Historical Swordplay & Western Martial Arts Schools  

Historical Swordplay & Western Martial Arts Schools  

Equipment for Historical Swordplay & Western Martial Arts

Darkwood Armory swords, daggers, armor www.darkwoodarmory.com/

Mandrake Armory www.mandrakearmory.com/

The "Mary Rose" Trust Henry VIII's flagship excavation, museum, shop  www.maryrose.org/

The Oakeshott Institute for the study of ancient arms and armor www.oakeshott.org/

Popinjay rapiers and equipment www.popinj.com/

ragweedforge.com/ SCA-&-buckskinner, upstate NY -- makes knives & stuff (Tomahawks!); also sells commercial historic cutlery.

Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. www.sca.org/

SCAhunt personal and merchant sites www.scahunt.com/

Syke's Sutlery books, clothing & equipment, swords, wasters www.sykesutler.com/ 

Terry "That Guy'"Tindill stainless steel perf-plate don't-call-it-a-helm masks & gorgets  www.thatguysproducts.com

Therion Arms www.therionarms.com/

Turtletrauben wooden wasters:  greatswords, single swords, daggers 

WMA Illlustrated magazine  www.WMAIllustrated.com  

Modern Combatives

Some Favorite Quotes

Cherokee Ten Commandments

• The Earth is our mother; care for her.
• Honor all your relations.
• Open your heart and soul to the great spirit.
• All life is sacred; treat all beings with respect.
• Take from the Earth what is needed and nothing more.
• Do what needs to be done for the good of all.
• Give constant thanks to the great spirit for each new day.
• Speak the truth, but only of the good in others.
• Follow the rhythnms of nature; rise and retire with the sun.
• Enjoy life's journey but leave no tracks. 

--Cherokee Wolf Clan www.cherokeewolfclan.org

One man with courage makes a majority.                                --Andrew Jackson

Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, raise the black flag, and start slitting throats.                                                        --H.L. Mencken

Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.                                                             --Benjamin Franklin

Take time to deliberate, but when the time for action has arrived, stop thinking and go in.                                                                                       --Napoleon Bonaparte

Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear-- not absence of fear.   --Mark Twain

This is the final test of a gentleman: His respect for those who can be of no possible service to him.                                                                      --William Lyon Phelps

USMC Rules For Gunfighting

• Bring a gun. Preferably bring at least two guns. Bring all of your friends who have guns.
• Anything worth shooting is worth shooting twice.  Ammo is cheap. Life  is expensive.
• Only hits count. A close miss is still a miss.
• If your shooting stance is good, you're probably not moving fast enough nor using cover correctly.
• Move away from your attacker. Distance is your friend. (Lateral and diagonal movements are preferred.)
• If you can choose what to bring to a gunfight, bring a long gun and a friend with a long gun.
• In ten years nobody will remember the details of caliber, stance, or tactics. They will only remember who lived.
• If you are not shooting, you should be communicating, reloading, and running.
• Accuracy is relative: most combat shooting standards will be more dependent on "pucker factor" than the inherent accuracy of the gun.
• Use a gun that works EVERY TIME.
• Someday someone may kill you with your own gun, but they should have to beat you to death with it because it is empty.
• Always cheat = always win. The only unfair fight is the one you lose.
• Have a plan.
• Have a back-up plan, because the first one won't work.
• Use cover and concealment as much as possible.
• Flank your adversary when possible. Protect yours.
• Don't drop your guard.
• Always tactically reload and threat scan 360 degrees.
• Watch their hands. Hands kill. (In God we trust. Everyone else, keep your hands where I can see them.)
• Decide to be AGGRESSIVE enough, QUICKLY enough.
• The faster you finish the fight, the less shot up you will get.
• Be polite. Be professional. But have a plan to kill everyone you meet.
• Be courteous to everyone, friendly to no one.
• Do not attend a gunfight with a gun, the caliber of which does not start with a 4.

An old soldier's perspective on combat and compassion (May/June 2004)

From: http://weblogs.csmonitor.com/my_american_experience/ :

Sixty years ago I had experience with both American and German prisoner guards. I formed some opinions. Both nationalities had ample propaganda thrown at them before entering the military (recall movie house news reels such as "the eyes and ears of Paramount") and entered their armies convinced that the enemy were "dirty rats".

I did, and it took me at least two weeks of constant combat to realize that those guys shooting at me had to live in the same mud and snow that I did. A kind of compassion built up, and when they surrendered we were considerate of them. But it didn't extend to the non-combatant soldiers behind the front.

My platoon once got a break and had to guard a trainload of 500 German prisoners back to Cherbourg. One German was wounded and they called me from their boxcar asking for help. I called the medic and told him that the fellow needed attention and he refused to get in the boxcar with "all those Germans", he hadn't developed enough compassion yet. So I gave him my automatic rifle to hold, took his medic kit, asked him what to do, climbed in the boxcar with "all those Germans" and got down on my hands and knees to look at the guy and do what the medic said. Although the hole in his chest looked fine he was weak with fever.

When we got to Cherbourg we were surrounded by a company of MPs. They hadn't been to the front, pants clean and pressed. The wounded German was the last to leave his boxcar; he stood briefly at the door and then jumped to the ground but his legs were so weak that he kept on going down to his hands and knees. The MP waiting for him immediately hit him on the head with the stock of his Tommy Gun and my platoon shouted at the MP to take it easy, the guy was wounded. He caught on and helped the German up and walk away.

Two months later it was cold, and dead people froze stiff. Most of my squad got surrounded and captured; everyone of us except the medic was wounded, and we surrendered. A week later I was in a boxcar with 39 other captured and wounded Americans when the train stopped in the northeast corner of Germany. I had been weak and feverish all week (I think it kept me from freezing) and when it came time to get out I jumped to the ground but kept on falling to my hands and knees. I remembered the German at Cherbourg and waited for a rifle stock to hit my head. Instead strong arms lifted me to my feet by my arm pits and helped me to a tree stump where I could sit and rest.

I wondered about this and other kindnesses in comparison to the way the MPs treated our prisoners, and gradually realized that the guards were all front-line soldiers, sent to guard duty as a rest, or 60 year-old Germans that were unfit for combat but had learned the way the World went. They almost all had compassion for us.

Of course there were some exceptions with chips on their shoulders, but for the most part we only had animosity from the civilians and we depended on the guards to protect us from them, and they did.

That's how prisoners should be guarded, by people from the fighting front or by old men. Not by youngsters that haven't learned compassion for the enemy.

I get the feeling that the guards causing trouble in Iraq lack front line experience.

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