SWORD BREAKER - 1 Year later!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 มิ.ย. 2024
- A year ago I left a 'sword breaker' dagger with Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria for him and his club to practice with. This allows us to use it, learn from it and discover some surprising things......
Watch Matt and Stephen fence with rapiers, daggers and side swords, showing the different aspects of the daggers benefits and limitations.
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I truly love how much this channel follows the scientific method of actually testing theories and not claiming anything as absolute.
I love that aspect of Tod's channel. The exploratory, 'let's see what happens' attitude and willingness to revise his conclusions based on evidence while also fully acknowledging the limitations of his methods. He's adding to discourse rather than presenting forgone conclusions.
This is called Experimental Archaeology.
@@chehalem Thanks and that is precisely what I am trying to do. There is so much about all this that we cannot really know for sure and pretending we do just skews everything
Thanks
I was actually going to write that, until I saw that you beat me to it :)
Gotta love a multi-use space with a stage, a gym floor and a piano. I hope the next group was rehearsing The Pirates of Penzance.
Or a jumble sale or Women's Institute jam fayre.
Nah, they came in in matching outfits with swords and…practiced Morris dancing.
Old style church hall.
Ah the post war Nissean hut style hall, used for scouts, yoga, church and everything.
well looks like a comunity room in a german village most of them startet as one class village schools and are now something in between dance hall sports gym and party room
The German name for it Degenbrecher(lit. swordbreaker) is meant literal, as brechen(breaking) in contemporary German is used synonymously with defeating or countering, for example in fencing manuals like Meyer. Would be interesting to know if the English name is just a translation of the German one.
That actually makes a lot of sense.
indeed! The word breaking is probably of geramnnic origin? In archaic english, to break something means to tame it, like you 'break a wild horse.' Also, the phrase, 'breaking it in,' still refers to shape it to your will, to your own use etc. Like, putting on stiff shoes, to break them in e.g. making them shape to your foot.
Thanks for the insight and yes it probably was a literal translation - lots of things in the arms and armour world are
@@Cleanpeaexactly what I was thinking. It's used to 'break' your opponent's sword in the same way you break in a baseball glove, or a pair of shoes, or a horse. Similarly, you 'break' someone's stance or guard in boxing or martial arts by knocking them off balance or manipulating their body to leave them vulnerable to an attack.
Similarly in Swedish "att bräcka" can mean "to break/to snap" but also "to defeat/to overpower."
This is a demonstration of a little known technique. If you're in conflict with someone so armed and you've never fought against it you're at a disadvantage.
Reminds me a bit of the first time I sparred a lefty.
I lost horribly because the left-handed person had been fighting rightys like my from the beginning.
But within a few months, I had figured out the openings many leftys gave up and was back in parity or better.
I do think this is part of the concept. Mind game. Wondering what the opponent could do with it will affect you.
I think it has two things going for it outside of combat. 1) It's cool, people like cool gadgets today just as they did back then. It's a conversation starter. 2) It looks menacing, and as you said it's unusual to fight against. Some hot head may be less likely to get in a tangle with you if you start flashing that around. That's worth more than any actual advantage it may offer.
Only assuming they know how to use it effectively
@@Rob_Enhoud The cinquedea and how aggressively decorated those bulky daggers were, especially on the blade close to the hilt where its owner could brag a bit and show off without fully drawing the weapon
Great Sparring.
I always knew Mat was "legit" but it's good to see him spar (duel).
He walks the walk. Too many "experts" have very little practical experience and talk more from a point of theory than practice.
As a martial artists myself ( Karate, BJJ, MMA, Warbow Archer), I think this is a valuable consideration that gives us confidence in the insight Mat provides.
Of course, different martial artists (even practicing similar styles) have varying degrees of philosophy and approaches and there are many ways to skin a cat, but there is no denying that a lot of "theory" gets washed out in practice and we get a better understanding of what works, what can work and what is hard to make work.
