Novice
Equipment List
"What do I need to begin study?"
This
is our most common first question, but it is also
surprisingly hard to answer. Students begin their study for
a whole range of reasons and for very different reasons.
Some will go on to fight (we hope!) in armour, while others
will compete in unarmoured tournaments (blossfechten), while
many will simply work within the salle with obviously modern
equipment.
Basic Gear
(for form work)
Comfortable shoes, pants &
t-shirt, with two sweatshirts available, gloves and groin
protection along with a waster, a rebated steel weapon, or
an aluminum simulator.
Basic GearBasic Gear (for
sparring)
 A gambeson, padded coat or
plastron. For the head,
a minumum of a high-quality 3-weapon fencing mask--if
possible, with defense added for the back of the head-- or,
preferably, Filipino stick-fighting sparring helmet (see
image at right), for work with sword simulators.
However, for sparring or working at speed with aluminum or
steel swords, a fencing mask is really insufficent and we strongly recommend the
acquisition of a blossfechten-qualified helmet.
Hands should be covered with either
padded gloves of mail, lacrosse or street hockey
gloves, or best, medieval gauntlets. The groin must be
defended with the appropriate gender-specific defense. For
women, the breast area must be defended with adequate
padding.
Extra
Stuff the Novice Might Want
Head
Protection
 The
ideal defense for the head within the Schola is a helmet
appropriate to our period of study; overwhelmingly, the
most popular helmet is the 14th century bascinet, shown
left.
The bacinet has several key
advantages; first, it provides sufficient defense for the
whole head, and with the addition of the mail aventail,
for the throat as well. Second, it allows for
interchangeable visors, including a correct medieval
hundskull (for armoured combat), a grill (taken from the
example on the Bohemian Altarpiece, c.1360; chiefly for
the behourd-style combat forms, as practiced within groups
like the SCA), or with a "pierced" visor like
the one shown. Wth such visors, one helmet can be used for
the whole spectrum of combat forms the schola encourages.
A bascinet like this is the largest
investment that most students will make, unless they
choose to have a superbly crafted sword made by one of the
finer swordsmiths. Expect to pay from $350 and up for a
like helmet; a good quality set-up can easily run $1000 -
$1500. Local students can work in Brian's shop to build
their helmet, or they can be purchased from a few skilled
armourers (see the Links page). Occasionally, Brian will make one or two for sale.
We are planning to do a run of
visors for sale in tempered spring steel, for folks who
already own a bascient. The visor shown is here is a
prototype; the final version will have a much higher
percentage of open space to solid plate, and will be of
tempered spring steel. Helmets can be of 14g.
material for full-contact work, or 16g. for sparring with
the aluminum weapons.
Swords, Batons & Simulators
The study of swordsmanship
requires a variety of tools. First, some sort of simulator
is needed for form work, to step through and practice
drills with. Next, one needs something to spar with,
something that can hit your opponents and yet be safe, yet
still convey enough of the weapon's characteristics.
Lastly, there is a need for a sharp weapon to perform
cutting practice with, to validate technique.
Several of
these might be able to be combined into one, but we'll
discuss each in turn:
Swords
for Cutting Practice
Gus Trim and Tinker have
produced the finest blades we've seen for cutting
drills, though the finest medieval swordmaker in the
world today--Peter Johnsson--produces the
Rolls-Royce of modern sword reproductions. Gus'
swords are available at a very reasonable price, and
we strongly recommend them for cutting drills done
by the Schola.
Swords
for Form Work
Rebated Steel Weapons:
These are now relatively inexpensively available
from several vendors including Therion
Arms and Arms
& Armor. Generally the edges are thicker
than would be found on a historical weapon, and thus
they are a bit heavier. But if you can afford a good
one--from $250 - $550,from a company such as Albion
Swords-- you'll find great benefits in
terms of fuhlen (feel, or sentiment de fer)
and performance.
A number of compagni have adopted the Paul Chen/Hanwei #2106
Practical Hand-and-a-Half Sword. At $89 - $130
--near the price of a wood waster-- these swords are
an affordable introduction to steel.
They
can be obtained through Revival US, and elsewhere online.
