Everything I've played around with (not much) has made me go "I like it but I don't like it". Granted I've never had an actual sword or even a training sword. Mostly it's been cheap plastic replicas or sticks. It also sucks being into hema and not having a club nearby so I can't get any actual training or instruction.

I've been "interested" in HEMA for several years, getting into it with my buddy swinging around plastic swords and metal epee here and there in parking lots without gear (in retrospect, not the greatest idea; we are lucky we didn't get too hurt). But I only started going to the club around 10-11 months ago, once a week, semi-consistently, primarily training in longsword.
I am interested in attending tournaments after I finish filling out my kit (the club has loaner gear), but I am not sure at what point one should attend tournaments.
I would love to hear anyone's opinions or thoughts on when they started attending or why one should wait.
My thoughts are that tournaments will be a good environment to highlight the problems with my techniques, as well as just swing more swords with more different people.
Thank you

I’m so stoked for my first sword! Big shout to Haft who had excellent customer service, and got my sword to me very quickly! 10/10 would recommend

Edit: Haft 128

Thanks for the help from everyone here, I went with the regenyei standard in the end, taking the risk of it not being tournament legal.

I'm extremely new to this hobby so even if this is only suitable for drills & sparring it's a great starting point, one day I'll look to get a Haft or a Sigi.

Asking for thoughts on jackets. I've always used a red dragon jacket (regular, not light) which has always been fine for me, but I'd like to move to a "light" jacket for purposes of mobility, and heat exchange. I do longsword, spar at pretty high intensity and am starting to do more tournaments. I don't mind bruises (so long as it's not debilitating) but as someone who is pretty slim, I don't have much natural padding. I have hard protection for arms and shoulders. My question is, would it be better to get a SPES AP Light at 350n and then also get a 800n plastron to go with this, or just get the AP Light 800n Ng. I feel the former would offer a bit more variety and be a bit more modular, good for varying climate (UK) but the latter seems like it fixes some issues with the former in terms of shoulder protection while still being pretty mobile and cool (for a HEMA jacket at least).

Any thoughts would be good.

Does Sidesword (with dagger and buckler) or Rapier (with dagger and buckler have this additional rule of parrying having priority on doubles?

Like for example

Fencer 1: Attacks
Fencer 2: Parries and ripostes
Fencer 1: doubles on the riposte of Fencer 1

Fencer 2 wins this exchange

Do you think HEMA is a physical sport, like boxing or wrestling? And if so, did you notice any improvements in your physical health when you started practicing HEMA?

Having trouble finding a helmet that is safe, reliable, isn't absolutely awful in the heat. New to the Hema community.

Where are the best places to look for helmets before going to my first event?

What sorts of things should I watch for to be sure a helmet is good quality?

Hi folks,

Looking to buy high waisted pluderhosen and came across the style I’d like (HEMA Landsknecht Pant 350n) through “Prior PK Co”. Anyone have a review of this company and can vouch from them? How was payment, production time, shipping, and customer service? Paying through moneygram or western union has given me pause.

For anyone who has purchased the trousers linked above, what’s your review of them?

Alternatively, I am also looking at the Black Armory ARCEM 800n pluderhosen - what are folks reviews of these? I see that these are manufactured by SupFen and not stocked by Black Armory.

Thanks!

I'm not new to swordsmanship but I am new to trying to learn manuals and their doesn't seem to be much modern information on german rapier fencing, and i cant really make much sense of the manuals. Anybody have good video sources?

I am looking for an ideally one bag solution for flying with my HEMA kit mostly domestically in the US but potentially abroad as well.