Great demo and I really enjoyed this practical test.
Well done fellas.
Thanks. I like Matt personally, he is a nice guy and intelligent and lively company so would be good to team up with regardless, but without doubt he has a great depth of knowledge on western martial subjects
@@tods_workshop Hi Tod. I have done my own more detailed response to the video on my channel.
I will double down on the above. It was a BRILLIANT video, and I have some insights that I think may be valuable to consider on the subject.
Keep up the amazing work 😁
Catching it in midair with the blade was fucking epic.
I am sure they didn't merely put up with you Tod! They must have been thrilled to have the sword breaker to play around with and get to know.
Thanks, but it did mess with their evening some
@EriktheRed2023
It's just good old fashioned British politeness/humility.
I do motorcycle track days and if someone showed up with a weird thing for me to try just because they wanted to see it in action I would be so excited for that!
But also maybe unnerved because I'm not a professional so there'd be performance anxiety but it would 100% be a positive experience!
Unless I crashed and broke it then I'd feel really bad
But I imagine Tod would be just as happy to see how it broke lol
How a miss a video on youtube like this, no intro no bullshit, just info.
I like the idea of it countering broad swords. A cut is far more likely to get caught in those teeth then a thrust.
Agreed
True, but the broad sword has a lot more mass it will be more difficult to hang onto that dagger.
@@skellig5867 Feel like you might break your wrist trying to catch a broad sword with that tiny handle. If its handle was maybe an inch longer or had a bend to it to give your wrist more leverage when countering. Just by looking at it, the end of the pommel would fly out of your hands if any major swing came through.
@SoundTracx I wouldn't recommend using it to block chopping strikes, more for countering thrusting attacks. At least that's what I was picturing in my head.
@@skellig5867 wasn't it just said in the show that the teeth can't reliably do anything against thrust. It is like threading a needle only someone else is controlling the string.
It really looked like there was a huge difference between the rapier sparring and the cutting sword sparring in the second half. Matt had Stephen caught over and over, at least from what we saw. It seemed that the fact Stephen didn't have a second weapon left him completely open once Matt caught his blade.
I wonder if the Sword Breaker is designed for someone who expects to get into frequent fights against opponents who might only have a single weapon with them.
I was thinking the same. If you’re going against someone with two weapons, binding the blade may not be a considerable advantage, but if you’re fighting someone with only a broadsword or something similar, binding that blade then becomes very deadly indeed.
I like Matt's advice that you shouldn't focus on catching a weapon. I believe that's very similar to how one strikes with a buckler you don't focus on striking with the buckler but if it happens to come about it's a bonus. One should use the buckler to defend and the sword to attack but if one happens to strike somebody with the buckler...bonus damage.
Am I the only one who finds these two cuts of Matt at 1:41 irresistibly funny? It's like introducing Matt as an unruly and violent kid. The comedic timing is perfect imo, even though probably not intended.
I love how he calls TH-cam videos "films" it's charming and endearing
Thanks. Had this conversation before, I think it’s a U.K. thing, but to be fair, they are not videos either……
"In today's MPEG"
@@ironpirate8mpreg.
How dare you @@ExtraThiccc
@@Silverline-lock >;p
I can see someone with a rapier carrying the breaker purely for the occasion when they have to fight against a larger flat sword. Normal dagger for the off-hand, until Ser Gregor Clegane steps up and then you can switch to the breaker.
ALSO: I would really love to see this used in place of a buckler, paired with a cutting sword of some kind instead of a rapier. I bet it would be just like Matt suggests, you could use it like a buckler but with the capacity to bind the other blade.
Awesome work as always Todd!
I never thought about it, but the survivor's bias you mentioned is probably right on point here.
We've got a lot of surviving weapons that are strange and surely weren't ever common (you've shown some of those already on your strange weapons videos), and sword breakers may be one of them. Granted, they are fairly "common" in that regard, but it could just be due to being somewhat easy and cheap to make if you want a special item.
