Reclaiming the Blade Page #6

techniques and how they evolved.

So there's quite a strong

academic side to it

in the western martial arts.

We're essentially

resurrecting this from books.

Just as European scholars

wrote down every other

art and science,

the science of defense

was also documented

and recorded.

Many of the old

fighting manuals and treaties

that were written during

the 15th and 16th centuries have

recently been rediscovered and

are now being studied worldwide.

We focus on mainly

German manuals

but also Italian manuals,

15th century and 16th century.

My personal favorite

is Talhoffer.

For the most part

the Italian books,

the German books and the Spanish

books on the fighting arts

have been forgotten,

hidden in old libraries

and monasteries in old

archives and universities.

Unfortunately, very little

research had been done on them.

For the most part,

they had not been looked at

for hundreds of years.

Today these old texts are once

again being systematically

studied and the ancient fighting

skills are being reborn.

In the text the old masters

actually request

that the students study

the source literature

and in one instance they ask

that they add to the text,

bringing their own ideas

to it and expanding upon it.

These arts existed in various

forms because they evolved

together hand in hand with

the societies that created them.

There's nothing equivalent to

that in any of the other world's

traditional martial arts.

They don't have the volumes

of technical literature

that we have.

This is our western tradition.

A lot of people learn martial

arts from people who learned it

from somebody else so often

times it's many generations

removed from someone

with real combat experience.

These books, they're

written by the source.

There's a play in

Wallerstein, specifically,

where the caption

says something like:

The swordsmen have captured

each others' swords.

I thought how that would

never happen in a fight

and I that following week

I was in a bind with a guy who

spun out and we were standing

just like the play showed,

and so that,

all of a sudden,

becomes like a direct

link back to that time.

How did they communicate their

systems to absent third party?

This is combination of words and

images where you have a kind of

notation where you can

almost read the movements

like we'd read in music.

It combines a ground plan,

where your feet go,

a representation of how

you hold the weapon.

You can see the relationship

between the swords,

horizontally as well as

vertically because

it casts a shadow and,

of course, scores of postures,

the overall attempt

to convey what the author

wants his student

to understand.

This is the source literature.

This is what's going to tell us

how they did it back then

and this is how we should

be doing it again today.

When one looks at books

on arms and armor,

the incredible detail

and diversity of design

in such weaponry is apparent.

Therefore, it stands to reason

that there should be

an equally sophisticated manner

of using such weapons.

I was inspired by the works

of a gentleman named

Ewart Oakeshott.

Oakeshott was considered

the world's leading authority

on European swords, on

medieval swords in particular.

Most academics look on them

as quaint curiosities,

but they have no real concept

of what that sword was used for

or even how it was used.

Ewart made it into

what it was.

These were weapons

made for young men

to kill other young men;

a real weapon

used by real people.

The typology of the sword

that Ewart Oakeshott devised

included a classification

for all historical blades.

Oakshott's classifications

unlocked the mythical doors that

had obscured the true history

of European martial combat.

I think if you look at any

Anglo Saxon blades, for example,

or Viking blades, ordinary

warriors might have a long knife

and a spear and a shield,

but they don't have the sword.

There are very few swords

in comparison to the number

of axes or spears.

Spearheads and axes

a blacksmith can make.

You have to be a swordsmith

to get the technology

to be able

to make a sword.

I feel a real connection

to the ancient smiths

because I like doing it with

the tools that they had,

with the fuel that they had,

with just clay and water

and a hand hammer

and charcoal.

I have a modern shop, too.

I've got air hammers and

gas forgers and electric kilns

which I used for experimentation

and making sure that

what I think is happening

the ancient way

is actually happening

with some modern tests.

What really affects

me is the chemistry.

Say, "Well how do

they make stuff

from iron sand,

from dirt, basically?"

It's kind of magic.

The more I learned about

it the more I realized

there's different ways

that different cultures

did it so

I had to try that.

I don't like just

reading about it

and putting a book

on the shelf.

I want to do it until I

get it right which causes

a whole lot of sleepless

nights and a lot of work

and a lot of

trial and error.

I feel that a collector

like myself does at least have

some utility to those attempting

to rediscover the sword.

I can provide a swordsmith

such as Paul the opportunity

to make very careful

measurements so that

some of the original swords

which have survived--

rediscovering the way

in which they were put together

to give great performance even

with materials and techniques

that are primitive by today's

technological standards.

Well, sometimes

there is a debate going:

Is the Japanese sword better?

Or the Chinese sword?

Or the Chinese taught

the Japanese their techniques,

so basically it's just

a refined Chinese sword.

Well, no the European

swords are better--

no whoots,

Indian-type blades are better.

I've been working a lot of these

traditions and I'm finding

more similarities of how

they solved their problems

than I am finding differences.

But they have different

ways of doing them,

different ways to stack them.

Some of them using twists

some of them didn't use

twisted steel.

But they solved the problems

in a very similar fashion.

And that really intrigued me.

I figured out some things

that were wrong in books,

things that weren't

written in books,

and other things that I feel are

right by actually doing them

and trying them and testing

the swords and breaking swords,

analyzing things.

I enjoyed getting

primary knowledge.

Definitely people who smelt

their own steel and test

their own blades

and make all things--

Where I feel the connection is

sitting back there with the fire

going and pumping the bellows

with everything quiet

and just me and

forging that blade.

In 2006 a suitcase in the attic

of a well-loved and deceased

archaeologist was literally

saved from history's dust bin.

The treasure inside:

a sword, 13 centuries old.

Since then the sword has been

tested extensively

by the Royal Armories and

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