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Have you practiced historical swordfighting?

Picard

Starfleet Demon
Are there any members here who are practicing swordfighting? Here I mean actual historical swordfighting, such as Kendo or HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts)? Doesn't matter if it is self-taught, amateur, professional, whatever, just share your experiences, thoughts, and any materials you may find.

Personally, I have practice versions of European longsword and katana (bokken). Former is plastic, latter is wood, but they have really helped me appreciate differences between the styles. Contrary to what some people may think, longsword is actually much easier to handle than katana. Crossguard gets much less in way than tsuba does, allowing user to slide fingers across the guard and blade if required, and pommel allows much more versatile and reliable grip during certain maneuvers than the simple cut-off handle of the katana. Crossguard itself is much more useful than katana's hand guard, and can be used offensively in a variety of ways, not just as hand protection - such as locking and pushing away opponent's blade, or grabbing sword by the blade and pummeling the enemy with it.

Thanks to its design, longsword is not just much easier to handle, but also much more versatile offensively. Katana only has two potential offensive parts - its blade, and tip of the handle (if reinforced with metal). Blade itself is one-sided, allowing for a total of eight offensive cuts (see image below). Longsword has three offensive parts - blade, pommel, and crossguard. Further, longsword's blade is two-sided, allowing for a total of sixteen offensive cuts. Generally, later longswords had blades of spring steel, allowing them to flex and then snap back into shape - under same conditions, katana would bend and stay bent.

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That is not to say katana does not have advantages. Precisely the fact that longswords used thorough-tempered spring steel means that they could not be too hardened. Katana's edge was hardened much more than longsword's, making it better at keeping edge. Further, combination of harder edge - thus potentially sharper edge - and a blade bent meant that katana is much better cutter than longsword. Its shape also allowed the famous draw-cut, which is much harder to pull off with a longsword.

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Thoughts? Questions?

EDIT: The above is just a quick overview, if there is time and interest I may look into some materials I have and expand on some of the things above; just tell me what interests you.
 

tehrugger

Banned
Nope. I own 4 swords, but practicing swordfighting has never really interested me.

Besides, if I ever need protection, I have my trusty Beretta (Murica, f**k yea!)
 
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