And I don't mean cheap in a broad sense, I mean cheap compared to other strange weapons. A folding flick spear, for example, would be a lot harder to make and a lot more expensive than a sword breaker. So it could be that the somewhat large amount of sword breakers could just be due to them being accessible to more people than other stranger items.
I could also see them not getting as much use, being more of a niche or novelty item, and thus they don't end up broken and scrapped.
And, as we learned, it still works as a offhand dagger, just with not much offensive power. So, it is still perfectly usable even if the person doesn't know how to get the full benefit of the serations.
Very interesting video, thanks! I like when you come back on some already covered subjects with new or more in depth information and ideas.
Who else had difficulty recognizing Todd without his usual garments full of holes? 😉
Thanks and I also like to revisit, because of course your perceptions change and yes I do own other clothes!
I imagine this would be extremely effective against someone fighting left handed, or when used by someone who's left handed. Held in the right hand against an orthodox opponent, binding and dragging their blade to your right turns their chest away from you, making it extremely difficult for them to reach you with their off-hand dagger as they'd be thrusting across their own right arm to hit as you're levering that arm away from you, while at the same time their entire right side is left open to strike with your longer primary sword.
I'm not sure that, back in the day, you were ALLOWED to be sinistrous [adjective. ill-omened; unlucky; disastrous. sinistral; left].
For example, only about 60 years ago my younger brother, a natural leftie, was FORCED to learn to write right handed.
How much more so in the past when "left" was associated with the "dark side", and those things were taken seriously?
Tod is braver than me. I don't think that I could stand by so unconcerned while swords are being swung about. Regardless of blunted weapons, it is still rather a dangerous area to stand. Well done by all involved.
Great video, but yes he definitely needs protective gear being that close.
Nah, he's not that close, especially if they're fighting with rapiers with fairly low intensity. Being close to a full force longsword fight is dangerous.
@@SirWhorshoeMcGee I got pulled up by my editor who fights for exactly this. tbh it felt fine and they were low intensity, but still accidents happen. I trust them both and also the lens made it look closer, but still on reflection; not cool.
@@tods_workshop I was in Moscow in June 2017 and some sort of big historical festival-cum-pageant was going on. There were stalls all along the very wide footpath in New Arbat Street. And at one point a couple of swordsmen (dressed in ?Renaissance? gear) had a spirited swordfight all along the footpath in amongst the passers-by. I expect the swords were blunt but 'elf & safety would have a fit of the screaming habdabs if you tried that in Oxford Street :)
Well maybe. I saw something similar once at the Edinburgh Festival, two guys just sword fighting in the street. There were police right there and I asked them if sword fighting was legal and they said 'apparently so'.
Hip, hip, hooray for Steven!
So.. as a rapier fighter from many many styles.. the ring is variable. And also how you hold it is variable. Your style appears to be more capó Ferro, less giganti, or Spanish, or Mayer. If you were to switch to a less closed style, where the dagger is helped in an upper guard (inverted), and not close to your sword, you wold use the teeth more
This is what I admire so much about Tod. Absolute, almost giddy at times, enthusiasm. Yet still maintains the line between that and his knowledge of facts, personal experience and the firsthand experience of qualified others. And he's always up for a good bit of knocking about ideas, realistic or real stretches, with us punters.
Thanks Tod!
nice review !! best history channel on youtube ! with real medieval facts
Thanks
Absolutely love the experimental archeology. Well done.
Imagine a buckler with the sword breaker tines around the edge.
honestly, that is actually an interesting idea.
Love the HEMA in the background, also this is a great practical test!
On the railways in the Victorian period the guard on a freight train travelled at the rear of the train in a break van. By the 20th century these vehicles were uniformly called brake vans. This hints that the idea that these weapons were intended to stop swords instead of snapping them has some merit.
Name might also have to do with "brake waters", or breakers, which were built to mitigate waves and tide.
