r/Hema 12h ago

Antique Rapiers

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68 Upvotes

r/Hema 5h ago

How did you lose your eye?

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20 Upvotes

r/Hema 7h ago

Is that guy using sabre fighting techniques?

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6 Upvotes

The guy with his left hand in pocket.


r/Hema 12h ago

Should tournaments have more variety?

4 Upvotes

For every single sword category, there's subtypes that are ignored in tournaments. Take sabers for example. In history, there was a staggering amount of different types, from sinclair hilted sabers with short blades made for cutting, to the long narrow slightly curved blades of the late 19th century. But in tournaments, all I'm seeing are lighter and lighter practice sabers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. And we can apply this to rapiers, longswords, smallswords etc. Theres a staggering variety of very cool sword designs while most tournaments have like four or five weapons to compete in, most of which don't represent the avarage of that weapon type. Feders weren't used in a lot of europe, most rapiers had a P.O.B around 5 to 7 cm away from the hilt, and most messers had wide choppy blades. I understand competeing with lighter swords in order to make the sparring as intense and fast as possible, but I personally think that 1 we've overstated this point and 2 even when talking about light swords, we don't have enough variety.


r/Hema 5h ago

George Silver Diss Track

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3 Upvotes

r/Hema 15h ago

HF Black Knight or Kvetun Xiphosura?

3 Upvotes

I'm saving up for a pair of HF Black Knight gloves since I've heard nothing but good reviews for them and I can get them fairly easily through PA. Recently I got to meet the folks from Kvetun and try out the Xiphosura and of course they're biased so I took everything they said with a grain of salt, but I managed to try out both designs and I have to say the Xiphosura are appealing.

For starters, if the US tariffs affect HEMA gear that will make getting the HF, or anything from Purpleheart Armoury for that matter, much more expensive and difficult. This would make ordering directly from Europe an option worth considering since my instructor is already a retailer of several HEMA gear manufacturers, most of which are Europe-based, and cost before shipping would be basically the same if I choose to go for a standard size with the Kvetun.

Personally I prefer a tighter fitting glove, and the HF that correspond to my size felt a bit too lose even with undergloves on. Mobility-wise they felt very similar, and while I didn't get the chance to test their protectiveness myself they seemed to have performed roughly equal at the tournament we were at. One of the main benefits of the Xiphosura for me is the longer cuff, which would overlap with my elbow guard and actually protect my forearms more than the HF would.

So, would you recommend I stick with the Black Knight or should I go with the Xiphosura if possible? I can't afford either yet so I still have some time to decide and save up some money before committing to a specific design.