@jinnd319 Sickle Blades were used as method of cutting cane and grain; not an easy feat with a blunt tool. So yes, the blade would be sharp for hook and cutting, but more likely than not; those blades are blunt.
Great video! I'm glad you put it up. Since Sickle One was the first translated page I had access to, I have also examined the various techniques that might follow each echange. It makes complete sense to consider follow up moves. I think the Sickle is a weapon meant for hooking, grappling and controlling an opponent. You can kill them easier with a dagger, but there's hardly anything that can cause more pain than a serrated sickle. Each play is not the end of the fight. You must finish it.
I've wanted to but I haven't gotten around to it yet. They have great potential. Mair's section on the scythe is wonderful. Very tricky. Lots of momentum with a great blade that sticks out perpendicularly to the handle is a very tricky thing to not only use but go against (especially in safety for practice).
Did anybody else notice how the first sequence of parry ended up with the opponents sickle in his crotch. I would think a real opponent would jerk his hand back in a attempt to regain control of his sickle, slicing a few extremities as he did.
If you're talking about one of the creative endings added to the first sequence, the one where the sickle reaches over the guy's back to his crotch, you've missed the fact that the guy's sickle arm is locked while this happens. If he were to jerk (which he would), he'd only risk causing structural damage to his shoulder or elbow/neck or spine.
I'm glad it's of help. Just be sure to go slow, stay relaxed and watch out....those sickle points have a peculiar dynamic for people associated with weapons in that they reach ahead of the line of your forearm/hand and will come in contact with your partner's body (upper body/neck/face) "faster" than you might be accustomed to. Good training!
No problem. Yeah, watch the force you use if the tang is really slim. Regardless, you'll want to use accompanying-type movements, swipes...working at an angle to their force, you know, instead of directly resisting and putting force onto the weak part of your weapon. Tension vs tension will result in a break, sooner or ater like always.
A bit of all of those. New sickles tend to have very thin blades, so the edge is very hard to take off and even when you do, it can cut someone very easily if you are too tense. Machine/grind and smooth edges and points, and for thin blades, lots of duct tape for thickness and leather caps on points. Older actual farmer sickles that I have seen tend to be much thicker in the blade, and much safer. Still, take off all the edge and round the point and go easy and relax training. Don't compete! :)
If combat typically meant leaving someone dead, dying or soon to be, I wonder if maybe the biggest population control then was disease and other people O.o. It might explain the overcrowding we have today. A grotesque thought.
Ah, awesome. We have a couple of old farmer sickles, but I have a fear that their rat-tang may break under force from other non-sickle weapons. I didn't actually think of tape though, so I may end up getting some fibre tape or something of the like. Thanks man!
***** It is to keep the hand close so it can be used quickly, but at the same time protected by being behind the sickle in terms of distance. Sickles, like knives, swing very quickly and often enough without any tell-tale footwork. Hands left "out there all alone" are easily cut and you could quickly lose your fingers. Keeping the hand behind the sickle protects against this even passively, but keeps the hand close to the action if it is needed for grabs or parries or whatever.
Yeah, the design of the blade lends itself to "circular" cuts at contact, like you would with wheat etc. in the field, but the actual farmers' sickles I've seen here in Italy of the hand-forged variety have nice thick blades and at times less of a curve so striking a blow would be far easier, the sweet-spot easier to get at cleanly. Those types could easily go through a forearm and get their way into a skull. They're far superior to what you generally find in a modern hardware store.
@ArmeAntica Does that imply cutting through a bone? Some of the manual pictures indicate the sickle continuing its movement through an arm or leg into a second movement.
This is undenialably true, but swords are much more expensive and at one time Swords were forbidden for those who were no knights. So they took to their feuds, what they had and a sickle was an affordable farming tool with a midlong blade. Better to have a near Crappy Weapon than so weapon at all.
so why the fuck are these fools training with these? This is not art or anything, this is just stupid. It is like training to fight with a rolling pen or a cast iron skillet because cooks don't have swords. Yes, lets take a class on how to fight with a cast iron pots pan.
Sickle fighting is part of a holistic system of the fighting art shown within Mair's encyclopedic tome. Its basic principles are shared with Mair's dagger fighting, the differences being found in weapon form use. To think that it is inferior to a sword or a dagger is personal opinion, like saying a katana is better than a longsword, and is probably based more than anything on a lack of knowledge on these arts. Bigger does not equal better. If that was true, everybody would have been fighting exclusively with the largest halbards possible (which they weren't), nor does speed alone dictate victory, and both of those considerations don't even bring into question the mettle of the weapon holder, which is always the largest deciding factor. Why does anyone study anything? Probably because it's fun, and in this case, it is a hidden aspect of European history that many did not know existed, and it has a surprising depth of material (as all Mair's work shows) that goes beyond simple technique and common perception.
@jinnd319 Sickle Blades were used as method of cutting cane and grain; not an easy feat with a blunt tool. So yes, the blade would be sharp for hook and cutting, but more likely than not; those blades are blunt.
Great video! I'm glad you put it up. Since Sickle One was the first translated page I had access to, I have also examined the various techniques that might follow each echange. It makes complete sense to consider follow up moves. I think the Sickle is a weapon meant for hooking, grappling and controlling an opponent. You can kill them easier with a dagger, but there's hardly anything that can cause more pain than a serrated sickle. Each play is not the end of the fight. You must finish it.
Another awesome video.
