Well our post today is a bit light as we had a busy weekend chipping ice, full on melt and freeze time in Minnesota, and we had some work going on getting ready for the up coming spring sword plant. Plus we will be adding a few new things to The Oakeshott Collection, more to come on that later! But when you are planning on the spring sword plant its a busy time. Most folks do not realize the legend of the sword in the stone comes from the annual planting of swords.
Disney's Sword in the Stone which is as old as I am which seems a bit messed up :-)
This occurs in the just thawed ground of spring and can be tough in the upper north as the ground can be be frozen still when things need to get started. So we have to chip some ice and use a decent spike to get the seeds in.
Image from sword seed packet - Sverd i fjell
We will keep you updated on the new things coming and we look for good weather to help us with our growing season this year.
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, Western Martial Arts Workshop, 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