JCC Swords & Swordplay etc

I have a Japanese katana



And also this Chinese cane, "assassin cane", as I call it



Very nice, heavy, brass endings, to bash someone's head with lol

And it's got a sword blade concealed inside


Badass, or what?

Both are presents from a friend of mine who travels a lot in Asia, as part of his work. Brings me all kinds of... souvenirs, shall we say, from China, Japan, etc. A very nice Chinese knife I also have from him. Have no photos of it now though. I have a whole collection of knives, my dad's, but he gave it to me to keep now, he is old now, wanted me to have his treasures I also have my grandpa's Red Army General's ceremonial dagger, which he would wear on his belt to parades or other special occasions. And two scepters or maces or whatever, which also belonged to grandpa, given to him as gifts from other Red Army guys; and two battle axes from Czechoslovakia, also grandpa's, also presents from his friends, but they are purely decorative, totally dull lol I'll probably photograph more of the stuff and put up in here later, maybe lol

 

You have some good stuff there, Sergey. Have you had any training in its use? Post pics of your other things when you get a chance; I'm especially interested in the scepter/maces.

 

I'd be interested in learning how to fight with a mace. I use maces and clubs as physical training implements (example below) but they're heavy and slow-moving.

 

Nice weapons.

 

Sarge and others

Unfortunately, I cannot, at the moment, locate grandpa's Red Army dagger, can't remember where the hell I put it ; but here are a bunch of other pics for you to enjoy

The knife collection:









This is a throwing knife, or so dad told me


Here is knife my friend brought me from China


Big blade. Not quite a machete, but big Great for survival and such, I think.

Here is one of grandpa's



It is also a gift from one of his Army friends. The handle has engraving on it

"To Lieutenant-general [grandpa's name] from colonel Solovyev V. N. on 6th August 1975".

This one is also grandpa's, he got this one while serving in Caucasus, in Georgia, the handle is made from the foot of a mountain goat or sheep or some such animal



And here are the Czech axes





Continued in next post.

 

And the maces:

This one is also Czech (sorry about angle)


Olomouc is a Czech town grandpa and his unit which he led (he was already a colonel by then, he rose very fast during WWII) liberated from the Nazis. They made his their honorary citizen, I even have a plaque or something somewhere lol

And grandpa also had this one

I don't much about this one's history. It is bigger, and heavier though. I believe it is a family heirloom. Grandpa descended from Cossacks, you know.

Among Cossacks in Russia and Ukraine, such scepters were symbols of authority for the Ataman (tribal chieftain)


Today, the modern Cossack community is thriving in both Russia (where Putin likes them) and Ukraine too; ironically, Cossack radical nationalists from both countries have been battling each other for Donbass... Fierce warriors, they are, to this day. Russian and Ukrainian Cossacks both believe they are defending Orthodox Christian Motherland in there...

In Soviet Union, however, Cossacks were enemy of the Communist state for many decades. They had been loyal to the monarchy to the death, many of them, in the Civil War, slaughtered many Communists.... The Commies later had their revenge through "Decossackization" of many of their traditional regions. Genocide, essentially. Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks interned to camps in the North or Siberia, many thousands executed. Whole communities wiped out... No wonder many Cossacks exiled in Europe since Civil War enlisted to fight for the Nazis on the Eastern Front in WWII, and many remaining ones in Russia turned coat also. They hated the Commies and had every right to... But many still stayed patriots, like grandpa

Stalin gave those ones their deserved kudos later. Good Cossack units even got to march in the 1945 Victory Parade on Red Square


Still, was not an identity you wanted to make public, in those days. Today, in Russia, people are proud of having Cossack blood. Back then, they hid it. It was too dangerous... Grandpa also never talked about his roots, dad and uncle Alik had told us kids...

Anyway, to get back to the subject at hand.

