#bauernwehr

We are super excited to announce to the HEMA-sphere that our friends at the Haitian Machete Fencing Project have released a book!!!  

You can order this beautiful book over on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Haitian-Machete-Fencing-Family-Method/dp/1948529246 

Written by Michael Dylan Rogers & Reginald Turnier Photography by Charles Espey

“Explore the heart of Haiti's cultural heritage through Haitian Machete Fencing: The Avril Family Method-a unique blend of history, art, and combat technique, passed down through generations. Haiti is a country rich in culture, though economically poor. In the countryside, where time-honored traditions thrive, a legacy of African ancestry continues in music, dance, spirituality, folk medicine, and-perhaps most intriguingly-martial arts.”

"The best solo practice is exercise..." — Kat H., Sword Fitness Instructor

Welcome to the first Bauernwehr weekend workout challenge! Kat and Peter get a lot of requests regarding methods for individual solo-practice, and thus have dreamt up the Workout Challenge!

Initially designed to be a guide for weekends without classes, you can use these challenges to level-up your physical routine any day of the week!

WARM UP

Taiso

Jog in place, getting the knees as high as possible x 120 seconds

SET 1

Wall Sits x30 seconds

Bodyweight Squat x12

Rest 30 seconds

Repeat set two (2) more times.

SET 2

Bodyweight Forward Lunges x15 (for each leg!)

Plank x30 seconds

Rest 30 seconds

Repeat set two (2) more times.

SET 3

Pushup x 15

Bodyweight Backward Lunges x15 (for each leg!)

Rest 30 seconds

Repeat set two (2) more times.

SET 4

Full body crunch x15

Bodyweight Standing Calf Raise x 15

Rest 30 seconds

Repeat set two (2) more times.

COOL DOWN STRETCHES

We've created some instructional videos as well! If you need help with anything, don't hesitate to reach out to us on the Gotham Swords Discord server or directly via e-mail (bauernwehr@gmail)!

Ádám Bodorics – All Steel Bauernwehr and Scabbard

This stylistically unique and custom crafted Bauerwehr bt Ádám Bodorics has a sharpened and well tempered blade which is solidly constructed and matched to a hilt of steel. The dagger comes with a scabbard of wood hich is sheathed in steel and completed with a steel hanging belt loop. The dagger feels quite capable and authoritative in the hand and its blade has a thick spine to ensure it has excellent durability. Below are Ádám’s own thoughts on his custom creation:

Working review of a Tod Cutler Bauernwehr 

A few weeks ago I ordered a very reasonably priced Bauernwehr from Tod Cutler. I received it in what must be record time from the UK (faster than most US domestic packages), but only just had a chance to take it out for some work. The leather thong on the scabbard was a good match with the leather tab on the back of my Peg and Awl Hunter Satchel. The knife hangs easily behind the bag while walking, but remains accessible.

Bauernwehr (”farmer’s knife” or “farmer’s defense”) were common in Europe from the 14th-16th centuries. From Tod’s product page: 

This bauernwehr style of medieval hunting and working knife was popular from the late 14thC to the early to mid 16thC, especially in the German and Swiss lands and Bohemia, but certainly also with other nations.  

Very similar knives are found in quantity in museums, but also in artwork by Gaston Phoebus and Breughel.

They are always of stout construction and have the knuckle pin or nagel has a very characteristic feature, meaning that their intention was also for fighting.

I ordered the knife with a sharp edge, and then did some light honing. My first task today was processing a good-sized windfall oak branch, then spent most of the afternoon cutting and pulling up invasive ivy -- the knife handled both wonderfully. 

The nagel is undoubtedly meant as knuckle protection, but I also realized after a couple hours’ work that looping my index finger over the nagel allows for more control and power when using the knife as a chopping tool, something I’m sure medieval farmers also appreciated.

Overall, the knife performed extremely well as a working tool, although I haven’t had a chance to do any brawling with it, so can’t really say how it works as a weapon.

Things I finally got in the last few days. A new bauernwehr with a totentanz motif sheat and a pair of dussacks, these are from Landsknecht Emporium. I wanted to put the leather on the dussacks myself, already finished with one, though it was a questionable decision in hindsight.

A short reflection on our practice of THE GAME: An essential component of our Bauernwehr training program, the Game comes to us through the Haitian tradition of Tire Machèt and the amazing folks at the @haitian_machete_fencing Project. In this exercise the Mentor, or leader of the practice, gives hits to a Scholar, who is (almost) exclusively focused on defending, replying to each attack with the correct protective action — always abiding the Core Principles.

The Game is infinitely adaptable and open to students of all experience levels. Mentors slowly adjust the intensity and anticipated responses for each individual Scholar, who, in turn, is able to experience their skills in action. Our major objective is to champion the spirit of a defensive-first mindset:

"Resistance isn’t about winning battles but about surviving. If you can survive as a committed antagonist, victory is inevitable." — Haitian Machete Fencing: The Avril Family Method (p.216).

Gotham Swords is excited to welcome back Michael Rogers of the Haitian Fencing Project for an intensive six-hour workshop this July!

In Haiti, the traditional art of machete fencing goes by many names, among them Tire Machèt (“Pulling Machetes”). Tire Machèt has roots in the Haitian Revolution, when the revolutionaries were often forced to fight with fewer guns than soldiers. Its combination of ancestral African combat systems proved highly effective both in battle and as a means of individual self-defense.

Tickets are $225, with all proceeds from this event benefiting the people of Haiti through the nonprofit organization Cultural Capital Haiti.  We hope that you can join us once again for this unique and amazing experience and help do some good in the world:

TIRE MACHÈT WORKSHOP WITH MICHAEL ROGERS Sunday, July 13th, 12pm-6pm 520 8th Ave., New York, NY Tickets Here Interested in Learning More about Haitian Machete Fencing?

Buy the official training manual! Haitian Machete Fencing Project • Gotham Swords • Bauernwehr