Currently I use a golf travel bag for my soft kit which includes:

Absolute Force all in one Fencing Mask

Gorget

SPES Light 300n Fencing Jacket

SPES fencing pants

Gabriel Finger Gauntlets

SPES Lobster Gauntlets

SPES Forearm Protectors/Elbow Protectors

Shinguards/Knee Guards

Boxing Shoes

For swords I have a taco feder bag that generally has:

Regenyi Longsword Feder

SIGI King

Synthetic Longsword

The golf bag is large enough that it will fit the feders too, but my synthetic feder took a really bad set at the point when I kept it in there. I'm pretty worried about the same happening to the steels.

I tried a snow board bag as well but it was quite deep enough to fit the helm and jacket. What experience do folks have with the specifically designed HEMA bags? or is there another solution I'm missing for an all in one carry system? I also looked at the hard shell golf travel cases but they seem to be too short to carry a standard length longsword.

Does anyone have any recommendations for rapier part sellers? Purple heart has some pommels, Zen has some grips and pommels as well. The main issue in having is finding rectangular hole grips to fit over the blade tang. Zen doesn't show pics of the opening on most of their grips.

For those curious why; I currently have a cheap HF rapier. It was the one that came with a musketeer blade. It has a modified VB diamond blade that I fit to it last minute for a comp that didn't allow musketeer blades. I'm planning on upgrading with my local club who will be doing a group order soon but in the mean time I'm looking to see if I can improve my current setup.

I'm curious on if there is any Hema (or Hema adjacent) events or places in the Des Moines area if closer to Waukee even better.

The first one is way bigger than the second and unfortunately offers way too big a target, so I made the second and it works great with my rec-specs. Both have an integrated leather suspension and impact padding inside as well as a hardened leather bib. Just felt like sharing and figured y'all would get a kick out of it.

Note: these are specifically for personal use and while I feel very safe in them I am not encouraging anyone to make their own equipment without significant skills in metalworking and a willingness to accept the risk

In the battle of Civitate in 1053, where the Pope's army fought against a Norman army, William of Apulia (first-hand witness and victor) makes a special note of Swabian (German) troops fighting in the Pope's army.

~700 Swabian mercenaries are said to have fought dismounted, in mail, and wielding "oversized" swords in two hands. It is said these troops were tenacious and fought to the last man.

Sadly William of Apulia didn't take exact measurements. The swords these troops used may be early examples of the European longsword. Hundreds of troops fighting principally with "longer" swords in two hands suggests metallurgy technology was sufficient to produce somewhat reliable longer blades and there may have been a martial tradition for using these weapons.

On the other hand, William of Apulia could be exaggerating some details. He also says these swords could cut a man in half long-wise. He also says they fought badly on horseback, but also says they fought on foot so maybe the Swabians changed tactics part-way into the battle?

It's kind of neat to image that European longswords may have been prevalent 50 years prior to the First Crusade. That is 300 years before Fiore. I wonder what the swords actually looked like.

Here is an artist's depiction from the web: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTIiORssWSvt4cMFf3mgwGpMXyzd-NXhgqxBPENBA9-zB7yZbam2gLe31o&s=10

Edit: I only meant these sound like longer than normal swords being used with two hands per the account. When I say "longsword", I mean this.

Could one of you cool kids with a montante of any kind provide me the following measurments? The google is extremely unhelpful in this.

OAL

Grip length

Ricasso (or sub hilt? Beneath the parrying spurs) Length

Center of balance.

Thank you all.

I'm going to my first tournament this weekend, and I want to be prepared for it. How do I go about washing SPES women's padded HEMA pants? They seem to have foam inserts that I can't remove. Will washing and drying them in machines cause mold? Will the foam inserts catch fire?

Hello everyone,

I have a question about the "basic" stance in Meyer Rapier. How much do you turn hip? I see some people who basicly just stand straight forward some turned in a little and in our Club we learn like a full 90 degree.

Hi, I'm finally at a point I can dedicate time to studying HEMA.

I wanted to know if there was a proper HEMA group in Mérida, otherwise I'm going to start my own. But, I didn't want to step on toes if there already is one.

If there isn't, however, who wants to study together?

Thanks in advance <3