Hank Reinhardt's The Book of the Sword (38 page)

The sword is held overhead and the blow is made. As the leading arm comes down (usually the right), the other hand snaps the grip up. This forces the blade of the sword down quickly, adding both speed and force to the cut. A slight variation to this move is having the sword held before you in a guard position. Rather than raising or lifting the arms, the arms are extended quickly. The right wrist snaps down at the same time the left arm lifts the grip. This snaps the blade down. While the force is not near the same as a full cut, it is sufficient to cause a great deal of damage in an actual fight.

This type of cut is also quite useful in learning exactly where your edge is. By learning this cut, and learning to stop the right arm at a specific point in space, you can then learn to cut precisely.

Both the drawcut and the snap cut can be used with one-handed swords. The drawcut works better with a curved blade, but even a straight European-style knightly sword can be used.

The trick of the drawcut is much the same as with the katana. The cut is made, and while the blade is in motion, the wrist is firm, and the blade is drawn back toward the body. The snap cut is quite useful with the single-handed sword. Using it, a blow with considerable power can be generated. As with any full power cut, the cut draws on the power of the body as well as that of the arm. As the arm descends, just before the blade makes contact, the wrist is snapped forward. This extra speed generates a surprising amount of force, and its use can enable you to make a strong cut using only the force of the arm and shoulder.

There is another aspect that has to be mentioned. Anytime you are making a strong cut at a specific object, your concentration should be on cutting past the object. It is easy to concentrate on the object, and what usually happens is that your arm stops close to the surface. But if you look past the object, you will cut through it. This is just like throwing a punch—it is thrown through the opponent.

This section is not designed to be an end-all treatise on cutting. Hopefully, it will give you something of the basics. You can practice on your own, and then if you so desire, seek some professional instruction.

Hoyland, Robert G. and Brian Gilmour,
Medieval Islamic Swords and Swordmaking: Kindi's Treatise "On Swords and their kinds"
(edition, translation and commentary). The E.J.W. Gibb Memorial Trust, Oxford, 2006.

Anglo, Sydney,
The Martial Arts of Renaissance Europe
. Yale University Press, New Haven, 2000.

Waldman, John,
Hafted Weapons of Medieval and Renaissance Europe.
Brill Academic Publishers, 2005.

Williams, Alan,
The Knight and the Blast Furnace
:
A History of the Metallurgy of Armour in the Middle Ages & and the Early Modern Period
. Brill Academic Publishers, 2003.

[1] I used to work as a framer back in the day, and all the guys on my crew (including myself) could drive a 2-1/2 inch spike home with one hit of the hammer. It took very good timing—you held the spike with your off hand, and swung the hammer, letting go at the precise moment (hence the good timing). Before the spike fell over, you drove it home with a single blow. A framer's hammer has a long handle, so centrifugal force did most of the work, but dexterity and timing was crucial. Speed was important because time was money for the contractor, so using this method, we could pound a dozen nails in as many seconds. I'm proud to say that I never once hit my hand with my hammer. This skill actually translated well when I became an armorer; my dexterity was developed to the point where I can hit the same spot the size of a pinhead a hundred times in a hundred tries. —Peter Fuller

[2]Stone, George Cameron,
A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor
. Jack Brussel, Publisher, New York, 1961.

Although I cannot imagine being interested in swords without also being interested in the combat potential of each weapon, some people feel differently. In a conversation with Ewart Oakeshott, he mentioned a well known sword authority (who shall remain nameless) who commented that he wasn't interested in the blades of swords at all, but only in their hilts! This was someone who had held many old and splendid blades in his hands, and who never once thought of them as weapons? Now, I do believe that he said it, I just don't think that he meant it. Possibly he was embarrassed that a man of his standing still held a sword and thought of "Raw, Red War!" After all, war isn't considered a pleasant subject and these days it is thought crass to say you find the subject interesting or exciting.

But like it or not, good, bad, but never indifferent, swords were weapons, made for young men to use when killing other young men. No matter what is thought, no matter what euphemisms are used, this is the basic fact. They are weapons, and how they could be used as weapons depends on many things.

It is undoubtedly presumptuous and may even be insolent for me to write on fighting with the sword. I have never led a charge of cavalry, or a Viking raid on England, nor stood in the front ranks of a Roman legion. I never stood in a shield wall screaming my defiance at the enemy or, I might blushingly admit, never fought a duel with either katana or rapier. But I did grow up in the 1940s and '50s, when schoolyard fights and barroom brawls were considered part of growing up, and I've had my share of those types of encounters.

And I have over the years played at fighting with a large number of people. In the late 1960s I was lucky enough to locate some other sword nuts who lived close by, and we spent a lot of time sparring and getting bruised. There was time spent in the Society for Creative Anachronism, as well as studying various fight manuals from Europe, Japan and China. Over the intervening years this research has taken many forms. I have cut into pork shoulder bones, armor of all types, other swords, tatami mats, newspapers, and many more items. In addition, I've studied a lot of literary material, medieval and Viking sagas, archeological reports, and spoken with curators, police officers and wound experts.

