Kunst Des Fechtens (Wednesday 20:30 – 22:00)
Our “Kunst des Fechtens” class features a true combined-arms approach to combat; we study a variety of different weapons from the late medieval and renaissance German school of fencing.
Our primary weapons in this class are the longsword and the dussack/messer, and this is accompanied by equal parts dagger and unarmed techniques, and from time to time we may also drop in the odd lesson on spear, staff, pollaxe and other weapons when it supports our studies with the longsword, messer, dagger and wrestling.
Cut & Thrust Fencing (Tuesday 18:30 – 20:00)
Our first class on Tuesday evening is a class looking at fencing systems c1600 – c1800, utilising the broadsword/backsword, rapier, smallsword and sabre.
Our primary sources are the works of George Silver, Joseph Swetnam and Zachary Wylde, supplemented by work from Sir William Hope, Donald McBane, Thomas Page and others. We will look at the use of the dagger and other implements n the off-hand, as well as occasional forays into related arts like cutlass, and sometimes delving into works from the continent to further our studies.
Longsword & Staff (Tuesday 20:00 – 21:30)
This class focuses predominantely on the use of the longsword from the small number of surviving British manuals that exist, and the staff using various sources from around the British Isles.
In many British sources the staff and two-handed sword are interchangeable and our intersciplinary approach treats them as such for much of our curriculum.
This allows us to occasionally explore other weapons such as the bill, pike, and more.
