This coming weekend is Ice Breaker 2024 the upper midwest's spring HEMA Tournament. We have been supporters and fans since its inception and are looking forward to this weekend's action and seeing who wins the prize! We have provided one of our Black Prince Longswords for the winner.
Arms & Armor Black Prince Sword
This elegant type XV bladed sword is from the height of the middle ages c. 1400. It is the form of sword often illustrated in the fight manuals of the period such as Fiore's Flower of Battle.
We will also be manning a table with some examples of our products for browsing and The Oakeshott Institute will be there with some period weapons for folks to see. The original swords are always appreciated as they give a unique perspective to compare the modern trainers to.
Our sharp swords and other weapons often dominate our blog and site, but we were some of the first to create historically accurate training weapons and our training swords fill a premium trainer in the historical, and customizable niche in the HEMA market. You can check out some previous blogs on the history of our training weapons, and comparing edge damage on our feders to that on original training swords in the Metropolitan Museum of New York.
Arms and Armor Fechterspiel Longsword Trainer/Feder
Also check out some of our most recent research on these interesting swords and how they were used as competitive sport weapons in period. Here Nathan and Craig discuss the weight and dynamics of these weapons. We look at the whole topic with Jess Finley and how today compares to the historical record.
The Icebreaker Open will be taking place in Inver Grove Heights, MN April 19th - 21st , and we will be there on Saturday.
We look forward to seeing many old friends, and making some new ones. Come on down and say "Hi"!
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985