Well that definitely hit!
Hi it's Tod of Tod's Workshop and Tod Cutler here and i'm back with Matt Easton of Scholagladiatoria
yeah but importantly we're actually back at Matt and Lucy Easton's Fight Camp 21
which is a weekend training for all kinds of martial arts of everything you can ever imagine.
But i've got an unboxing video for Matt and he doesn't know anything about it eight months ago
six months ago uh matt made a film great film on his channel Scholagladiatoria, go check it out,
about 10 weird weapons from the medieval area now there are an awful lot of weird weapons in the
medieval era i thought this is a great opportunity i can make the stuff, Matt not so good. He can use
the stuff, me not so good, so this is just a perfect combination so you don't know what
i'm proposing matt. I haven't got a clue, now I don't know whether it's one of those ten or
whether. It is one of those ten. So here is your unboxing video right okay let's see what we got
and the idea is the idea is if this works out we're going to run quite a few films not
that you know that but if you're happy for this where i make weird stuff from the medieval era
and matt tests it out and then we talk about it. So what have you got Matt, I wonder if the
viewers have guessed from the shape, i don't know it's a funny one so have you guessed
there you go so it's a it's a flail it is a fan it's already had my knuckles i can
tell you that. really. yeah, so my very rough user guide is because it's quite end heavy yeah
your natural thing is that what you do is you put that hand up there to help support the weight okay
and then you lift it up i'm not even gonna do it and then you lift your hand up and that happens
so that is my first word of warning yeah so keep your hands down the bottom yeah so these weapons
we know that they were used between the 14th and 16th centuries famously by the hussites um
but we also see Landsknechts later with forms of flail and they're shown in a few of the treatises
that we work from in HEMA so uh Paulus Hector Mair is one of the famous ones 16th century,
mid-16th century treaty it's interesting though isn't it because you want to know how far that
yeah i see if i had that i would want a disc guard on it or put a mark yeah just or even a notch or
something something but what i would say is a lot of using these is about keeping the acceleration
and deceleration with them so they shouldn't come back and hit the shot right anyway so just rank
amateurs like me yeah when you swing the thing it should be almost. It's nasty isn't it. Should be
almost straight out when it's swinging and then it only at the end you decelerate it yeah no i
can see it it's stopping and decelerate and it shouldn't it shouldn't be coming and hitting its
own shaft because it damages yeah but but again on the it's one of those things about weapons now
is that you train with a blunt sword and you expect your sword to last for three years and
you might do a bit of deburring and stuff yeah if you need to change the shaft on that historically
after a battle so what yeah you know really so what it's just a bit of wood yeah going back
you're saying that there are treaties about how to use these things because for me i really struggled
to see how you can use it in a measured way this for me almost seems like an all or nothing
weapon you are fully committing to a blow. Yeah so i mean you are but at the same time a lot of
the principles from other pole weapon use comes into it as well um so they they'll stand in in
guard positions whereby they will be able to use the rest of the shaft for potentially uh pushing
aside or parrying incoming thrust from a spear or something like that but equally if you've
hit someone with the weapon you might then step in close to use the back end of the weapon as well
so i think sometimes people get so fixated on this bit because that's the novelty yeah um yeah they
forget that this is still this is still a lump of wood and you know even if you held it backwards
you could still hit something with the with the back end of it somehow but but yeah principally
i think that that's a really good point actually it is a weapon in its own right with a bit of
extra nastiness on the end it's an unusual tool uh but the thing is we've also got to remember these
fencing treatises are not necessarily showing typical use of a weapon yeah they're showing
one-on-one the gentleman yeah who were like oh let's let's have a bout with something oh you
think do you think you honestly think it is a little bit of that yeah because like getting
back to their roots they have a fight just with two large lumps of wood as well just because
they can yeah yeah particularly interested me and that is why our shield is here is
the sectional end of it you can do things that you can't do with a regular pole weapon
and one of those things quite clearly is it wants to wrap itself around things it wants
to come over the top of a shield it wants to around someone's weapon yeah or around their
back for instance you know whether there might be lesser armored or the back of the legs even
you know all those kind of nastiness so this is not particularly well mounted but that in a way
is slightly deliberate that that you can pull it can you have a quick go at hooking it and
seeing if it comes so if that feels in front of me and i just want to batter it for some reason
because this is articulated yeah you don't feel any real shock oh don't you because this
becomes like a projectile it's a projectile that's tethered yeah to a lever oh oh so you
get almost like an atlatl it's you're you're accelerating this but at the moment of impact
you can continue your motion with the shaft and that shock will just be left in that yeah object
i don't know which it was sort of up here wasn't it i think hasn't particularly marked it but oh
there's one that's a new one that's not an arrow strike so it's up there i mean i can try and mark
it more if you want me to i can put a bit more welly into it give it a go see what happens
well that definitely hit oh that's okay so that's actually the shaft but i mean okay
so let's see what it does okay so that's what that's what the marking is here so we've got
that's a square hole yeah and that one there too oh okay so i hit quite fast on it so that's
yeah something like that it's not like the spikes necessarily do a lot to a hard target like this
no but they bite in i guess and you've got quite a lot of energy in the end of this
it's not lead shot or anything no i haven't it's just the art yeah give it hook over and i just
