Hi guys, Cluck Easton here, Scholagladiatoria. I wanted to film myself practicing some pecking techniques from Camillo Eggrippa's renaissance Italian treatise on some grubs and bugs in my garden. Judging by the ringing sounds nearby, I suspect my human, Matt, will have a new sword review up soon. Now, let's get on with today's video!

It's a sure sign of Spring when the cutting videos start up again! 😀

OMG! Achille Marozzo's techniques! It's the first time I see his school in a non-italian YT channel. Thumbs up from Italy 👍🏻👍🏻

Loved the last combo. (And the chicken cameo.) It's a chilling reminder that in the real world, you don't have to be swinging very hard to do some horrific damage with a sharp sword.

I don't know how hard it is but it looks impressive cutting the same bottle like that multiple times

Some daggers in the later Renaissance & early modern period developed elaborate hand protection to the point of almost becoming bucklers themselves. These could have rather long blades as well. One example of this is the alehouse dagger in England. You also see parrying daggers with partial basket hilts in Italy & Spain in the 17th century. Such daggers were probably rather more effective than simple daggers when companying the sword. Joseph Swetnam's rapier & dagger system uses a 2ft dagger with this sort of protective hilt.

Bolognese fencing is very sophisticated and addictive. I never get tired of the subject. The descriptions of the techniques and the science behind them are detailed enough to be executed with resistance and in contact sparring.

Mad respect for 2 things. Matt's sword work on the cutting, and how beastly a cutter that sword is.

Small mistake, there is no buckler in Dall'Aggochie ;) Only sword alone, sword and dagger and sword and cape. But you are correct that for Marozzo and Manciolino, the sword and buckler section is by far the largest (and the first) of both their treatises :)

+scholagladiatoria *Left-hand parrying arms varied throughout continental Europe, the British Isles and Eire.* Double-edged quillon daggers were popular in France, Italy, and the German states; double-edged sail-hilt daggers, in Spain and Portugal. Ballocks and dudgeons held sway in England and Wales, single-edged dirks in Scotland and Eire. A unique-to-Scotland battle shield called the Targe sometimes packed a long spike from the center boss, making said shield suitable for attack in its _own_ left.

It was rather striking in your readings of primary sources how the guys with the sword and buckler tended to win IRL fights against sword and dagger people.

Matt, thank you for featuring my comment, and for addressing it with a video!😁 This was definitely a transitional time in swordsmanship, which is part of what makes it so interesting! I also loved the sword & buckler cutting! Sword & buckler is my very favorite genre of fencing, so this was a great treat!

I really enjoyed this video, especially the demonstrations of the two styles. Could you make a longer, dedicated video showing the differences between sword & buckler, and sword/rapier & Maine gauche? Or perhaps a video in which you show how the systems evolve throughout the medieval period and into the renaissance?

Thank you for providing a photograph of Clive Thomas at 0:41!

Great stuff as usual! Very impressed with the final flourish! I did wonder why later bucklers had more furniture - it didn't occur to me that it wasn't just fashion. Keep up the good work.

That last combo was fancy! Making edge alignment look easy.

That final cutting sequence got me so freaking excited it’s unreasonable. I NEED to start cutting practice!

Fantastic demonstrations! Such poise and finesse. The final thrust at the end was the cherry on the cake. *chef's kiss*

Really enjoyed your techniques, that answered lots of questions. You mentioned the off-grinding from the cut grind to the ricasso, on the original that is not square cut but in an angle and rounded, just aside notice on the blade that would make it an even more beautifull sword.

Brilliant cuts there, especially loved the finale

Beautiful sword and buckler control Matt.

Love the look of calm concentration during practice.

Also; look at Matt’s style! The moves aren’t even at full speed and he cut it like butter! Awesome!

Beautiful movement on last cutting Matt 👌 Bravo 👏

4:16 When you went over the gaps in hand defense, it made me think that it's no wonder basket-hilts became a thing during (?) this era.

Brilliant Matt thank you history and practical examples illustrated... fantastic

YES! more field videos, thanks Mr. Eastern 👊🏽

Excellent video. Very informative.

I love the way the slow-motion showed your head/shield positioning during combat.

Matt, I would really like to see you get together with a farmer and test out different styles of swords against fresh whole hogs. As long as you put a clean tarp and immediately butcher and clean the animal, there wouldn't be any wasted meat. The farmer may not be allowed to legally sell the meat afterward, depending on your laws over there. But it would be fine for them to use as well as give away to friends and family or donate it to charity. I have done a bit of test cutting on some wild hogs I've hunted. Every test cutting video I have seen using an animal it has already been bled and gutted. At the time of my testing, I didn't have access to any historically accurate clothing or armor to dress it with to test how that would affect the cuts.

