What a brilliant presentation with well explained tactics. And the Smatchet has earned a serious place in history as a worthy combat blade. I own a few Smatchets and love them dearly. My favorite however is a custom that has both edges sharp. I have an early Boker as well as an original OSS version which now has become quite the collectable. It is very true that once you unsheath this knife you will feel what it was like to carry and use these in battle. Sometimes modern warfare leaves some of the finest well thought out designs as a distant memory. Anyone who has held a Smatchet will understand what I am talking about. The original model I own is from WWII and the knife itself is in very good condition. The sheath ( scabbard to some ) is rather rough. I had to have a custom sheath made for it. The original Smatchet shared space with a Fairbairn Sykes "commando" I believe is what it is called? It was gifted to me while I was serving overseas. It actually was handed to me from a good ole Aussie soldier. His father had a few of them when he served while in England. I honestly feel these were two very well thought out designs with combat in mind. I wish they issued edged weapons like this today. Instead we have the M7 , M9 and LMF. The M7 was the only one worth a damn if hand to hand was necessary. The M9 and LMF would kill from a brunt force instead of a sharp stab . I am not sure what our military was thinking when the accepted the M9's? Hard to keep sharp, the wire cutter worked kinda and it was a terribly heavy and thick blade. Great for prying and thumping camel spiders . Pretty useless otherwise. And the LMF , stayed sharp as long as it was never used. Seems to me the steel just wasn't very good. Easy to sharpen but dulled rather quickly. So I was pretty happy when I was given the Fairbairn Sykes dagger. It was made for combat and would easily pierce through a rib cage or the gory base of the skull. Great review once again. I really do appreciate you time and effort and upload for us to watch. Thank you.
My dad taught knife drills as a paratrooper. I did not know this until I was an adult.. I asked him about knife fighting.. His response, “I advise against it…”
I have finally ordered a KBH iteration of the OSS smatchet that will see bushcraft action and review we have a template for a polymer demo trainer and I fully intend to give the legendary Smatchet the coverage it deserves in the world of big knife combatives the fairbairn workshops I've been leading have been going extremely well and I'd like to once again say thank you Tommy for inspiring me to further pursue my own learning process to the point I felt comfortable discussing it with others. Fairbairn viewed people as force multipliers for his art and I believe he belongs honored within the world of bartitsu/Hema his martial philosophy and his life story really have enthralled me the image of the commando and their signature dagger captivated me since youth I am honored to play even a small role in the survival of his defendu. I have a developed library now and have also been reading retrospective takes from col. Applegate, steyers, biddle my goal is to keep things as close to historic context from the materials they left to us we have been able to do safe yet close to full speed free flow sparring and drills one of our members has insights from a jiu jitsu/judo background and was taken back by how well I've learned to move fluidly and grapple just from studying these combatives it meant the world to receive a compliment from a student that is all the return I'll ever require to know sharing this has helped someone potentially like you I feel many of his lessons are still pliable in today's world perhaps now they are required and necessary once more.
Love your channel !!! Just getting into this style of fighting Who taught you ? Are you ex SAS or law enforcement ? How do you have a pistol in UK ?? Thank you for your videos
Haha no mate, as cool as that would be! I’m blessed to have had many instructors such as Ben Bates, Bob Spour, Eddie Quinn, Nigel Tropman and many more! The pistol is an air soft for dry drill - Serbia is where the real shooting happens! Glad you’re enjoying the content 🙏🥊👍
@@TommyMooreww2combatives thank you for your response. My father was actually taught defendu in the 🇺🇸 ARMY back in the early 60s. He showed me some moves , but warned me that most of it was for killing your adversaries. Lol
Buen video saludos desde Colombia este arte Marcial para mi punto de vista es la mejor lástima aquí en Colombia no creo que no se encuentra este tipo de arte Marcial felicitaciones maquina 👍
All the pictures of the smatched I've seen, it looks big than your one?? And why did you go for a small one ?? And did Pat O'neil put any of works into written form ??
Do remember than I'm a big guy! Mine is about 9 inches of blade. Average is about 10. But sizes do vary. O'Neil has various works attributed to him, but many (not all) researchers only pin two to him decisively (or comprehensively). You always get a whole raft of O'Neil inspired material at the time, moving into even the 1980's.
@@Almosteasyese it's not really meant to be a reproduction, it's more of a machete inspired by the smatchet's shape. That being said, I love my cold steel smatchet. It's basically a shortsword.
Simply brilliant use of the smatchet Sir. Fairbern and Sykes would be proud.
What a brilliant presentation with well explained tactics. And the Smatchet has earned a serious place in history as a worthy combat blade. I own a few Smatchets and love them dearly. My favorite however is a custom that has both edges sharp. I have an early Boker as well as an original OSS version which now has become quite the collectable.
It is very true that once you unsheath this knife you will feel what it was like to carry and use these in battle. Sometimes modern warfare leaves some of the finest well thought out designs as a distant memory.