@@corwinhyatt519 probably a similar source.
The thing I'd point out is that if it's sharp on the other edge, then you can use it right-handed and you've just got a somewhat fragile cutter. To my mind, that makes it a delightful gunner's blade.
Perhaps, but as Matt points out towards the end of the video, it's a lot less useful as an actual weapon than a regular dagger.
I seem to recall, also, that there were daggers specifically designed for gunners. A quite lobg, stiletto blade with measurements engraved into it, presumably for cutting fuses. The narrow, stabbing blade would be effective against sturdy clothing, but was also intended to be used to clear the touchhole of a cannon (probably *not* to poke a hole in the cartridge, because cloth cartridges didn't become commonplace until the 18th Century).
@@christopherreed4723as a southpaw I imagine it could be very effective when held in the right hand against an orthodox opponent, as you'd be dragging or pushing your opponent's weapon off-line across their body, essentially parrying both their weapons as they'd need to thrust across their own right arm to hit you with their off-hand dagger, which may not even reach if their sword arm has been levered away from you. Dragging their arm across like this turns their chest away from you, opening up their right side and back to attacks from your left hand, which is holding your longer primary weapon.
I would love to see someone test swapping it with off hand, but without changing to a southpaw stance.
It also looks like it could be a good 'equalizer' for someone using a second dagger or a shorter sword than their opponent, as those would be quicker and easier to strike with once the bind is achieved and the distance is closed, rather than fumbling with a long rapier when your opponent is stepping in to use their own dagger.
The main issue i see from these tests, is that when you bind your dagger onto their sword, that locks you into that distance or closer, which puts you in a position where a dagger is more effective than a sword. However, youve just bound your dagger, so you're now fighting in dagger range with a free sword against the opponent's free dagger
I would have loved to see them carry on the bout when the dagger was snatched from Matt's hand. They were obviously too surprised to continue, but although formally it's Matt who's been partially disarmed, I guess that carrying on with rapier only while Steven had his rapier weighted down by a dagger dangling off it's tip would have actually been a situation advantageous to Matt.
A real nice piece of experimental Archeology. Thanks everyone
I've always thought of the swordbreaker name as being similar to windbreakers or breakwaters. They don't break in the sense of destroy, but they break in the sense of dissipating, countering, and/or defeating a blade.
Ahhh nice parallel- perfect observation, thanks
Interesting. Glad to see you bring this back for a follow-up video.
Love these kind of videos, so interesting!
Fascinating!... Love watching the pros do HEMA against weird weapons that they have not encountered before. They learn and adapt...
Poor steven looked like he wanted more screentime :D
Poor Steven was draughted in at the last minute, for a non speaking role, but he is too good and too articulate to overlook
He was very modest, in his place I probably would want to put all my ideas forward. 😄
My gut feeling is with the complexity and cost involved, it's like someone spending a lot on an expensive golf club that promises it will fix your swing and hit the ball harder, but someone with regular clubs can accomplish the same thing. Sure there might be some advantage to using the sword-breaker, but a normal left hand dagger is much easier to obtain and just as easy to use.
Fantastic video as ever :)
Fabulous!
Suggestion: This is a weapon designed specifically for the RIGHT hand, for use by a fencer with a sword in their left hand. Then you would be holding t'upside down' with the teeth down. This would both make it easier to achieve the lock, but would also have the edge upwards facilitating a thrust from low into the torso, moving upwards.
What do you think?
Love this series
love your four ears at 1:59
Excellent stuff. Love your experiment-based approach. You should try other kinds of "sword breaker" designs, like the trident dagger. See which one is the most effective parrying dagger.
0:23 The grain in the wood makes Tod look like a CatBoy. 🐱
The applied archaeology is so cool and fun.
Love the sword-breaker, it was always a personal favorite of mine.
As far as attacking with it goes, the bowie-like shape seems to imply that it's intended more for delivering cuts than thrusts. I also think that a slash with the row of spikes would be NASTY against an opponent's face or fingers.
