It's been a long time since we've been able to attend a HEMA event, hang out with sword fighters, do some sparring, and sell some of our wares.
Arms and Armor table at Icebreaker 2019
I think Longpoint and SoCal Swordfight 2019 were the last events we were able to make it to. In part this has been due to safety precautions, and to the cancellation of most events, but it's also because you all have been ordering so many swords and weapons that we've had our hands full just trying to keep up. Throw in some supply chain disruptions and a bit of a production traffic jam at the foundry we use and we haven't really had any extra pieces to bring and sell.
Custom Sword with a purple grip called "The sword formerly known as the Black Prince" that we donated as a prize at Longpoint 2019
While 75% of our business is producing sharp swords and other weapons, we were also a pioneer in creating historically accurate training weapons and our training swords fill a high-end, historical, and customizable niche in the HEMA market for folks who know what they really want out of a training sword. Check out this previous blog on the history of our training weapons, and this post 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
We are really happy that we are going to be able to attend our local tournament this spring. We won't have much to sell, but at least we will be able to see some old friends and watch some swords in action.
Open Steel Longsword at Icebreaker
The Icebreaker Open will be taking place in Minneapolis, MN April 29th - May 1st 2022, and we will be there. We will also be donating a custom sharp sword as a prize!
Sexy sword pics from Icebreaker 2019
In addition, Arms and Armor's own Craig Johnson will give a presentation on some of the original swords in The Oakeshott Institute collection, and Dr. Nathan Clough will give a lecture on a topic TBA.
Craig with a sword from The Oakeshott Institute collection
We are really excited for this event and 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