Aluminum Simulators:
These are relative newcomers in the WMA community,
though they have been used for a long time in the
entertainment industry. The new -75 series aluminums
are much less prone to bendage and sawtooth
development--for now, this is a very price-effective
option since you can also spar with them. Valentine
Armouries sells a model at $150.
Swordcrafts, in Toronto, produces aluminum
"Liberi" longswords
for $160 (Cdn.) that are AEMMA-approved.
Batons
Rattan: The
SCA has long used batons to enable their combats to
go full-force and with great intensity, but their
performance in terms of historical swordsmanship
suffers because there is little feel and very
different aerodynamics (and usually balance, too,
but there are exceptions). The round baton remains
useful, however, for armoured fighting a plaisance
to build "helmet time" and to compete at a
level difficult to match with rebated weapons.
Shaped Rattan:
In years past the SCA has experimented with a
variety of shaped and composite rattan weapons. Because the SCA
has a rule that no weapon may have a cross-section of
less than 1 1/4", shaped weapons are impractical.
But the Schola and the Company have no such
restrictions, so for armoured fighting combatants are
encouraged to experiement.
Plastic Batons: In reecent years a number
of SCA kingdoms have experimented with using a
plastic tubing sold under the brandnames of Siloflex,
Silverline, or Crestline, in place of
rattan. Opinions on them have been
mixed, and they have not been adopted across the SCA,
so the ease in obtainng information and pointers on
this type of weapon may depend on where you are
located.
Again, for armoured fighting Schola combatants are
encouraged to experiement.
Simulators
Sword Simulators
Impact-Absorbing Shinai-Based
Weapons (CSG-Style): The
Chicago Swordplay Guild has pioneered the design of a
heavier shinai-based weapon encased in a thin leather
sheath. The weapon can be used safetly with a standard
SCA-style helmet or a sturdy reinforced 3-weapon mask,
so we have adopted "some form" of impact
absorbing weapons as the first sparring weapon. Find the
method of making these weapons here, or devise something
interesting yourself!
Scott Thomas, of the Bay Area
Branch and a professional blacksmith has devised a
one-piece steel handle for the CSG-style modified shinai,
which has become standard equipment in the SF
Schola. They can viewed at Scott's website,
and odered directly from him.
Aluminum Weapons:
Right now we favor these for unarmoured sparring. See
the listing above for more details. However, a 3-weapon
mask is really insufficent for all but very controlled
play, so we strongly recommend the simultaneous
acquisition of a blossfechten-qualified helmet.
Poleaxe Simulators
A poleaxe in aluminum, steel or wood is *still* a lethal weapon. Brian has designed (and markets through Revival Martial Arts) polehammer and poleaxe heads modeled on historical models. Some of these models have been modified for use in an SCA capcacity, while others are intended for WMA use. Both of the weapon heads are affixed to a square or octagonal shaft of ash, 1 1/8" - 1 1/4".
Talhoffer 1467 Polehammer Head Simulator: Made of rubber, this weapon-head is designed to allow for hooking and striking of an opponent in full armour. The head still can pack a whallop, which is why we don't recommend sparring in anything less than full armour, but we do use these heads (and the dagues below) for slow and intermediate speed working through poleaxe techniques. Available from Revival Martial Arts and through our general shopping cart site, Revival.
WMA Poleaxe / Polehammer Top & Bottom Dague: A sculpted rubber tip designed for the dague dessous and dague dessus, these tips are designed exclusively for WMA use with poleweapons and as spears. Available from
Revival Martial Arts and from our general shopping cart website,
Revival.
Blossfechten:
Fighting Unarmoured
Safety Equipment Standards to
Come!
Harnischfechten:
Fighting in Armour
The majority of our fighting
experience within the Schola is for medieval armoured combat
using both batons (for the behourd) and to a lesser extend
with rebated (unsharpened weapons). Our emphasis has been
for fighting a plaisance in the pas d'armes, but in our
sister organization the Company of Saint George we have
explored the tournament in many of its medieval iterations
with formats ranging from the 13th - 15th centuries.
But as we do not know precisely what
the medieval fighting treatises were used for, the armour
employed for fighting with batons is not the same as is
required for fighting with rebated weapons. Below is the
minimal requirements for harness for fighting within the
Schola and in tournaments that we sponsor.
Safety Equipment Standards to Come!
|