I just realized this is my first time seeing Matt actually fence!
I love the commitement. Great video.
The hero of Gene Wolfe's Wizard Knight books had a weapon called Swordbreaker, it was built like a steel bar with a sword hilt, no teeth. It was used to literally break opponents' swords just by smashing them.
I believe that version of the swordbreaker is from Asia.
@@Swandolamroth Not my area, but that is my understanding too
@@tods_workshop well there IS the European bar mace to consider. The kind that's just four flanges running up the entire shaft of the weapon. Pretty similar concept, and it's entirely possible that it too was used for sundering swords. That may even be the main advantage of putting a mace head on a steel shaft to begin with.
Matt actually did a video on the Chinese bar mace a couple years back
Very interesting video, thank you very much
as demonstrated in the duel between D'Artagnan and Rochfort in the cathedral in the second of the Richard Lester Musketeer movies
I NEVER would have thought of the comparison, but seeing this dagger being used to defend against cuts, it's strikingly reminiscent of the Japanese Jitte. A dagger sized, blunt bar of steel with a fork coming off around the base designed to catch and control a sword blade. They were carried by police in the era when katana were banned. Could they have been intended more as a civillian self defense tool perhaps? Maybe a well to do nobleman walking the streets.
I think Matt nailed it. They seem much more effective against cut-and-thrust weapons as opposed to rapiers. I can see them used to parry and bind a high-cut, which would allow you to pull their bound blade down while you deliver a high cut of your own in the same movement.
Love seen Matt and Tod working together
Yes we work well together, nice chap too
Love seeing Steven again the man fences quite well 🎉
Man, Steve and Matt look lethal with blades in their hands.
This is the kind of weapon design I imagine a 10 year old drawing in his notebook after having watched Rambo on TV for the first time.
Interestingly, from the engagements it looks like it would greatly compliment grappling. Almost all of the engagements ended in a very close position.
What fun.
Not sure it's the right niche but if anyone's very (very) much into arms & armor in military historical context I strongly recommend Schwerpunkt's videos series. I would like to know what you guys think about it
I had a brief look and wasn't a fan. Not because of the information, but the presentation just comes across as someone talking into a mic in a monotone for extended periods, with the video mainly being still pictures that didn't really have anything to do with what was being said at that moment.
The background door adds Rabbit Ears btw 😁
kind of want to see a buckler with those sword breaker serrations all the way round! would be a funny alternative for rapier combat and put orientation of blade to teeth better. (although guess bad cause you want to use center of buckler to block)
Worth looking closer at the dagger being pulled out of Matt's hand.
If, as he suggests, you're not actively looking for a bind against a rapier, the accidental bind is going to come as much of a surprise to you as to them.
Then it's just down to who cottons on and reacts quicker.
The suggestion that it's primary use was against cuts makes sense.
I'd really love a swordbreaker to play around with during my hema sparring. It would be nice if one could be made that was safe in the thrust too like we train in rapier & dagger fencing
Could the rarity of the swordbreaker be due to its complicated manufacturing process? It would be interesting to see how they made a serrated blade like that with the technology available at the time. Those triangular cutouts look pretty advanced.
I wish there was a Hema club near me like Schola Gladatoria :(
Hey, cool you got Solas on your channel
11:40 - if you were a master at Arms way back when, if the dagger was bound up you would have known that the opponents blade is Fowled, is likely distracted try to free his blade and you could then press home your advantage of you entangling his blade….which Matt says at 21:00. Maybe one day swords will rule the world again - post apocalypse.
I wonder how it would do in a "sword breaker" vs dagger engangement. Would love to see that.
I use a Joseph Swetnam stance when I fence, and I feel like the teeth on the swordbreaker would work pretty well for me.
For self defense this would make a lot of sense for a person carrying a rapier who might encounter people who are using cut centric swords.