Anyone who has held a Smatchet will understand what I am talking about. The original model I own is from WWII and the knife itself is in very good condition. The sheath ( scabbard to some ) is rather rough. I had to have a custom sheath made for it. The original Smatchet shared space with a Fairbairn Sykes "commando" I believe is what it is called? It was gifted to me while I was serving overseas. It actually was handed to me from a good ole Aussie soldier. His father had a few of them when he served while in England.
I honestly feel these were two very well thought out designs with combat in mind.
I wish they issued edged weapons like this today. Instead we have the M7 , M9 and LMF. The M7 was the only one worth a damn if hand to hand was necessary.
The M9 and LMF would kill from a brunt force instead of a sharp stab . I am not sure what our military was thinking when the accepted the M9's? Hard to keep sharp, the wire cutter worked kinda and it was a terribly heavy and thick blade. Great for prying and thumping camel spiders . Pretty useless otherwise. And the LMF , stayed sharp as long as it was never used. Seems to me the steel just wasn't very good. Easy to sharpen but dulled rather quickly. So I was pretty happy when I was given the Fairbairn Sykes dagger. It was made for combat and would easily pierce through a rib cage or the gory base of the skull.
Great review once again. I really do appreciate you time and effort and upload for us to watch. Thank you.
My dad taught knife drills as a paratrooper.
I did not know this until I was an adult.. I asked him about knife fighting..
His response, “I advise against it…”
0:55 - Context
3:00 - Distraction
4:40 - Crossdraw
5:00 - Sideways variant
7:35 - Slash
8:50 - Slash + retreat
11:10 - Doubled backhand
12:25 - Draw + upward blade
13:35 - Punch thrust
13:45 - Pommel strike
16:25 - Cut to thrust
16:30 - Thrust to cut
18:10 - Blade & strikes combos
19:05 - Conclusion
Good information finally!!! Top job from 🇺🇸
I have finally ordered a KBH iteration of the OSS smatchet that will see bushcraft action and review we have a template for a polymer demo trainer and I fully intend to give the legendary Smatchet the coverage it deserves in the world of big knife combatives the fairbairn workshops I've been leading have been going extremely well and I'd like to once again say thank you Tommy for inspiring me to further pursue my own learning process to the point I felt comfortable discussing it with others. Fairbairn viewed people as force multipliers for his art and I believe he belongs honored within the world of bartitsu/Hema his martial philosophy and his life story really have enthralled me the image of the commando and their signature dagger captivated me since youth I am honored to play even a small role in the survival of his defendu. I have a developed library now and have also been reading retrospective takes from col. Applegate, steyers, biddle my goal is to keep things as close to historic context from the materials they left to us we have been able to do safe yet close to full speed free flow sparring and drills one of our members has insights from a jiu jitsu/judo background and was taken back by how well I've learned to move fluidly and grapple just from studying these combatives it meant the world to receive a compliment from a student that is all the return I'll ever require to know sharing this has helped someone potentially like you I feel many of his lessons are still pliable in today's world perhaps now they are required and necessary once more.
Excellent
This guy is like a younger buffer hairier Matt Easton.
Love your channel !!! Just getting into this style of fighting
Who taught you ? Are you ex SAS or law enforcement ?
How do you have a pistol in UK ??
Thank you for your videos
Haha no mate, as cool as that would be! I’m blessed to have had many instructors such as Ben Bates, Bob Spour, Eddie Quinn, Nigel Tropman and many more! The pistol is an air soft for dry drill - Serbia is where the real shooting happens! Glad you’re enjoying the content 🙏🥊👍
@@TommyMooreww2combatives thank you for your response. My father was actually taught defendu in the 🇺🇸 ARMY back in the early 60s. He showed me some moves , but warned me that most of it was for killing your adversaries. Lol
I'm surprised cold steel hasn't come up with a smatchet?
They made a smatchet years ago under 40 bucks. It’s now discontinued 😢
Buen video saludos desde Colombia este arte Marcial para mi punto de vista es la mejor lástima aquí en Colombia no creo que no se encuentra este tipo de arte Marcial felicitaciones maquina 👍
Look at the bright side,you can get your hands on a Corvo,and have esgrima criolla.
All the pictures of the smatched I've seen, it looks big than your one?? And why did you go for a small one ?? And did Pat O'neil put any of works into written form ??
Do remember than I'm a big guy! Mine is about 9 inches of blade. Average is about 10. But sizes do vary. O'Neil has various works attributed to him, but many (not all) researchers only pin two to him decisively (or comprehensively). You always get a whole raft of O'Neil inspired material at the time, moving into even the 1980's.
Nice video...what works show the O'Neil method curious?
Who and where did you get your smachet?
How accurate is the cold steel smatchet in your opinion??
In another video on the smatchet he brought up the cold steel one as one of the bad reproductions
@@Almosteasyese it's not really meant to be a reproduction, it's more of a machete inspired by the smatchet's shape. That being said, I love my cold steel smatchet. It's basically a shortsword.
I love Cold Steel,but their Smatchet is more "smatchet-inspired" than a real one.