So we had a tournament in town.

The Sacramento HEMA Open happened this Sunday. I regret that I was not able to attend, but I did score a little video of one of the fights. Enjoy!

He-man and HEMA man, don't get them confused!

I had to steal this a bit due to a technical problem, but this is too funny to not share.

Guest Instructor August 16 & 23

I will be out of town August 16 and 23, so my guest instructor, Daniel, will be running class. Do not scare him off, OK?

Longbows vs Harness (plate mail).

Regarding yesterday's admittedly silly post. Some fine folks have, quite understandably, wondered how bows would have dealt with harness (aka plate mail). Well, here is a test. There are others, but you will see a theme.

You will see that any penetration is pretty minor, less than an inch, and this is at point-blank range with a completely solid hit. Considering that there was likely mail and an arming doublet underneath, it shows that bows are not much use against harness. In the battles of Agincourt and Crecy, where bows were historically used to great effect, it was not because bows could penetrate harness. It was mostly injuries to horses or more lightly armored troops, as most troops did not have harness. Harness was extremely expensive.

How will modern soldiers fare against knights?

"So we want to see what the epic ending to a battle between two of time's most deadly warriors will be? Actually, it's not that interesting. The Marine, my chosen analog for this question, loses, and that is actually not all that surprising."

Link.

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Hema supplies should be available in Sacramento soon!

Pretty soon, perhaps within the month of August, Randy’s House of Games should have products for HEMA. Wasters, blunt swords, gloves, masks, jackets, books, all of these things should be available. Anyone who needs supplies now can get in on the initial order. Let me know, and I will get the folks at Randy’s to contact you.

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Business cards on the way!

I just ordered new business cards, and I used the image below as the background. They should look great.

This is from Hector Paulus Mair's treatise. He hires swordsman and artists to complete his book, and was later hanged for embezzlement. I suppose he had to pay for it somehow.