want to see how that pulls i just i just got an idea that if you've got it like this it's
so an interesting thing as well because you've got that articulation even if you hit the top
of the shield with the shaft that's going to swing over the top and either hit the person in the face
or hit the arm holding the shield as well yeah so you can actually if there's someone
someone's arm behind that shield you can actually do this yes and hit them in the back of the arms
and also i'm guessing that that the stopping of the shaft it's a bit like a trebuchet the stopping
of the shaft will accelerate that around that's a good point yeah so yeah well in fact look at that
so that very casual swing of mats here it came over the top and it just removed this big hole
in there big tipping oh and another hole here so an arm up there is going to be being hit behind
absolutely yeah i always thought about hitting the head i didn't think about hitting the shield
yeah next question matt have i hooked you in the idea of doing a series of films on weirdo
weapons oh 100 definitely yeah good the next one i'd love it if you can just try and i suppose
get that around there and just see if it wants to bring the shield down because i'm i'm pretty sure
yeah but i would have thought actually no because when you because when you hit
there this rather than hooking it just swings very hard into there and hits that wood but i'm sure
let me experiment a bit more yeah i mean you know this is day one isn't it
i mean it's making a mess of the wood yeah again yeah i mean you can see matt's first idea about it
you know mutilating your arm i think it's completely right because that is utterly landing
where your arm is going to be yeah um so without a doubt an edge of a weapon that was parrying for
example if someone was putting you know some kind of pole arm or sword in the way then that's at the
moment of its stopping that's going to accelerate around and hit whatever behind it yeah i think the
next thing is we've got two guys here who willing to do some sparring with uh sparring versions
that they knocked up and i think it's just a perfect opportunity for us to just have a look
yeah see if there's anything more to add to it and um and take it from there yeah but anyway so
far on this thank you very much and let's have a look at what they've got thank you for making this
so we've got sam rob and richard here who have been sparring at fight camp and we're going to
bring in the two flails now and we're going to go flail on flail flail on sword flail on i don't
know whatever yeah we'll just have a little bit of play and see what happens and then um
these guys haven't trained with flail at all so they know what they're doing with long swords but
not necessarily with flails although they can apply their knowledge from other weapons to it
and then we'll get some feedback from them maybe and see what they found all right brilliant
it didn't immediately bind around yes and you can also immediately see that the the reach
oh yeah that was a hit that's an interesting thing so that was a parry on the main and of course
the end swing towards yeah yeah and of course the reach advantage is quite big on the flail
again
okay so so yeah that's i mean that's a tricky exchange but it's an interesting
point that the flail is not edged like a sword is yeah so it's easier to grapple and grab it
if you can stop that head moving yeah if you get that first one in oh
okay one thing that occurs to me is i remember um
i used to fence but i remember whenever i went up against yeah so
but i remember when i uh used to go up against the left-hander because i wasn't used to it
it was literally a killer i really struggled with that and i i think
this might be a little bit like that that if you don't come across flails every day
you end up with one other new trick you end up with one of these things against you and you just
don't know what to do and that thing about like you know right at the beginning you got whacked
around the side of the head yeah because he's not expecting it and had it been a real fight
that would have been a fight ender, a flail to the side of the head unless you're wearing a
helmet well even so i mean it's quite a whack to get on the side of your head yeah should we swap
them out get another couple yeah do you want to uh yeah should we change over fighters yeah please
so a little bit like sword versus any pole arm the sword isn't going to make up the distance
to come in close enough so oh you see that that was on the back of the leg yeah that would have
been nasty although the sword did hit the flail user on the lead arm as well oh he's nothing
he likes the flail he knows exactly what to do with the flail
so an interesting thing there he actually hit him with the shaft rather than the head initially
but like you said the shaft is still a quarter staff foremost
big lump of wood still what it looked like he was doing there was he was keeping it in
the distance with the knuckle did you notice there was an uppercut there a swing from below
straighten the head it seems very easy to snipe with it we call this sniping from staying out
of distance and just oh yeah so going for the like with all pole arms for the sword user going
for the lead hand on the pole weapon because you've got no hand guard yeah no protection
it is the flails day isn't it because it comes in from such weird angles as well doesn't it
right okay should we should we stop there yeah so shall we switch out do you want to come back on
and you get a flail as well this time oh you're giving me playtime let's go flail versus flail
okay clearly with with two similar weapons you're more likely to cancel out and you'll want to come
in close and come to grappling oh yeah so i mean that that that would be a disabling blow with a
real flower i mean what was interesting on the first one going black and yellow
he didn't even try and back out the way do you think because he was not visualizing it coming in
so that that was a classic example of where the parry went in but
it basically just came around anyway yeah yeah
oh yeah that was also a case of absolutely committed too much there and just left himself
wide open oh oh yeah yeah leg and head so in both cases there it wasn't possible to
defend the leg in time but when the head defence in went in it came over
it's very interesting with this particular weapon heads seem to get really punished
but that was nice i mean you know he absolutely went in to block it but of course
maybe forgot didn't think whatever it just comes tumbling if you could catch just that head then
