They were all provided by the organisers and are Blackfencer swords. I and most people used a variant of their "Velox" without the knucklebow. The other type provided was the "Meyer rapier"
Those small bucklers look awful, totally useless. Regular slippery cold steel ones are already bad enough. I think people have gotten the totally wrong idea when it comes to what the size of bucklers in the Bolognese sources should be. Looking at both the pictures (which aren't really good enough to draw conclusions) and real bucklers from the 16th century, I think the correct ballpark should be ~25-30cm (what we call a "normal" buckler these days) for small, and ~35-50cm for "large" ones. Real "large" bucklers were indeed large, the biggest I found was Rotella-sized at 61cm! The art also seems to corroborate this when you look at how huge the buckler is compared to the head in some pictures. So for a sidesword-based S&B tournament, it should really be either 30 or 40cm bucklers as standard, not these tiny little things.
Yes, I absolutely agree with you. I had plenty of exchanges where I was going to catch a strike with my buckler if it was a standard size. While small bucklers are interesting to play around with, it takes time to adapt and I wasn't quick enough to do so in this case. I also don't like the Cold Steel plastic ones overall but at least with the larger ones it's acceptable. I do have a long video from another tournament with the larger ones provided and I perform better. The event provided all weapons (swords and bucklers) to all participants and their idea is that those were safer and they had them in enough stock. My main issue was that there was no prior information on the type of buckler that were provided.
@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing The stuff you wrote about the swords in the description is disconcerting. Seems like the organisers didn't test their own equipment. At least they didn't snap, I guess. The thing that really grinds my gears about the tiny bucklers is that they must've chosen them for the sake of "historicity", but in doing so gave you something that is neither useful nor historical. I wish I knew why people think the small bucklers were so tiny, I suppose it's just a convention that popped up for no good reason.
I saw one blade snap and was told of a few others but can’t confirm. I think there were at least 12 swords available but could have been more. At least 5 were beyond usage at the end that I know of but didn’t watch all matches. It wasn’t a big event overall - 99 matches for three tournaments with those sideswords. While I generally like Blackfencer aesthetics and behaviour this level of durability is not useful for practice. I can’t say anything regarding the choice of the small buckler beyond what I was told - for safety to not hit strongly with them. Controlled buckler strikes were allowed but not scoring
I’m not very familiar with the HEMA scene though I have a great level of respect for it. I’m in the SCA which tends to use lower armor requirements and different albeit similar blade types and calibration depending on kingdom. That said, all our gear is our own and has to be inspected before official events. Is it common in HEMA to have tournament provided weapons and equipment?
Most HEMA tournaments nowadays require certified professionally made gear, though it may depends from place to place and sometimes other options are allowed. Providing weapons is not very common but it happens (mostly if the organisers have convinced a sponsor for a discount) Providing gear is basically non-existent unless it’s something specific this event requires. Still many places can provide some spare equipment for some fencers needing it.
Love to see the swift retreat and awareness after striking! Awesome ❤
Glad you like it
Great exchanges!
Thank you. It sure looks like that with the magic of selective editing :D
@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing Lol, well I still hope to look like you with sword and buckler one day.
Did you make any placement?
Nope :)
Красавчик
What swords were competitors using?
They were all provided by the organisers and are Blackfencer swords.
I and most people used a variant of their "Velox" without the knucklebow. The other type provided was the "Meyer rapier"
🙄 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙢
Those small bucklers look awful, totally useless. Regular slippery cold steel ones are already bad enough.
I think people have gotten the totally wrong idea when it comes to what the size of bucklers in the Bolognese sources should be. Looking at both the pictures (which aren't really good enough to draw conclusions) and real bucklers from the 16th century, I think the correct ballpark should be ~25-30cm (what we call a "normal" buckler these days) for small, and ~35-50cm for "large" ones. Real "large" bucklers were indeed large, the biggest I found was Rotella-sized at 61cm! The art also seems to corroborate this when you look at how huge the buckler is compared to the head in some pictures.
So for a sidesword-based S&B tournament, it should really be either 30 or 40cm bucklers as standard, not these tiny little things.
Yes, I absolutely agree with you. I had plenty of exchanges where I was going to catch a strike with my buckler if it was a standard size. While small bucklers are interesting to play around with, it takes time to adapt and I wasn't quick enough to do so in this case. I also don't like the Cold Steel plastic ones overall but at least with the larger ones it's acceptable. I do have a long video from another tournament with the larger ones provided and I perform better.
The event provided all weapons (swords and bucklers) to all participants and their idea is that those were safer and they had them in enough stock. My main issue was that there was no prior information on the type of buckler that were provided.
@@AngelChernaevHistoricalFencing
The stuff you wrote about the swords in the description is disconcerting. Seems like the organisers didn't test their own equipment. At least they didn't snap, I guess.
The thing that really grinds my gears about the tiny bucklers is that they must've chosen them for the sake of "historicity", but in doing so gave you something that is neither useful nor historical. I wish I knew why people think the small bucklers were so tiny, I suppose it's just a convention that popped up for no good reason.
I saw one blade snap and was told of a few others but can’t confirm. I think there were at least 12 swords available but could have been more. At least 5 were beyond usage at the end that I know of but didn’t watch all matches. It wasn’t a big event overall - 99 matches for three tournaments with those sideswords. While I generally like Blackfencer aesthetics and behaviour this level of durability is not useful for practice.
I can’t say anything regarding the choice of the small buckler beyond what I was told - for safety to not hit strongly with them. Controlled buckler strikes were allowed but not scoring
I’m not very familiar with the HEMA scene though I have a great level of respect for it. I’m in the SCA which tends to use lower armor requirements and different albeit similar blade types and calibration depending on kingdom.
That said, all our gear is our own and has to be inspected before official events. Is it common in HEMA to have tournament provided weapons and equipment?
Most HEMA tournaments nowadays require certified professionally made gear, though it may depends from place to place and sometimes other options are allowed. Providing weapons is not very common but it happens (mostly if the organisers have convinced a sponsor for a discount)
Providing gear is basically non-existent unless it’s something specific this event requires. Still many places can provide some spare equipment for some fencers needing it.