Sometimes you need a simple weapon. Single-edged, cheap, and reliable. It seems this is – incidentally – the topic of this week’s Video Digest.

Let us jump right in with the…

Klewang… and carbine?

Functionally, the klewang is nothing special – just another simple knife in a military hilt, or cutlass – but historically and in its single translated source it has a special place. It is a manual for training troops in using a klewang together with a carbine. Yes, the instructions are formal exercises where you hold the rifle in your left hand, while you fence with the klewang in the right. You can check out the manual here, a translation by Reinier van Noort. Considering it is a Dutch source, the guys in the video are also Dutch.

Sabre analysis… and plenty of it

Matt Easton decided to go in an unusual direction and made a long – over 25 minutes – video with commentary on saber spars. It is informative, if a bit tedious to watch in one go (I did it in three). Nonetheless, watching analysis by experienced fencers like this is fruitful for any practitioner. Even if you are not a saber fencer.

Czech sword and buckler? Hell yeah!

I am always glad to see good sword and buckler material online. While the guys from Skupina historického šermu Adeptus in the Czech Republic don’t show complicated binds or flashy beats, they have a dynamic and quick spar, much better than what many other “authorities” on buckler demonstrate. Keep it up, guys!

Halfswording for the win!

Blood & Iron from Canada are finally done with their cutting video spree and back with another educational video on how to enter while halfswording a longsword. While such techniques are not as high percentage as the five strikes or other, simpler actions, they are effective, and the feeling when you land one well is awesome.

Messing with a longsword? Anytime.

Salla Batallador from Spain don’t mess around. Okay, that wordplay has been exhausted already. While I am not a huge fan of synthetics (and those guys have no excuse, they have good steel swords), this is a fun video to watch. The longsword guy is clearly not abusing every advantage he has with the goal to show more technical fencing. And more interesting – otherwise the messer would not have a chance to work so well.