I wanna hear about your take on the bowie knife and any comparisons from bowie figting to dagger fighting
I think something worth considering is the design of the blade part of the dagger. It is very similar to a modern survival or hunting knife. Is it possible this would be a utilitarian dagger for a outdoors-man that would be in fear of some kind of highwayman or robber, and wanted something more defensive for their off hand, that can also be used in the wild?
Tod is so cool 😎
Maybe there is some kind of intimidation effect too, just like deliberately using it takes more brain power, being wary/afraid of getting your sword caught might be distracting as well..? Having your sword almost pulled off your hand once or twice seems like something that might make someone nervous if you're not that confident in your ability to avoid it
I was thinking, just before Matt lost his dagger, could the teeth be made to point in as a way to partially mitigate the chances of having them accidentally catch on a blade? That might work into what Matt was demonstrating with how he'd block a cut, as well, with how that requires more of a deliberate action?
Very nice analysis of almost everything with regard to this weapon, done in a realistic literally hands on way. Thank you, wish more videos actually tried/measured things before talking!
I've studied quite a few rapier treatises, this doesn't seem to be something that was expected to be used or encountered, and considering it does everything a normal dagger does already, you're going to train for a normal dagger and if you end up with one of these, great. But they don't really change anything but the amount of security in holding a weapon at bay once you've made contact. Any rapier system, in it's ideal, should have you counterthrusting when your dagger makes contact and the extra time afforded is a luxury anyway.
In practice, well, no plan survives first contact and all that, and you can maybe make use of an extended tempo. All in all the cost of manufacture doesn't seem to balance out the "maybe".
Shout out to the Skyrim fan in the purple.
Good mask for intimidation factor.
In my opinion "Blade Binder" has a nice ring to it.
I wonder if the offensive/defensive ballance would be made less severe if you had less teeth on the dagger. It felt like you might easily remove a couple from the top, since the ones lower on the blade seemed to be the ones catching the swords anyway? It would be cool to see you try to make one with less teeth/teeth on the other side and so on and see what verison of the weapon Matt liked the best. I would also be interested in seeing one that has the teeth on the guard rather than on the blade. Would be cool to see more of this cool looking weapon!
I can't ignore the rabbit ears behind him anymore!
I think that the advantage of surprise of a weapon like this is a bit overstated these days. Most people in HEMA spend almost all of their time fencing symmetrical weapons in a very controlled enviroments. This does make them incredibly skilled but it doesn't really prepare you for having to improvise quickly when things go wrong - something that reenactment crowd is better at because you may have to make some very quick choices if someone trips over a molehill or a small child (or a yappy dog) runs into the middle of your battlefield. The reigning champions of rolling with any and all insanity possible (be it strange plot twists, sudden storms or a family of boars deciding to go right through your epic fight) are LARPers, of course.
It also bears mentioning that no matter who you talk about, our default mode of operation is "if things go weird stop to protect your opponent" instead of the period-appropriate "if things go weird, stab him harder" approach.
Once we talk about these weapons in their period, well, the soldiers and knights of the era would be a lot more used to all sorts of strange things happening mid-battle. For an excellent overview on all the wacky and heinous shit people tried to pull, I once again recommend Domingo Luis Godinho, he of the "grab second pocket of sand in case your first one runs out" fame. Or maybe it is Doming Louis Godinho of "pretend to make a sing of cross with your fingers, then poke your opponent's eyes and stab him" fame? And it's not like this was limited to one Portugese gremlin, because Fiore has a full on acid damage warhammer...
can you use the edge side of the sword breaker as a cutting or chopping tool?
interesting points and incites. so would this have been good against spears, or bayonets? like would you use it against a charging thrust?
Imo, it was created to aid the rapier against more cut focused weapons. It did this well enough that everyone switched to thrust focused weapons, so it fell out of popular use.
I am sure people who swing metal around for fun more then put up with a wonderful weapon smith.
