Another week, another Video Digest. This week we don’t have that much, but I have squeezed the Internet hard to bring you interesting and useful videos.

You’ll notice some channels show up quite often. That is only because they make a lot of quality content. What I consider quality content or useful for HEMA is a long topic I will visit at some point.

Sword and dagger. Yes, sword, not rapier

When people talk of dagger in HEMA, it is either the early stab-prioritized rondel dagger or the late complex-hilted parrying dagger, combined with a rapier. But there are sources – in this case, Achille Marozzo – which show earlier swords together with dagger. This is a nice interpretation by Ken Harding from the US St. Louis School of Arms. You will probably need to watch it a couple of times to get what is going on. And keep in mind that this is in addition to all the other weapon combinations in Marozzo.

But, I have to say, there is no excuse to publish a 480p video in 2019.

Is the Tinker Pearce longsword good?

That is a complex question, but as you will see from the video above, it is for sure a durable sword. I am including this video on the Digest because this question pops up all the time in HEMA forums. I have handled a Tinker Pearce longsword before, and for the price, it is not bad. But when it comes to sharps, people (correctly) want a sword that will not snap easily, as this can be very dangerous. The test above proves this old classic is still worth it for a basic cutter.

Oh, and please don’t do that to a sword unless it is specifically for this sort of test.

Some good basic sword grabs from B&I

The Canadians from Blood & Iron deliver a great video again this week. The focus is on some classic options for grabbing the sword or sword hand of the opponent and finishing them off – with rapier, longsword and messer. These are more passive control situations, rather than the outright disarms they showed us last week. Definitely worth 3 minutes of your time