Great work guys and gals!
Karkat sent me.
Heh. I'm doing sickle sparring research for a Davekat fic. XD
This is currently my favourite out of your videos. :)
I've wanted to but I haven't gotten around to it yet. They have great potential. Mair's section on the scythe is wonderful. Very tricky. Lots of momentum with a great blade that sticks out perpendicularly to the handle is a very tricky thing to not only use but go against (especially in safety for practice).
I see lots of hooking but no cutting. Can you gut with those things?
I'm sorry, I can't find the project of the video, but it's from Battlestar Galactica the tv series by Bear McCreary.
Did anybody else notice how the first sequence of parry ended up with the opponents sickle in his crotch. I would think a real opponent would jerk his hand back in a attempt to regain control of his sickle, slicing a few extremities as he did.
If you're talking about one of the creative endings added to the first sequence, the one where the sickle reaches over the guy's back to his crotch, you've missed the fact that the guy's sickle arm is locked while this happens. If he were to jerk (which he would), he'd only risk causing structural damage to his shoulder or elbow/neck or spine.
Monty Chance No the second sequence
ThePatrick6122
The second sequence is based around controlling the attacker's weapon arm while you cut his neck.
I'm glad it's of help. Just be sure to go slow, stay relaxed and watch out....those sickle points have a peculiar dynamic for people associated with weapons in that they reach ahead of the line of your forearm/hand and will come in contact with your partner's body (upper body/neck/face) "faster" than you might be accustomed to.
Good training!
No problem. Yeah, watch the force you use if the tang is really slim. Regardless, you'll want to use accompanying-type movements, swipes...working at an angle to their force, you know, instead of directly resisting and putting force onto the weak part of your weapon. Tension vs tension will result in a break, sooner or ater like always.
A bit of all of those. New sickles tend to have very thin blades, so the edge is very hard to take off and even when you do, it can cut someone very easily if you are too tense. Machine/grind and smooth edges and points, and for thin blades, lots of duct tape for thickness and leather caps on points. Older actual farmer sickles that I have seen tend to be much thicker in the blade, and much safer. Still, take off all the edge and round the point and go easy and relax training. Don't compete! :)
I'd love to see similar moves with full sized scythes.
If combat typically meant leaving someone dead, dying or soon to be, I wonder if maybe the biggest population control then was disease and other people O.o. It might explain the overcrowding we have today. A grotesque thought.
Ah, awesome. We have a couple of old farmer sickles, but I have a fear that their rat-tang may break under force from other non-sickle weapons. I didn't actually think of tape though, so I may end up getting some fibre tape or something of the like.
Thanks man!
@SavageInsight I mean seem to indicate*
Why are their hands up and almost crossed? Is that in preparation to grab their opponents or prevent from being grabbed?
***** It is to keep the hand close so it can be used quickly, but at the same time protected by being behind the sickle in terms of distance. Sickles, like knives, swing very quickly and often enough without any tell-tale footwork. Hands left "out there all alone" are easily cut and you could quickly lose your fingers. Keeping the hand behind the sickle protects against this even passively, but keeps the hand close to the action if it is needed for grabs or parries or whatever.
hello do you have any training groups in madrid spain?,
Could you cleave with a sickle?
I'm asking because I imagine that with a concave edge it would be somewhat weird
Yeah, the design of the blade lends itself to "circular" cuts at contact, like you would with wheat etc. in the field, but the actual farmers' sickles I've seen here in Italy of the hand-forged variety have nice thick blades and at times less of a curve so striking a blow would be far easier, the sweet-spot easier to get at cleanly. Those types could easily go through a forearm and get their way into a skull. They're far superior to what you generally find in a modern hardware store.
@ArmeAntica Does that imply cutting through a bone? Some of the manual pictures indicate the sickle continuing its movement through an arm or leg into a second movement.
Wow, it's like an Aikido move, kinda.
Great, plenty to learn from this video.
Btw, could you please tell me which music you used for the video?
Where do you guys get your sickles from? Do you just restore old ones from farmer markets, or do you make your own, or do you use modern tools?
Just remember, A sword or a dagger is better than this crap tool.
This is undenialably true, but swords are much more expensive and at one time Swords were forbidden for those who were no knights. So they took to their feuds, what they had and a sickle was an affordable farming tool with a midlong blade. Better to have a near Crappy Weapon than so weapon at all.
so why the fuck are these fools training with these? This is not art or anything, this is just stupid. It is like training to fight with a rolling pen or a cast iron skillet because cooks don't have swords. Yes, lets take a class on how to fight with a cast iron pots pan.
+slaanghoul
Trollolololololol
+TimurAShadow TOOL
Sickle fighting is part of a holistic system of the fighting art shown within Mair's encyclopedic tome. Its basic principles are shared with Mair's dagger fighting, the differences being found in weapon form use. To think that it is inferior to a sword or a dagger is personal opinion, like saying a katana is better than a longsword, and is probably based more than anything on a lack of knowledge on these arts. Bigger does not equal better. If that was true, everybody would have been fighting exclusively with the largest halbards possible (which they weren't), nor does speed alone dictate victory, and both of those considerations don't even bring into question the mettle of the weapon holder, which is always the largest deciding factor.
Why does anyone study anything? Probably because it's fun, and in this case, it is a hidden aspect of European history that many did not know existed, and it has a surprising depth of material (as all Mair's work shows) that goes beyond simple technique and common perception.