline by a strike from a more cut-efficient weapon to the correct location on the blade, and thrusts are easier to avoid and parry than cuts. A rapier is a finely-tuned, deadly weapon, but it’s not the de facto ultimate duellist’s blade — it’s one out of many strong duelling swords that saw popularity in the mid-late Renaissance and served its function until needs and fashion changed once more. 

Thanks chivalrykeep for adding that… makes the above statement much clearer on the meaning that while rapiers are not slow heavy weapons, they do not produce the whippy sport fencing moves we commonly see in Hollywood. 

Now a question for you: rapiers are heavier than longswords? That’s surprising. How heavy are they? (I have no experience with rapier)

I started fencing rapier 20 years ago, so I feel I have some valid experience to draw on.

All the published weights I’ve seen of surviving period rapiers put them at slightly lighter than a longsword, with most in the 1 to 1.5 kg (2.2 to 3.3 lb) range. Granted, this is considerably heavier than a modern sporting foil, saber or epee (0.5 kg or less).

Also, I haven’t had much luck taking a rapier offline with a longsword. A simple disengage (similar in concept to changing through for you longsword types) and the rapier fighter has an open line to your chest before you can recover.

I also find that I have to use the shoulder and elbow to control a rapier. The wrist isn’t really adequate for more than minor point control adjustments. Unlike an epee, the rapier is heavy enough that it is best rotated around it’s own center of mass. For example, to drop the tip, raise the hilt slightly.

The best movie rapier scenes I can think were in La Reine Margot (Queen Margot) and the 1973 version of The Three Musketeers.

Only 17 months? I’d have called it attempted vehicular homicide, or whatever the UK equivalent is! With the curb bumpout approaching, the cyclist had nowhere else to go.

guardian:

This is shocking —>A bus driver who used his bus like a ‘weapon’ to knock a cyclist to the ground has been jailed for 17 months, a court official said. Gavin Hill was shown on CCTV in an exchange with cyclist Phillip Mead before he lurched the bus sharply into the cyclist’s path, throwing him from his bike

(via thegreenurbanist)