Papa got a new side sword. Yeow!
My latest addition is Darkwood Armory‘s magnificent “Arms and Side-ring” side sword which they list under the code ARMSIDE. It’s a great example of a sixteenth century rapier which, for me, matches the swords you find in the diagrams in many manuals of the period, in particular, Joachim Meyer’s Art of War, Henri de Sainct Didier and the rest of the gang who published around 1570 or so.
It lacks the complex hilt of later rapiers in favour of a simpler cross hilt with a knuckle bow and finger rings. It’ll be interesting to see how much protection these give in practice. I suspect it will be fine. The blade, while def enough for point-work, maintains a reasonable blade profile for cutting attacks. The weapon is a little blade heavy but I’ve an armourer friend develop the fullers in the standard Darkwood blade a little more fully which has lightened the blade considerably and brought the balance point back very close to the finger rings.
I’ve had a few test bouts with friends in the few weeks I’ve had the sword. I’m really looking forward to giving it a proper work out when training at the Australian College of Arms (ACA) starts again this month. That will be the real test of the weapon’s value.
![<p><strong>Title</strong>: Pegasus Bridge<br />
<strong>Author</strong>: Stephen E Ambrose<br />
<strong>Paperback</strong>: 256 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher</strong>: Simon & Schuster 2002<br />
<strong>Language</strong>: English</p>
<p>Ambrose book is a great read for anyone with even a passing interest in the event but it is not without its faults. It’s purpose should be thought of as an introduction to this amazing event in military history rather than a definitive or in-depth history of the action.</p>
<p>Growing up on war movies and historical miniatures gaming, I’ve pretty much always been aware of the efforts of Johnny Howard‘s lads to take and hold the bridges over […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-arts2-195x110.jpg "Review: Pegasus Bridge")
![<p>New Years resolutions are always broken within a couple of days. Why? Because they are essentially negative in outlook. They focus solely on what you are <strong>not</strong> going to do rather than what you <strong>intend</strong> to do. There’s also no way to means your degree of success other than counting the number of times your fail to achieve them. So rather than breaking your resolutions for 2012, try setting goals to be achieved by 2013.</p>
<p>For strarters, think about what’s important to you. It may be family, career or your hobbies. These topics will form paths you’ll be following in […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-random2-195x110.jpg "New Year’s Resolutions Waste My Time")
![<p>What’s in store for my little corner of the internet this year? I don’t want to say more of the same because I’m not sure that’s right. I don’t want to say there’ll be massive changes either because there won’t be. Let’s say there will be a gentle focusing in on a couple of topic which forever hold the interest of not just me but the faceless masses who read this blog.</p>
<p><strong>Historical Fencing</strong>: This remains a point of focus as it’s such a dominant activity in my life. I’ll be concentrating on the cut-and-thrust single sword techniques in […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-random1-195x110.jpg "The Blogging Year Ahead 2012")
![<p>I figured that since we’re at the end of the year I’d better have a look at how this little blog has performed. None of the stats about which posts and pages were the most popular match what I expected so see. Hmmm….. Perhaps I should change what I’m doing here.</p>
<p>The first surprise is the number of people who read my blog. On average, there’s 730 page views here per month with a daily average rising steadily from 20 per day in January to 35 per day in November. I must be doing something right even though it appears […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-random3-195x110.jpg "My Blog’s Year-in-Review")
![<p><strong>Title</strong>: On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society<br />
<strong>Author</strong>: Lt. Col. Dave Grossman<br />
<strong>Paperback</strong>: 416 pages<br />
<strong>Publisher</strong>: Back Bay Books (revised) 2009<br />
<strong>Language</strong>: English</p>
<p>This is a fascinating read which ultimately tries to cram too much into too small a book. Depending on which of its many and sometimes conflicting aims you are considering, it either succeeds marvellously or fails dismally. At its heart, however, the book explores what happens to men on the battlefield, what it takes to make them kill and how they live with the knowledge […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Grossman_-_On_Killing-195x110.jpg "Book Review: On Killing")
![<p>At the end of Giovanni Dall’Agocchie’s <strong>On The Art of Fencing</strong> (1572), there’s a wonderful aside in which he explains the basics techniques he’d teach a complete fencing newbie who must fight a duel of honour in thirty days. In this post, I want to point out the similarities with the single sword system of Dall’Agocchie’s contemporary, Joachim Meyer, whose <strong>Art of Combat</strong> (1570) includes an extensive chapter on use of the rapier.</p>
<p>I can’t summarise Dall’Agochhie’s essential actions better than has already been done by Steve Reich (Nova Assalto).</p>
<p>Dall’Agocchie proposes to teach the prospective duellist only one of […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/agocchie-195x110.jpg "Dall’Agocchie’s Essential Actions")
![<p>I have a growing urge to create a fantasy setting. Where the urge comes from I have no idea but, given my gaming background, this desire will almost certainly take the form of a role playing world. This post is about inspirations and tying them simply into something approaching a coherent whole.</p>
<p><em>In the far future, the sun is huge, bloated and red. The earth is a desert but for the scattered communities around the former Antarctic circle clinging to the receding shores of the polar ocean. One sprawling tangled ruin of a once great city is our focus. As </em> […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-gaming-195x110.jpg "City in the Dust: A Story Setting?")
![<p>Today my beautiful twin girls, Charlotte and Marianne, would have been three years old. </p>
<p>Happy birthday, my loves. […]</p>](http://sleech.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/category-children-195x110.jpg "Happy Birthday, Charlotte and Marianne")