One of your better videos, thanks!

I learned a lot of cool stuff from this video. Thank you, Arnold Swordanddagger.

Awesome vid, Matt. LK sure does sharp swords well. Great buckler knowledge nuggets, too.

That last series of cuts, followed by the thrust... Now you are showing off! 🤣😎🔥

You could also posit that the development of more complex hilts for better hand protection resulted in a decreased need for bucklers to do that same job. This freed up the offhand for a more flexible alternative, such as the dagger (some of which developed considerable hand protection of their own). Daggers are also more convenient (lighter and less bulky) to carry around than bucklers. Loved that last cutting combo, by the way.

Thank you for another look at that excellent sword in action.

Legit cutting at the end there Matt, nice.

Awesome - I love sword and buckler and hope to learn I.33 some day. Can’t wait for the cut test video of the new 1796 LC saber.

Awesome video! 🗡️

By the way, Matt, maybe it's just me, but I really enjoyed that video where you made a point about the expected quality of arrows that were delivered across Britain (at least the ones for war). It would be interesting to find about standards of other arms and armour. Not sure if people agree.

amazing channel! Instantly subscribed.

Well done!!

Hope to get a copy in a few months. Beautiful sword.

really liked this video

Fascinating, Matt - thanks... ☝️😎

The cuts at the end were great, you make it look very dangerous. Cheers

One important combination was completely neglected in this video - the famous "sword and butler", favored mostly on the British isles. If you are wealthy enough, you don't have to bother yourself with training the art of fencing - it's sufficient if the butler trains often enough. When walking around the city, the butler carries the sword. Upon conflict (someone forgets to bow before you, for example), the butler raises his eyebrow, and asks: "Shall I, milord?", you just nod, and the butler draws the sword and runs the brutalizes the offender. If you are unlucky and there are witnesses, you deny all responsibility and the butler is sentenced for murder instead of you, while you look for a substitute butler. Clean, gentlemanly, and effortless approach!

Can you cover more on small shields in the migration era? Particularly, were they carried outside of war contexts like bucklers? I've seen that the Franks, like Romans (with parmas) appear to have worn shields like later bucklers.

"More thrusty versions." You can always count on a SG video for at least one suggestive term or double entendre to amusing one's inner adolescent.

I love my buckler! My friends and I don’t have a very large pool of weapon options, so we’re usually sparring with miss matched gear, I use buckler and backsword or saber, and that little buckler makes me more than capable of taking on a staff or longsword!

I love sideswords. This is awesome!

Matt, first of all I like your choice of music. You could easily do a whole video course demonstrating a sword fighting system in that style. Maybe see if Wondrium/Great Courses might be interested in a course on fencing? 😅

Very nice technique there.

Loved the guest appearance by the chickens.

Awesome follow-up video! I start to like your chicken even though I haven't met them. Those are some clean back-edge cuts and combos around the buckler. Leaving a bottle on the stand with a rising back-edge cut is always challenging! I always find myself opening up too much while cutting around a buckler, as I smashed my fingers into the rim of a buckler before during cutting and it was unpleasant to say the least, so subconsciously I always keep my sword hand away from the buckler and that's not a good habit in fencing.

This explains in Shakespeare's Henry IV pt 1 why Hotspur refers to Hal as that "sword and buckler Prince of Wales" and it's meant as an insult. Sword and buckler were the weapons of pikemen, archers, etc and not of the nobility. Always wondered about this... thanks!

Longer video on the subject of the rise of sword and dagger fencing? Yes please. More sources too?

Matt; could you do a video on some of the more obscure shapes of Buckler, and how they might be used ? I've seen things in sword fighting treatises that have corrugations or channels, ones that are covered in spikes, ones that have swept-forward edges (Talhoffer Ms.), ones that incorporate dagger-like blades, etc, etc. It strikes me that the ordinary shield-boss type may not be the most practical - if anybody knows about weird alternatives it would probably be you ! Thanks !

Beautiful sword

More anonimo bolognese videos please. Would also be great to have a follow up cuts video with ribaldo and rotella together.

I really like these videos about transitional weapons, and these videos with demonstrations. This one has both; too bad I can't give it double thumbs up on KZfaq.

I liked the background music at the end

Would be great to have your input on the pointy "Talhoffer buckler" sometime too. Great video as always!

I would love you to do a post on the targe, or claymore and targe.

Wow, Matt, that last one pretty nice... that'll do alright

By the way, there is going to be a dedicated "sword cutting" workshop in HEMAC Dijon this May with a well-known instructor.

