What do SWORD GUARDS tell us about SWORD USE? Part 1: Ancient to AD1500

Comments · 365

• SC

  @scholagladiatoria · 4 years ago · pinned

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• TH

  @thescholar-general5975 · 4 years ago (edited)

  I will have to make a video on disc guards. We have a decent amount of evidence pointing to flat and spine parries in period sources instead of edge parries.

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• TO

  @tonyoliver2750 · 4 years ago

  I was in church yesterday for a service of dedication of the local branch of the British Legion&apos;s new standard. The Bible reading was from Isaiah chapter 2 which includes the line &quot;And they will beat their swords into ploughshares...&quot;. All I could think was &quot;Matt&apos;s not going to be happy&quot;.

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• SM

  @smallshadow3856 · 4 years ago

  In the shortest layman explanation of how to use a sword, I cant help but recall the Mask of Zorro. &quot;Pointy end goes into the other man.&quot;

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• EM

  @emmanueleustache179 · 4 years ago

  About the landsknecht sword, maybe that guard is influenced by the fact that it’s a backup weapon, so I’d assume it would more often be used against an opponent’s primary weapon, such as a pole weapon, and rarely against another similar-sized sword; the guard could be optimised for binding with a shaft, in that case you’d put the flat of the sword so that the edge doesn’t bite in the wood and your sword doesn’t get trapped. <br>In summary, against pole weapons, such a guard may offer binding abilities and protection.<br><br>(Just my theory, also I’m not a native so sorry if there are any errors)

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• CT

  @CtrlAltRetreat · 4 years ago

  I think you mentioned that you used to do kendo but what you went through might have been different but the school I attended in how you used the tsuba. Pretty much the primary strike from chudan, the vertical strike to the head with the shinai quite forward where you meet the opponent&apos;s strike with the mid or lower portion of the blade on the flat and return the strike while pushing the opponent&apos;s blade off to the side to bring your blade down on the inside of their strike or thrust between their blade and body applying force to maintain contact. If you&apos;re successful, their blade slides down your flat and onto your tsuba. You general didn&apos;t need to worry about it sliding off of your tsuba and hitting your hands because if it had enough momentum to jump clear of the tsuba, it&apos;ll be clear enough to be out of your way for a return strike and that strike will clear your hands to safety.<br><br>It was so fundamental a stroke that often both kendoka would perform it exactly properly and result in a high edge on edge bind about midway up the blade and both would be looking for one of two primary follow ups, either to again push forward along the opponent&apos;s blade and go for the head sliding along the flats conceptually similar to your thrust in your curved guard example except with a strike, or draw back and release the bind and perform a quick follow-up vertical strike as the opponent&apos;s blade unbalances forward since they were maintaining force into the bind. Either way, the protection along the flat of the tsuba was very much utilized and an intrinsic part of the technique, so much so that I originally was confused as to how western guards were supposed to work when I first encountered hema trainers.

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• RA

  @ramibairi5562 · 4 years ago

  First ! A video on cavalry sabers of the Indian Mutiny &nbsp;please ♡

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• AC

  @acethesupervillain348 · 4 years ago

  Fun stuff. &nbsp;I do hope there&apos;ll be a Kopis/Falcata episode someday, they&apos;re such a unique looking sword

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• TE

  @texasbeast239 · 4 years ago

  Can you hear that? Somewhere Christopher Walken is calling out, &quot;You gotta give me more handguard, baby!&quot;

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• ST

  @stanlim9182 · 4 years ago

  The landsknecht main opponents fought with polearms, I think the sword are backups by placing the flat of the blade against the polearm shaft. The side rings are push up against the shaft allowing the blade to easily lock. As the blade edge is parallel with the shaft, one just needs to glide the flat along the shaft to cut the polearm fingers.

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• TH

  @theeddorian · 4 years ago

  Just a speculation. &nbsp;The general consideration about guards is that they offer hand protection which makes perfect sense. &nbsp;When you look at Asian swords with disk guards, you mention that they seem to appear earlier in Japan and then on the mainland. &nbsp;You also discuss using the flat of the blade in defense as a justification of a disk guard or nagel. &nbsp;Just as a counter intuitive idea, consider how Japanese swords are forged. &nbsp;They typically tempered and quenched in a differential pattern that yields a hard (brittle) edge, and a more flexible, resilient spine. &nbsp;That edge is potentially prone to damage if used to defend. &nbsp;That won&apos;t mean that doesn&apos;t happen, but might not be preferred. &nbsp;I work wood and some time ago acquired a set of chisels that were too hard on the edge. &nbsp;They were sharp, but after a very little use the edges chipped and literally crumbled. &nbsp;I had to grind off a considerable amount of metal and alter the edge geometry t make the chisels useful. &nbsp;So, my speculation is that one factor driving the adoption of the disk guard in Japan might be the preservation of the blade edge. &nbsp;It protects the sword after a fashion as well as the hand.

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• SU

  @superrobotmonkeyhyperteamf3194 · 4 years ago

  Regarding the Katzbalger its interesting to note that there are other versions with not as strongly formed S or 8 shaped guards and that some of them seem almost like they were heavily inspired by Messers. I could imagine the cutting arc being different or/and in the very close quarter combat where there is not much place for parrying, the guard helping with passively protecting its wearer from blows of other opponents while the wearer is &nbsp;trying to strike at his opponent/s. &nbsp;Maybe formations were even thighter than in the middle age because of the long pikes in combination with other arms or people tended to get much closer before getting into really close quarter combat as the name of the weapon tells us.

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