Monday 17 April 2017
HEMA technique gifs
I've been playing around with the idea of collecting gifs of sparring and tournament footage where 'textbook' techniques are being executed 'in the wild'. I don't have many yet but here's a few for future reference, and to play around with using gifs in blog posts.
Thursday 12 January 2017
Jin Ke Rapier Review
Intro
A few months ago, a Facebook user named Jin Ke advertised a new line of cup hilt rapiers on the Hema Professional Retail group, for 160 euros each. After seeing some early positive reviews, I decided to purchase one for myself. I wasn't really looking for a rapier, being more a longsword and sabre kind of guy, but noticing the Facebook post and the attractive price, I jumped on it; an extra toy is never a bad thing, was my reasoning, especially if it's (relatively) cheap. As such, I am an absolute novice when it comes to this weapons system. I had never trained or sparred with a rapier before this, and my exposure to rapiers is extremely limited. Any opinions expressed should be viewed in that context.
Service
I contacted Jin Ke via Facebook chat, and communication with him was quick and pleasant. He was very helpful and informative, and kept in touch, guiding me through the ordering, payment and shipping process from Ukraine, which was also very fast; I received the sword well within the two weeks quoted. Overall, nothing negative to report about this part.
I also ordered a pair of gloves with the rapier, and the whole package was shipped in two boxes: gloves, guard, cup and pommel in one, blade in the other. Both boxes arrived on the same day. Assembly was relatively easy, aside from the requirement of a pipe spanner or similar to tighten the pommel nut. I found it quite pleasant that a simple universal nut was used to hold the whole thing together, as this made possible future modifications a lot easier. The gloves look quite good, albeit a bit on the smallish side for a size L. They're leather, except for index finger and part of the palm, which is covered in some kind of tough-looking fabric, presumably to reduce wear. Clearly, they were designed and made by people who knew a thing or two about fencing, which is not surprising as I believe the production company is also a Kiev-based Olympic fencing store.
Fit and finish
If assembled properly, everything is super tight, and the cup rings like a bell. After the first sparring session, the guard did loosen slightly, but I have since replaced the regular nut with a locking nut, which should solve that problem. The blade is buffed to a nice shine, and the hilt furniture is sandblasted, which gives an attractive finish. The cup is rather big, and the grip is quite long, which does give a bit of an odd look to the sword. Presumably this was done to accomodate larger gloves, but it seems like overkill to me. What also seems like overkill is the thickness of the cup and guard bars; this thing should stand up to heavy (ab)use. Overall though, very high quality looks, far above what could be expected for the price.
Handling
As I said, I have almost zero experience with rapiers and rapier fighting. I do however, have some experience with single handed weapons, and in my relatively ignorant opinion, this rapier is quite heavy. It's advertised as being 1.3 kg, and mine is just over that. This is well within the historical spectrum for rapiers, though being on the heavier end- and usually, cup hilt rapiers were relatively light when compared to other models. However, while being technically historically accurate in terms of weight, in terms of practicality, I had difficulty using the sword for extended sparring. This wasn't a problem of balance, which was quite good; the point was easy to maneuver yet remained stable in the thrust. It was just that the static weight of the thing caused my forearm to cramp up after a while, especially using the extended-arm posture that Spanish rapier fencing often uses. Now, this could just be my inexperience, but I have never had this happen with any other weapon.
If one looks beyond the weight of the weapon, however, the blade itself performed quite well. It´s not whippy at all, as I heard is a problem with other cheaper makes of rapier such as Hanwei. It is more than flexible enough to be safe, though. Strong thrusts delivered straight to the throat did not hurt or cause any injury. This is probably also a result of the nicely large mushroom tip, which made adding any kind of thickening over the end, such as a rifle cartridge case or rubber tip, quite unnecessary. This thing is basically ready to use when assembled, which is quite nice and from what I've gathered, not always the case with rapiers. The blade edges are also relatively thick, and the heat treatment seems quite good, with no bends and minimal scratching after a full-tempo sparring session. The edges are a bit square though, and could stand to be rounded a bit more to make them even more durable.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a really good sword for the price. It's cheap, durable, well made, and good looking. I am however not entirely sure whether it would be a suitable training weapon for everyone straight out of the box. This is mainly a function of it's weight. I plan on doing a little HEMA hacking on it, maybe changing out the rather bulky cup for a lighter dish to improve handling, but if the makers themselves could put the hilt on a diet and have it shed 100-200 grams, and maybe shorten the grip by about three centimeters, this would be an amazing starter sword. As it is, it's very decent.