So I do have some firm opinions regarding swords and sword use. The strongest is very simple. There are no experts in this field. It is simply too varied, with too many different types of swords, too many geographical areas, and entirely too much of a time frame in which these weapons were used. I am not an expert by any means, and what follows are my own opinions.

How well this minor amount of knowledge relates to fighting with swords it is difficult to say. Many of the things you will find in this section will apply to real sword fights with real weapons and with real serious intent to harm. But it also applies to many other types of contests, not only physical, but mental as well.

But one thing it has taught me is that in actual combat, things do not go as predicted in manuals and instructional books. Even today, what happens in a barroom brawl is not quite the same as what occurs in the dojo. It has often been said that all battle plans go astray the moment the first shot is fired, and I believe that is true in all forms of combat.

There is something else that must be emphasized. A full scale battle was completely different than a planned duel, or a chance encounter, or even being attacked by footpads. And each encounter would always be different from any other encounter. Whether you were an English longbow man, a Swiss pikeman, a samurai or a French knight, whether you had fought in battle once or twice before, or if this was your fifth or sixth encounter, each battle was different.

This is also true for individual duels; each was an encounter within itself, and while experience is always helpful, what worked in the past might not work now.

In today's society there is an unconscious assumption that all people are the same. There is also the belief that all men feel and think as we do, with the same basic values. This is simply not true. For an example, how many men, having accidentally committed a severe breach of etiquette, would commit suicide as a way of expiation? None in our current society, but it was quite common in medieval Japan.

We live in a society that places a high value on human life, but sadly places very little value on the concept of honor. In the past a man would die to uphold his honor, and now honor is considered a rather outmoded concept. To say that you would rather die on your feet than live on your knees is a comment that brings out snickers in many sections of our society.

But this book isn't about social ills or changes, it's about swords. I do feel that it is very important to understand that what is considered proper today does not apply to other times and places.

I have often been asked about how you fight with swords. Usually I try to answer this question by asking what sword they are talking about and in what context. By the time they puzzle out what they want to know, I'm no longer around. It isn't that I am reluctant to talk about the use of swords, or to share what little knowledge I may have, but rather many persons do not actually know what they are asking.

It should also be noted that most of this section will deal with combat between individuals. Actual battles are another thing entirely. As strategy may win a war, tactics may win a battle. This section is not about either. In my opinion each battle was a thing unto itself. Even those that appear similar, such as the battles of Cannae and Adrianople, are different. In each the Romans were surrounded and crushed together so tightly they were unable to use their weapons, and many actually smothered to death. If a time traveler could actually take part in each battle he would find that each had its own flavor, if you will, each its own feel and ambience. Of course this is also true of individual encounters. No two will ever be exactly alike; if they were, they would be easy to prepare for.

Another facet that has to be mentioned is the difference between real combat and simple contests. Although in the past "swordplay" and "sword fighting" meant the same thing; in this chapter I will be using them differently. "Swordplay" means just what it says, play with swords. There is a vast difference between the play and fighting. Since it is highly unlikely that any of us will ever have to actually fight with swords we can only guess at the effectiveness of the training.

Miyamoto Musashi's excellent
Book of Five Rings
deals with many things, but the essence of the book can be distilled down to a simple phrase, "The object is to cut your enemy." Of course Musashi is not the only one to set this out. All of the European masters have said the same thing. Your object is to win. While this is true in war, in contests there are rules. These rules are there for many reasons, but when you enter into these contests, you have agreed to play by the rules. If you dislike them, then you have two options: you can lobby to have them changed, or you cannot play. To play and try to "game" the system or to circumvent the rules or to actually cheat is, in my opinion, dishonorable. In a contest I would rather lose with honor than win by cheating. However, in actual combat I can assure you that I would do whatever I can to make sure that I walk away while my enemy doesn't.

Now kind reader, if you will put up with my long winded comments, I will try to tell you some things that I know, some things that I suspect, and then you can figure out what you may have garnered from this and your own experiences.

Obviously physical condition is important, but in certain circumstances that pales beside the need to just have a physical body there. An example is the Battle of Visby, a battle that has already shown up in this book. Many of the skeletons unearthed were of older people, and many had been crippled in the past, either by disease, accident or combat. But when the Danes invaded, the city needed all the help it could get, and so they called on everyone who could bear a weapon. A lot of the skeletons were of young men, and this was probably their first, and last, combat.

Reproduction Viking sword. HRC19.

We consider physical conditioning very important and there are countless gyms and dojos in this country promoting it. And well they should, for this is very important to your physical well being. But consider why they have to. We have cars, TV, radio, movies, enormous quantities of food, and huge amounts of leisure time to enjoy all of these "benefits" of this society. After all, we only work about 40 hours per week, and in some countries, it is only 35–37 hours per week.

But before the onset of the industrial revolution these benefits were not available. You walked or rode a horse. A few of the very wealthy rode in carriages, but they too had to walk. In short, these people may have suffered from more diseases and injuries than we do, but for overall condition, the ability to keep going, to suffer hardships and continue and yet still survive, they were much stronger and tougher than we are. I can remember when I was young, and a product of the city. Even though I was something of an athlete, wrestling, running, lifting weights, boxing, and so on, there were young farm boys who had not done any exercises but were at least as tough and strong, and quite formidable.