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 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).  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

• A "blossfechten" qualified helmet instead of a fencing mask.
• A gambeson; especially recommended are Nicole Allen's version, available from Revival Clothing.
• Long-cuffed gloves
• Tai-Chi shoes or, better, medieval shoes
• A linen or silk shirt
• A rebated steel or aluminum simulator
• A sharp cutting practice sword

 

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 - $1200. Local students can work in Brian's shop to build their helmet, or they can be purchased from a few skilled armourers: Charles E. Davis, Anshelm Armouries, to name a few. 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

• Wasters: For the past few years, folks have used fine-quality wasters from Purpleheart Armory--basically wooden swords--as a "safer" alternative to rebated steel weapons. While these are effective for those on a budget, we generally prefer students to use a rebated weapon or aluminum simulator. These cost from $65 - $75.

• 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--you'll find great benefits in terms of fuhlen (feel, or sentiment de fer) and performance. 

• 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 while David Baker will do custom ones from $250 and up.  We don't know what the future is for these weapons, but at first blush we are impressed for both form work and for blossfechten. 

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 not only a variety of shaped and composite rattan weapons, but with many plastics and material combinations. 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. 

• 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!

• 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.
   

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!