it would stop it but yeah that's what i was attempting just too close yeah yeah
okay stop so it's interesting so i think a lot of people because we're used to fighting with
non-articulated weapons when you get the center line you're used to occupying that centerline
because you've got a point on your weapon with a bit of sword or a halberd or whatever
but with these you don't have they're not very effective thrusting weapons at all and to hit
with them again you've got to reload them to swing them again yeah they kind of wiggled the
flails around in the middle there and neither of them i mean except for incidental glancing hurts
yeah no i think i think your point about reloading is quite interesting because i hadn't considered
it like that to get the weapon to work properly again you have to go for a full on swing it's not
a so maybe maybe a more continuous motion is yeah but a bit more like a montanto
but what was interesting there so he did get the first blow on the tummy but then there was
a blow to the face which was already in motion so even if if that had gutted him
that still would have swung down in here and both guys would have been there but not enough when
he just came straight from a power through yeah i'm a big guy and a block just right
yeah matt this is much more your world in that sense so tell me what you thought of what you
saw there and then we'll ask the guys well you know it's always interesting when people pick up
an unfamiliar weapon because you see them trying to adapt what they know to the unfamiliar thing
um and there was an evolution through what we're watching them do one of the things being that
you've got to charge that weapon to to unload it you've got to load it to unload it and um
the positions they were standing in the distance changed as well i think they all moved apart a bit
i think initially they were all a bit close uh and then they realized how far these things can reach
and then that how do you defend against such a thing you try i guess and either move out the
distance or defend the head and if you try and if you try and block the shaft then that head
will come around and hit you anyway and that was the major factor that was i mean lack of
familiarity with it i think was evident as well no i suspect even when you're on the battlefield
you'd be facing spear spears staff staff polox whatever and suddenly this thing comes
along and you've got to reset your brain about how to react to it and and i think
yeah i think that that would change so i mean guys what did what do you make of it start at the end
it's horrendous to fight against having not done it before i went into it essentially assuming it
was slightly like a spear so the plan was to try and parry it as it comes in to then get inside its
circle but that's not effective as you said the other end just comes around and cracks you in the
back of the head from weird angles that a straight weapon doesn't do yeah um i think distance for me
i was thinking my length was here yes and i was you got an extra few feet and then towards the
end of it i was trying to like snipe with it a bit more yeah but then yeah it's a big hit and coming
back to guard yourself against something because you have to kind of throw it out
i guess i was doing that throughout quite quite a way so yeah weird because in your hand you feel
the length of the handle but not you don't feel so much to the end way too close yeah yeah so
you were the first guy to get hit yes i had that dubious honor in itself it's a very interesting
thing i mean i was blocking trying to gauge that distance to block the head strike now when this is
a solid weight mass against the sword i wonder how much damage that would do to a weapon yeah when
you actually hit hard with the dam because these things hit like fractions we need to plant it then
i was still going oh yeah that's really clunked me one really and they still hit like freight
trains you can imagine a full weight when it's metal yeah yeah that's just going to start really
denting things exactly and spiked yeah nonetheless yeah one thing me and tom found in particular i
mean we were changing the angles going high going low once you start moving with this
it's not like where you've got a solid weapon where you can manipulate the angle nice and
easily there's all that mass momentum still contained yeah within the top of the weapon here
makes it so much harder you've got to commit with everything everything you do is going in it has
to go forward your tricks are either on the back end yeah or you're fainting quick and driving on
a new angle really interesting weapon so tom is the creator and loner of these wonderful objects
thank you very much but uh yeah how do you find it it's that high low angle like you said it's very
much and range you have to kind of stay away from where the head is because any kind of power is
no good even if you block the head the head just whips around and strikes you from somewhere else
and due to the unpredictability of it i find it's best to kind of stay away stay away
and then if you can take a big step in and you kind of just launch it into a quarter and let the
head do its thing you just throw it wherever roughly where it needs to go and it'll hit
something and it'll bounce around and that's how i found you use them the interesting counterpoint
to that though is when i did driving close to you and you brought manchester in the head background
yes i tried kind of thinking blocked yeah now i blocked right on the shaft what happened is it
came straight back round back of the head and i'm used to fighting a glaive when that would
come round that'd block it i have the inside track but that's just got it that's not the same
different strategy completely required although we didn't see it done uh many times in these bouts i
also noticed that it seemed particularly easy to hit someone in the legs with them as well
you get the high got the first thing one of the sources shows is a high guard like this
as if you're charged for a shot to the head yeah but you actually drop down the knee yeah
it's very easy to get very easy to change targets yeah i think that's it guys really
you've just got yourself in the back of the head so so far you've hit yourself in the back
of the head matt's drawn blood on his knuckles with this we're doing well yeah we're turning
around so anyway so uh thank you very much so hopefully this will be the first of Tod and Matt's
weird medieval weapons shown for real what's going to be next i don't know well you tell us
what's going to be next because i know which one i want to do okay so thank you very much guys you