One of the benefits of not connecting the ring to the side of the blade, is that you could possibly stretch it out slightly for bigger fingers or gloved hands

The gap on the finger guard looks more like so the scabbard covers the entire blade. A cost design if you will, instead of having a scabbard that's got a notch for the ring, you can just use any leather scabbard that fits the blade, and the ring will sit outside when stowed. I could be wrong, I'm used to single edged swords that only fit one way, but I'd imagine the option of putting the sword either way in the scabbard is a nice option to have.

Thanks!

Thanks for this fascinating lesson in sword practice in addition to the history! (Yeah, I do love watching you murdering all those bottles - that last one was definitely, irretrievably dead!)

In my experience, left-handed daggers are more suited to fight against rapiers and small swords. Arming swords and others not designed primarily for the thrust much more easily overpower the dagger. Bucklers can defend anything that a left-handed dagger can and more while being easier to use. The only advantage daggers have is that they are generally a better offensive weapon than the buckler.

A bowie and buckler league would be fun :)

I recently discovered the channel, and I'm binge watching it. I want to suggest a topic if others are interested - what do you consider most practical blade bigger than knife, to be used by civilians in a SHTF situation (fall of civilization type)? I was thinking maybe Gladius, Sabre or Falx.

Holy cow! That is one sharp sword.

Love the ending... effortlessly cuts and stabs like a boss, "That'll do."

I really like when people on internet are moving gracefully with swords while smiling calmly and showing how fun it is, without an ounce of agressivity. It shows the worlds HEMA aren't a "violent murderer's sport" like a lot of people try to present it.

I find the parrying dagger better but I'm a rapierist lol. It's because sometimes the opportunity to stab with the dagger presents itself, its rare but it happens, it has more versatility.

I like side swords. More on them please. Especially with regards to the evolution of the hand protection on them. 😀

I love this sword

Movie - 'House II the second story' a spoof on haunted house movies - the electrician uses Cutlass and Claw Hammer - his business card is 'Electrician & Adventurer'

Cool!

Great video. It is so interesting to see how these weapons and “systems” evolved over time. Is it not also true that many main gauche daggers had a kite shaped shell guard? Sort of like a little buckler?

One of the best duels in the Highlander Tv series is with a rapier and a side dagger. The antagonist is a Spaniard and old fencing teacher of the protagonist. The teacher uses exactly a technique of dagger taking over the rapier to land a stab. I know the series had very bad duels but this one is proper, for my humble opinion.

Just a small correction: Dall'Agocchie didn't write about sword and buckler, at all. His treatise is about sword alone, sword and dagger, sword and cape (and jousting, and battlefield formations).

Thanks for this vid. I want a sword and dagger combo as backup weapons if I ever roll a wood elf archer in an rpg.

About bucklers and thrust defense: a guy in my hema club has a buckler that has a kind of a reinforced bar around it (sorry for this unclear description but I don't know how to say it in english). His buckler is very effective in catching thrusts and if I remember correctly actually broke an opponent's blade once during a thrust. That said of course bucklers are generally better for defence against cuts

everytime the chicken popped up I cracked up LOL 4:25

I have seen both in pictures and in a museum in Italy a very unusual Buckler. I haven't been able to track down further information. The body of the buckler is essentially conical with a very long "spike" which continues the cone to a point. I am trying to imagine how and when it was used and if it has a unique name that would make it possible to track down more details.

the "up and down with the traverse" part, particularly with the music brought a fitness video to mind... maybe new genre to branch into? (;

Always thoroughly enjoy your vids. Here's a question unrelated to this segment: have you see the (very brief) sword duel in the Paramount+ series 1923? Just wondered what you thought of it, if you have seen it.

That was fun, thank you.

I laughed out loud at the illustration of Clive Thomas as a chicken.

Yes nice to see some cutting videos again. Do you ever get weird side glances from your neighbors?

fun fact "The term, Genuine Leather, is simply defined as some real leather being present in a product." frequently this means leather dust can be mixed with vinyl and formed into sheets with may or may not have a textile reinforcement to limit cracking as the plasticizer is lost over time .

Could you show some cutting with the munich? And is windlass planing on reshaping it like you suggested in your video?

Man I love this sword! It's really gorgeous, and it seems like a wicked cutter. Where does the storta fall in history, in relation to this style of sword? I have the synthetic Blackfencer storta and I love it, though I haven't sparred with it yet. I like the guard a lot.

Toledo swords in Spain are famous for their quality for centuries their fame has reached today even abroad for exemple the swords that the Marines wear in their uniform are made there

I don't think that finger ring is for protection, but more for leverage/control. The buckler is for hand protection. I'd be curious to see how the LK Chen's Ribaldo works with 1.33.

Very interesting point from the hen, could you expound on that? :)

The gap in the finger ring allows the scabbard to pass through so it meets the cross