A few months ago, a Facebook user named Jin Ke advertised a new line of cup hilt rapiers on the Hema Professional Retail group, for 160 euros each. After seeing some early positive reviews, I decided to purchase one for myself. I wasn't really looking for a rapier, being more a longsword and sabre kind of guy, but noticing the Facebook post and the attractive price, I jumped on it; an extra toy is never a bad thing, was my reasoning, especially if it's (relatively) cheap. As such, I am an absolute novice when it comes to this weapons system. I had never trained or sparred with a rapier before this, and my exposure to rapiers is extremely limited. Any opinions expressed should be viewed in that context.
Service
I contacted Jin Ke via Facebook chat, and communication with him was quick and pleasant. He was very helpful and informative, and kept in touch, guiding me through the ordering, payment and shipping process from Ukraine, which was also very fast; I received the sword well within the two weeks quoted. Overall, nothing negative to report about this part.
I also ordered a pair of gloves with the rapier, and the whole package was shipped in two boxes: gloves, guard, cup and pommel in one, blade in the other. Both boxes arrived on the same day. Assembly was relatively easy, aside from the requirement of a pipe spanner or similar to tighten the pommel nut. I found it quite pleasant that a simple universal nut was used to hold the whole thing together, as this made possible future modifications a lot easier. The gloves look quite good, albeit a bit on the smallish side for a size L. They're leather, except for index finger and part of the palm, which is covered in some kind of tough-looking fabric, presumably to reduce wear. Clearly, they were designed and made by people who knew a thing or two about fencing, which is not surprising as I believe the production company is also a Kiev-based Olympic fencing store.
Fit and finish
If assembled properly, everything is super tight, and the cup rings like a bell. After the first sparring session, the guard did loosen slightly, but I have since replaced the regular nut with a locking nut, which should solve that problem. The blade is buffed to a nice shine, and the hilt furniture is sandblasted, which gives an attractive finish. The cup is rather big, and the grip is quite long, which does give a bit of an odd look to the sword. Presumably this was done to accomodate larger gloves, but it seems like overkill to me. What also seems like overkill is the thickness of the cup and guard bars; this thing should stand up to heavy (ab)use. Overall though, very high quality looks, far above what could be expected for the price.
Handling
As I said, I have almost zero experience with rapiers and rapier fighting. I do however, have some experience with single handed weapons, and in my relatively ignorant opinion, this rapier is quite heavy. It's advertised as being 1.3 kg, and mine is just over that. This is well within the historical spectrum for rapiers, though being on the heavier end- and usually, cup hilt rapiers were relatively light when compared to other models. However, while being technically historically accurate in terms of weight, in terms of practicality, I had difficulty using the sword for extended sparring. This wasn't a problem of balance, which was quite good; the point was easy to maneuver yet remained stable in the thrust. It was just that the static weight of the thing caused my forearm to cramp up after a while, especially using the extended-arm posture that Spanish rapier fencing often uses. Now, this could just be my inexperience, but I have never had this happen with any other weapon.
If one looks beyond the weight of the weapon, however, the blade itself performed quite well. It´s not whippy at all, as I heard is a problem with other cheaper makes of rapier such as Hanwei. It is more than flexible enough to be safe, though. Strong thrusts delivered straight to the throat did not hurt or cause any injury. This is probably also a result of the nicely large mushroom tip, which made adding any kind of thickening over the end, such as a rifle cartridge case or rubber tip, quite unnecessary. This thing is basically ready to use when assembled, which is quite nice and from what I've gathered, not always the case with rapiers. The blade edges are also relatively thick, and the heat treatment seems quite good, with no bends and minimal scratching after a full-tempo sparring session. The edges are a bit square though, and could stand to be rounded a bit more to make them even more durable.
Conclusion
Overall, this is a really good sword for the price. It's cheap, durable, well made, and good looking. I am however not entirely sure whether it would be a suitable training weapon for everyone straight out of the box. This is mainly a function of it's weight. I plan on doing a little HEMA hacking on it, maybe changing out the rather bulky cup for a lighter dish to improve handling, but if the makers themselves could put the hilt on a diet and have it shed 100-200 grams, and maybe shorten the grip by about three centimeters, this would be an amazing starter sword. As it is, it's very decent.
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