With Hellish Quart now having a Fokos user, i reckon you guys are happy to see the humble thing get more representation.

An interesting thing: anno, in the World War I, Hungarians taken their fokos' to go in the Big War, and the fokos proved the one of the best option in the face-to-face situations...

"Fokos" was sometimes used as a walking stick among the nobles during Rákóczi's time, so it was literally an arm's length away if needed.

I loved the fokos ever since watching A Tenkes Kapitànya. Never knew there was still a lineage for it. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!

Yeah we, we Hungarians (Magyars), used this great weapon in WW1. It served us well.

Seeing this thing in Hellish Quart made me come get more acquainted. Algorithm did well.

Fun fact people here in Hungary are given a wooden fokos, when they graduate from high school.

Its hungarian weapon but you can find a lot of similiar axes/canes is neighboring regions. Just in Bohemia and slovakia theres like 5 variations very similliar to this one :) you may see it as ´´wallaschka´´ named after the people who used them - they were spread for northern romania/hungary all the way to moravia and silesia (near to poland/bohmeian borders)

Awesome, I've been interested in the fokos since the Armour Archive days.

Got it recommended after watching Hellish Quart new character. I don't know how YT made the connection as the word wasn't mentioned.

"It's not an accident that this is flat" An axe-cident, you can say? Please tell me the pun was intentional

I find off-line steps to be so much more important with weapons with poles than I used to. I started messing around with a partisan a while back and offline steps are an incredible way to defend yourself while getting in a position to offend your opponent. Now I do them in olympic sabre fencing and everyone looks at me like I'm crazy.

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED, THANK YOU

When I bought my first Dane Axe in the late 90's I experimented to guess how they might be used. At the time I'd devised a sword system braised off 'devolving' French stick fighting. (I wasn't ever formally trained in FSF but taught myself braised on pics) Your video & the techniques shown are essentially the same as how I've been using a Dane Axe for more than 25 years. Very glad to get validation on my guess work! Especially since many have told me over the years I was wrong.

Oh this is wonderful Russ. Thank you!

This is a really fun video! Makes me want to play with Fokos!

I had one of these made about 6 years ago from my cold steel rifleman’s hawk for backpacking/self defense. I’ve been waiting for a video like this ever sense.

this weapon is underrated

I put a small tomahawk head on an ash shaft to make this useful walking stick.

Great stuff! I've been wondering about how to fight with a fokos for years. Just ordered the book!

he actually learnt the pronounciation 🙏

Made a walking stick/cane with a shingling hatchet for the handle. Works well.

Reminds me of the CS axe-head walking stick. Just longer

First - nice t-shirt print :) With my son we played fence smth like that. About blocking with polearm noticed few things: 1. its really very intuitive and useful to use top of the head 5:45 for blocking. Its not hard to aim and if I miss vs morph/feint its easy to porceed parrying with shaft and as a third backdrop option - just dodge back. 2. When blocking with a shaft its very useful to leave shaft with back hand to save fingers agains dirrection morph. So I can still block with the middle of the shaft, but my back hand in safe and front hand better covered by the head. 3. By onehanding long weapon 9:26 its harder physically to block smth coming from 10, 2, 5, 7 hours. Because weight concentrated closer to the head. Tho with heavy axes and maces its almost impossible. The best weapon to block such hits is Bastard Sword imho with its weight concentrated closer to the handle. About this question I want to investigate trench figths between English and German infantry in WW1. First used swords and second used maces.

Boys (actually youn men) usually get a wooden ceremonial one finishning school or high-school (14 or 18 yo respectively) in Hungary. Also, during the Rákóczi-era (early 18th century) it was a forbidden weapon - so people walked with a stick and a fokos-head in their pocket/pouch.... This and the long "karikás ostor" whip are iconic commoner Hungarian weapons.

I have a bunch of Fokos-es at home as decoration, but I'll get a new war spec one to be more EDC.

Him: “Would you punch this 40 times?” Me: “Depends on who you are. I know the kind of people who would because “reasons.”

honestly, the first time I heard that a bartka is still called a fokos, when the Helish quart supplement about Yandrek came out. I have seen this weapon since my childhood, especially when the guard of the tomb of Christ was traditionally arranged in the church before Easter. I was born in Lviv, so we are not far from the Carpathians, I suspect that my ancestors are from there, as my surname is very similar to Carpathian surnames

Love any and all Shepard's Ace content! Saw a bunch of copper headed "bartky" when I was in Ukraine's Hutsulshchyna. Unfortunately if there exists living lineages and memories of martial techniques from that region, they're not well known, and more likely they went exinct a while ago.