What about a neodymium magnet sword grabber? The material was discovered in 1885, well in the realm of sword combat. It could be purely magnetic or smaller magnets used to enhance the grab of the tines.
I wonder if the “breaking” may also have to do with stopping and controlling things other than a sword. It could be used to grab armor (metal or otherwise) or flesh. Then one could use it to yank or push the opponent themselves, i.e. a sword that breaks movement, sword-breaker. One side slices; the other side grabs like a fork.
Looked close there in the club, Todd! I'd have been flinching haha.
I got pulled up by my editor who fights for exactly this. tbh it felt fine and they were low intensity, but still accidents happen. I trust them both and also the lens made it look closer, but still on reflection; not cool.
@@tods_workshop Not getting all HR on you so don't worry about it. Just I'd have had a few brown pants moments if they lunged a little close haha. Appreciate the angle makes it looks worse. Mebbe a HEMA mask or eye protection and gambeson or something if standing a little closer could help get a good view but also be protected. :)
Thanks for the 14thC Quillon dagger btw! Love it.
I would want more finger protection is my first takeaway from seeing it, perhaps extend and bend down the finger side Quillen. Was this type meant to be 1.5 edged??? Could you flick with the back to cut or gouge to put it another way?
A good surprise weapon.
I bet calling it a Sword Breaker would have been a much better advertisment. And maybe there were instances when the Sword got caught and broke, not because of the dagger, but because the sword had imperfections, bad tempering, or was badly maintained?
That kind of thing would have become legendary.
"Look, i broke a sword with a sword breaker!"
makes me think that a knife with a circular guard design notched in the same way would be interesting to test. any strikes or lunges from the combatant could potentially be interferred with as it catches... possibly allowing the user to then apply pressure to 'capture' the opponents blade and re-direct it. imagine swinging at someone and having to avoid even glancing the knife so that you arnt giving them the ability to twist your sword away from target, pinning it awkwardly or halting the normal techniques enough to then run them through with the larger main weapon.
They certainly had buckler shields with catching cages on the front
When the dagger got pulled out of his hand it was due to the nub at the end of the rapier which normally wouldn't exist. I wonder if it would have happened at all if it had been a battle-ready weapon.
I thought that bucklers contemporaneous with “sword breakers” typically have various sword catching bars and such.
I guess if someone catches your sword a little it could make you a lot more cautiuos. If you're not used to them, the possibility of blades locking and the fight changing to just your left handed dagger vs their full length sword. Unable to step away from them without dropping your sword.
11:05 did that put the longer blade out of commission, or at least substantially reduce it's usefulness? Because IMO sacrificing a secondary defense to put render an opponents primary attack unusable is a massive win.
depends. a "primary" weapon is the one you use unconditionally, a "secondary" weapon is used conditionally. sometimes the condition is that the primary weapon is lost, out of ammo or broken, but far more the often the condition is a certain situation.
a bomber has bombs as "primary" weapon and a sidegunner as "secondary". if you attack that bomber with a fighter plane and disarm the "primary" weapon you gained exactly nothing because it is of no use against you anyways.
in a bind you are up close and personal, exactly the situation for your "secondary" weapon, your dagger. it might just be a huge win to trade your main sword for a favorable dagger position, considering daggers are better against high armor targets anyways.
Another note regarding the point of the dagger. That might very well have been survivor bias as well. It can’t be that hard to make a point that has similar piercing properties as a normal lefty dagger.
But jab that blade into someone and those tines are likely to snag up and get tangled in the clothes/gambe, or the wound itself as you attempt to pull the dagger out.
On the plus side, your opponent has a dagger literally stuck in him wreaking havoc on the wound, so that fight probably won’t last much longer. On the down side, you’re down one expensive dagger and your guard blade. And you’re not likely to be able to retrieve it in a reasonable time either, if at all.
Matt always has a sword in hand when i see him :)
To my eye this is a "even better" solution for a rapier fighter. works fine vs other rapiers. Gangbusters vs broadsword? Neat