Right in the
face. Hi it's Tod from Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and this is an advert,
I can't pretend otherwise, but it is going to be a fun advert so stick with it. We're going
to smash things, hit things, stab things. We're going to do stuff. But the reason
we're doing it is it's the Black Friday sale time up to 50% off on todcutler.com,
up to 20% off on Tods Workshop.com so come on down. But first up so you get the flavour of this,
let's go hit something with this German War hammer. Right in the
face. I have a thing about hitting beer cans but
I'm not going to waste good beer on it. Alcohol-free lager; fails on two
counts. Of course it's not just the beak on a War hammer that does the
business, the meat tenderiser does as well. Let's see what it does against the
mail. But of course those hammers are mass weapons just like regular maces are. Then you come down
to the bottom end of things here which is the simplest mace you could do that any bodger,
any blacksmith in any village would be able to turn out. Six big studded nails, big chunk of lead
in the end, on an ash shaft. Really good against flesh, not against armour let's see what it
does. None of the mauls and maces are really against hard armour
but of course sometimes you would. Mass weapon, it's brass, softer than
steel and it will still make a mess of what it strikes. That's what it's about,
soft bits. Now one of these is fantasy one of these is real can you tell which it is?
Well the thing is these ones were used singly so this is really the orientation
it should be but it doesn't look remotely as cool as when you double them or triple them,
so I do that too. And so we're starting here with an effigy rondel, mid 14th century,
disc at the bottom, regular kind of pommel at the top so you see these a lot in stone
effigies and churches, occasionally, less often in museums. Then around 1400,
you end up with what we think of as rondels and this one is a monster from the Wallace Collection.
Now I did a great film with Matt Easton where we stabbed mail and plate and fabric armour using a
custom Tod's Workshop piece, but this is the regular Tod Cutler piece. let's see what it
does. Now we got a studded rondel from the Rothenberg Collection. It's not remotely
as uncomfortable as it looks like it is, but the thing is it's sits there in your
hand and you know where it is. But if you look at the manuals interestingly
an awful lot of rondel fighting is done with overhand grips not underhand grips
which is a much more modern knife fighting style and it's to do with the armour that
people are wearing. Let's see how this handles mail. Studded rondel overhand
grip. Lots of force. So we're going to try the underhand grip and you'll
see why fight manuals of the medieval period don't
favour it; still nasty but not as deep. So we're done with rondelsl and onto bullock daggers. Yep,
they did exist and they really did wear them where I'm holding it now. They also wore them in other
places too but it's you know a joke 500 years ago is still a great joke now. But they started round
about 1300 as working men's knives, working men's tools, so single-edged flat back, stout
blade. They're strong, they're cheap to make, they're easy to make and you can do fine work,
coarser work. Now the thing is things change over time, fashions change, so this went out and by the
15th century they're becoming posh. So from the mid- 15th century onwards you end up with bullock
daggers like this. So they're getting posher they're getting finer they're gentleman's tools
right?, but they are still civilian dress, never really military. But the thing is this is now all
about dress and all about fighting there's nothing about work here but of course the 15th century had
ordinary guys in it as well not just Posh dudes. So you've got working daggers still out there,
this one it's an interesting blade form but there's quite a few of them and it's for working
and for fighting, so it's optimised for both. Double-sided blade but a flat back here. Now
thing is there's some vegetables out there that I think we need to see how bullock daggers deal
with. So bullock daggers were the perfect medieval multi-tool they were used for you know cookery,
camp work, craft work, work around the farm, the house, they were also civil
defence. Enough rudness with the bullock daggers, we're on to a good old English seax, 9th, 10th,
11th century broken back style. We think of these as a Vikings tool, but actually Knights
were still using them up into the early 13th century so this is current at the same time
as quillon daggers such as this. Now the thing is this has to be used basically in an overhand
grip it's really the way it's designed, this one it's not the overhand grip of later centuries it's
still the underhand grip. Now according to all the books I read this sails through mail like
there's...... well like it's butter, so I think we should go find out if it does. Draw it out,
in it goes like butter....... or not. Not anti-mail. Of course with tod
cutler.com daggers, rondels, quillon daggers and so on, but also we like to do as much as
we can bauernwehr like this one, really big in Switzerland and Germany and then of course we
have basilards, the German/Swiss style and the English/Italian style. You tell me why they were
so similar but yet so far apart. And then we have this bauernwehr here with eating knives. It's a
really German thing to add additional bits onto your main knife, they did it a lot with swords,
they did it with hunting knives, they did it with bauernwehr. So you got a lovely pair of
eating knives here because of course you all know that what you don't do is go to table
and eat with a big knife or a rusty knife or a dagger because they had etiquette manuals and it
explained how you were supposed to eat. So we all know exactly how you eat when you sit down at a
medieval feast table, you get your dagger out, you spear the chicken, you drag it across the table,
you rip her leg off, you take a bite, you throw it over your shoulder and everybody has a really
great night. Wasn't like that. No dirty cutlery, no daggers, wait till it's served, don't take
too much. It's all there in the books. But the thing is that means you can't just have a dagger
because that's just...... you're not dressed properly and why would you want that? So tod
cutler.com. What happens after dinner if things get frisky and they don't like your
table manners? There's always the stiletto. So let's go and see how this deals with mail
because of course people used to wear secrets so basically hidden armour under their coats,
not just the clothing. So you took great offence when they didn't like your etiquette,
he's wearing a secret under his jacket, you've got your stiletto. Didn't help him much; it's
what they're for. So I hope you've enjoyed the advert don't forget up to 50% off on todcutler.com
up to 20% off on selected todsworkshop.com items. Come down, check it out you won't be
disappointed. And then you can recreate some of this in your own backyard, if you want to. Bye.