Also, carrying a weapon was not permitted in a quite long period for most people in Hungary. A walking stick is another matter. And, as you have demonstrated, the axe head can be taken off/put on sort of easy, and (unless its a big one) fits in a pocket...

This is absolutely incredible, your training equipment is top-notch and I would absolutely love to know more about where I could purchase it and how I could get a hold of these myself because I'm incredibly interested in such a tool / weapon.

This is gonna be a great visual aid to go with your book i have. Cheers for that! 🍻 Also, where can i get all those axe heads?

it was very practical weapon not only in fight again enemy, but in the past dogs have a free movie in villages and fields and when somebody had to need to defence themself it was very practise. in the past (16, 17 century) hajdusi (hungarian hajdúk), anti turkey soldiers, used shorts muskets, sabres and typical second cold weapon was fokos.

Amazing video! Me and some club mates have been looking at Hungarian saber and fokos lately, so this is a wonderful video for bolstering our understanding. What wood did you use for the axe haft? We've been trying to construct a pair for training purposes and we can't agree on a wood type.

Another video on more advanced techniques, other binds etc. would be great.

Them hutsul never mess

Awesome video! Did Csaba go into into particular techniques when it’s fokos v. fokos?

What are you using for a trainer? I would like to acquire a couple because these seem pretty awesome.

Intrestigly polish version of this axe - "ciupaga", does not have a spike on the other side.

Also called a shepherd's ax, cause it was very popular with East-Central European shepherds. Never heard it called the Long Handled Tomahawk before. (Also, quick fun fact, tomahawk in Algonquin means "ax".)

Where can I buy one of these fokos? I already know Hungarian saber and want to mix up my weapon match ups in my sparring matches!

one could also use these movements with a walking stick

Hi Master Mitchel, good evening! Just got your book and going over your videos, where can I get a training sabre like that of your student's? Thank you in advance!

Do you have any good sparring with fokos or your sabre to go along with the book? Thanks

Yendrek: AY!!!

Where did you get the rubber heads? I absolutely need them!

Axes tickle.

where do you get the plastic axes?? i bought your book and really want to try the fokos but trainers are harder to come by

This is CIUPAGA in Poland

Fokos means exactly spiked. Greetings from Hungary

If things like this existed far back enough into the past particularly more so the medieval period then I picture that something like this could have possibly been used on a medieval as sort of a hand half weapon and would have possibly been used either one handed with a shield or sort of two handed without a shield even though it still would have necessarily ideal for doing either of those things if it was hypothetically brought onto a battlefield.

Is there any relation to this family of axes to the variety of axes utilized by the Norse in the Viking Age and previous periods like the Wendol Period? I know the Norse were very much present in Eastern Europe, making settlements like Kiev and Novgorod, as well as fighting and allying themselves depending on the day and groups involved with Slavs and Hungarians, as well as other steppe nomads present at the time. In particular the Norse were infamous for their use of axes as primary sidearms and/or weapons, and their axes seemed to be used in very similar ways by reconstruction artists.

Where did you get your plastic fokos? I've been running around like a headless chicken looking for a HEMA sparring safe fokos. Obviously very little is gonna be safe for full intent sparring but i want to get as safe as i can. Also, is the handle a hardwood or something with some flex like pine?

Where do you get plastic party axe heads?

Were light axe heads like this used exclusively as weapons? Or were they also tools?

Where you got your training fokos?

Ahoj valaška have mehr funkcion for example ring an backsyde

Jó ilyet is látni

The oldest weapon in time! A stick with something on the end of it. From peasants killing platoons of soldiers to slavic horseman with the doom eyes in chain mail!

Érdekes... :3

Need a training fokos? kzfaq.info/get/bejne/b7yVeslonsW0ZKc.html

Central-Europe not East-Central-Europe! It is easy to understand, if we see the geography Central-Europe is in the middle of Europe. If we see the culture Central-Europe is inbetween the Germans, the Russians and the Turkish owned Balkan. So basically Hungary, Czechia, Poland, sometimes Croatia and basically this is all. In the east from this there are mostly countries under russian influence, in the west it is mostly german influence. In the north there is a sea and in the south there is the Balkan what is a different world. Central-Europe has a different culture than any other part of Europe because the culture was defined by its location what is unique therefore can't be given to any other nation. Germany is not Central-Europe it is West, they have ties to the West, they have roots in the West, they are related to the West they only tried to expand to the East, never tried to come as a friend. It was called Eastern-Europe by the western people during the Cold War and it is called Eastern-Europe or East-Central-Europe today because Central-Europe is historically independent from the West and Western-Europe don't want independent Central-Europe anymore. They want cheap manufacturing force.

omg amrican who knows how to pronounce s sz))))