This blade design was popular in the ancient world. I tend to have a hard time with the balance of the blade but my smaller opponent in these bouts finds it easy to adapt to the weapon.

The second video is a five duel challenge which got pretty nasty and resulted in Damien having his knee opened up to the bone in the last bout, which he treated with super glue. Low line kicks seem to work very well with this blade design, which kind of leaves me twisting in the combative wind once the kicks come into play.

The first and third video is an attempt to reconstruct an ancient gladiatorial combat, with pauses taken to explain the weapon contact to the attendees. The small weapon relative to the shield size is common to ancient combat, where in later ages the weapon length increased with the quality of the steel. This was Cory’s first steel bout so he tended to orbit. He has since developed his triangular footwork to the point where it’s really dangerous to get in there with him and press.