It's not much...

Those are nice! I've never seen those, I guess they were before my time.

Still having fun with my smallsword. Here are some good smallsword duels I found on youtube

This one's obviously choreographed, but still pretty cool. Because the smallsword doesn't have a cutting edge, you can just grab the other guy's blade with your spare hand.
[video=youtube;xFIOnZMd3gc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFIOnZMd3gc[/video]

This one doesn't look to be choreographed. I guess they both must be experts and/or insane to be jabbing at each other without face masks or protection.
[video=youtube;KDR_58OSpow]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDR_58OSpow[/video]
 
Is it just me, or does that second one seem insanely dangerous? Those swords look like they have a tip.

A great movie to watch if you like duels is "The Duellists" starring Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine. I think there's 5 duels in that movie, two are with small swords, two with sabers (one on horseback one on foot) and a pistol duel. There are clips of all of them on youtube but I didn't want to link to them because of copyright issues.
 
"Those are nice! I've never seen those, I guess they were before my time."

July of 2013. Wasn't that long ago. Hoping to see them Liberty Knives in person one of these days. We were set for a meet when my wife went in the hospital so it didn't happen. Need to work on a new date.
 
One of the best things about the 2nd duel is that it is a lot more realistic than "fencing" where it doesn't matter if you get stabbed in the head while hitting the other guy in the chest as long as the computer says you struck first. LOL most olympic fencers would die quickly if they had to fight for their lives.
 
So true. I read an article about how historical fencing and modern "sport" fencing have diverged over the years. Fencing has always been a sport, but originally it also served as training for a real duel. The article said the divergence began when they started wearing face masks. That let you do all sorts of stuff that would be far too dangerous to try in a real duel. Then they introduced a point system where the first person to 10 or 15 or whatever points won. So now you didn't need to worry if the other guy stabbed you a few times as long as you were ahead in points. The latest innovation of electric sensors meant you didn't have to get a good hit on the other guy, you just needed to gently brush him so as to set off the sensor.

What you're left with is a fighting technique completely unsuitable for actual combat. It looks like people these days are trying to revive all sorts of "traditional" European martial arts these days including historical fencing.
 
While I think I will forgo the Heidelberg scars, I prefer to train as if I am going to be facing someone intent on leaving cuts.
 
That's why they ended up adding all the safety precautions, too many guys were dying just from training accidents.

Man, I went to three different hardware stores looking for pegboard but none of them sell it. I'm ready to add more swords to my display wall, maybe I'll just hang them from screws in the mean time.
 
be careful. Not sure the material of the wall but screws might not hold much weight in it directly.
 
I put these suckers straight into the studs so I ought to be okay. This'll do for now



Oh, and here's another interesting article about smallsword duels. It sounds like they weren't much like what you see in the movies where one guy runs the other guy through the heart and it's all over. It sounds like they stuck eachother like pincushions and pummeled eachother to a bloody pulp with their sword pommels. And sometimes the seconds or spectators from the crowd would join in and it'd turn into a melee. Basically a modern day brawl but with swords.

http://mmbennetts.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/the-art-of-the-duel-or-killing-each-other-like-civilised-human-beings-and-gentlemen/

http://mmbennetts.wordpress.com/2011/11/27/the-art-of-the-duel-part-ii-from-insult-to-bandaging/
 
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Those sure are cool. I want to come over to your house and play. You got steps?
 
'fraid so, these dang town houses are more vertical than horizontal :(

One of the comments from that article mentions there's vidoes on youtube of "first blood" épée duels from the early 1900's to 1960's. I guess the French were still dueling up until fairly recently. If you go to youtube and type in epee duel you get a bunch of 'em. They seem to last less than a minute and end with somebody getting a little nic in the hand or arm.
 
Yes, dueling to first blood is generally very quick even a small scratch is considered a loss. But you are correct during duels of honor in history duels to the death could last for a long time. That is one reason that dawn was a popular starting time. Though many duels then had to take a break at nightfall and resume (if both antagonists survived the night) the following dawn. From what I have read manytimes one antagonist would be carried to the field in the morning to learn he won because the other guy expired during the night.
 
Wow, that's crazy. I wonder if duels with sabers rather than rapiers/smallswords/epees would have been more humane. I figure if somebody whacks you with a saber you'd bleed out pretty quickly and the fight would be over. With these pointy swords you could keep fighting past an ultimately fatal wound and so you end up with all these "double fatality" scenarios.

On the other hand, it sounds like even back in the days of honor duels many ended after first blood. Often both guys barely knew how to use a sword and were scarred witless. They wanted to get it over with as quickly as possible, then shake hands and go to the bar to get drunk together. Dueling to first blood wouldn't really be as feasible with sabers.
 
Yep as I understand it there are very many sets of differing customs depending on the year, country and even the "class" of the participants. Sabre dueling can also be first blood in fact many "Schmissen" are exactly that, scars from sabre duels to first blood very few sabre duels ended in death in the German or Austro-Hungarian schools. In fact many of the dueling clubs considered the act of acquiring the scar as showing more courage and therefore "winning" than the actual victor of the duel. However you are correct in duels that were to the death the pointy swords certainly appear to have been much more inhumane. I would hate to be the winner yet still die a couple days later from the internal wounds and infection. Ick. Yet before you starting thinking the big hacking swords were always better. Many knights in armor would hack each other to bits for literally days (with chivelrous breaks as needed LOL) before one or the other would claim victory and frequently the victor would also die of his wounds later as well. My rule is that fighting with sharp pointy/cutty objects is always potentially bad for your health regardless of the type of blade and should either be done with all known safety followed OR when it is in defense of your life as effectiently as possible.
 
I wonder how they kept from killing eachother in those saber duels? I guess if you're skilled enough you can just slice the guy a little bit rather than disembowling him? I saw some Mensur "academic fencing" videos on youtube, and it looks like they stand so close to each other you wouldn't have room to really wind up and dismember the other guy.

[video=youtube;RXkAumvxsqw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXkAumvxsqw[/video]

On the other side of the whole "inhumane" coin, I read a very long article about curved vs straight cavalry swords with lots of journal excerpts from cavalry officers, and it seems the wounds caused by a curved saber are much more gruesome than those caused by a pointy sword even if they aren't any more deadly. For instance it seems that if you slice somebody's face across their eyelids, their eyeballs tend to pop out. Perhaps pointy sword dueling was preferred for avoiding that kind of gore.
 
There are walls and then there are walls. That right there boys and girls is a WALL!. I agree with gehazi. Approved.
 
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