Here is my switchblade, that I love so much


It has a safety level



So some idiot doesn't open the blade in his pocket and stab himself in the nuts or something lol


And here is another shot of my katana, with a stand I found for it

(and an old pic of me as a kid riding and elephant in Thailand with mom lol)

That's all I got, for now. Will definitely try to find grandpa's general dagger though.

 

I'm curious about the axe with the chain running from the head to the shaft; never saw one like that before. Any idea what it's for? My best guess is that it's there so the head won't go flying or get lost if the shaft breaks.

 

Like you, I've seen a lot of weapons in my day and have never come across that.
Have to disagree on your thesis... that would be a great way for the head to come tumbling back towrds you, and that screw that holds that loop in place looks pretty delicate. Then again, I have no idea what purpose is that would serve other than decorative.

The only thing like it I've seen are the European swords that used chains for knuckle bow type hand guards.

 

My first thought was that it was some kind of hanger to hold it on a peg, but it doesn't look like it would do much good that way.

Just had another thought: maybe it unhooks easily, and it's supposed to go around a belt so that the axe can't slip out when you're jumping around...?

 

I think its just a decorative piece, honestly. But, not sure. Could also be for the belt, yes.

Here are a few close up shots of it




Anyway, Sarge, you also asked if I ever did any training with any of it.

I did train in knife fighting, years ago, as a kid, back in Moscow. It's popular in Russia, knife fighting, a whole martial arts of its own, with own clubs and such


Funny story about all of that, my childhood.

I did martial arts, growing up, mainly Thai kickboxing, Muai Thai, you know. I love that eight point strike system, the octopus, as our instructor called it, feet, knees, fists, and elbows. We learned nine point, actually, we were taught to use our ****ing foreheads too, if necessary

These days, MT dojos are all over the place in Russia

More popular than even karate now. But it was much more rare and exotic in my day, late 90s and early 2000s. Hell, karate itself only became legal for civilians in mid-80s in Soviet Union lol And few people, even in 90s, had heard of MT, it was just emerging in Russua then.

It can be a dirty kind of discipline, none of that honorable philosophy, like in karate. But, out on the street, as our esteemed master taught us, no such thing as "dirty", only survival

We once got into a huge brawl, actually, with a bunch of karate kids, from the dojo we shared the building with. Wiped the ****ing floor with them hehe Our respective coaches later admonished us, publically. Privately, though, each of us in the Thai section later got a bag of chocolate candies from our master haha I think he had some old feud with the karate coach lmao We did humiliate the hell out of them... Even, a couple of kids from there, from karate section, later transferred over to us, decided our style is better lmao

Well, anyhow, one day, we were at our dacha (summer cottage in countryside many urban Russian families have). I went out in the yard, to practice my kickboxing. And then uncle Alik and aunt Natasha and the cousins showed up as well. Uncle saw me out there doing jump kicks and such, and he comes over. Says, you think you are a tough guy, huh? Well, hell yeah. I thought I was the bloody reincarnation of Bruce Lee, at that point lmao Girls liked me, because knew I was into martial arts. Girls there, in Russia, like tough guys. Its a high crime society, lots of muggings and sexual violence too, on the streets. "He could protect me from a pack of gopniks (street thugs)" is an important point for many females, in choosing a mate, a necessity of life... And, I had just beat up one of the strongest bullies in my school. I waited a year, hid from him that I practiced martial arts. Dude had messed with me a lot, another reason I went to study martial arts was to beat the crap out of him some day lol I challenged him after school, in the yard, and kicked the piss out of him haha Best ****ing day of my life... So, yeah, I thought I was a tough guy and told uncle as much.

So, uncle says, what if a guy pulls a knife on you? And I say, meh, I will just kick it out from his hand or block and wrest it from him somehow.

Oh, will you now? So (picks up a short stick), go ahead then, try that **** on me.

Here, I must point out, my uncle Alik is a former Russian Paratrooper. Those guys are tough as hell. Toughest unit in Russian military. Even a female Paratrooper is probably way tougher than me lol

Their hand to hand combat skills are legendary.

Most of the guys in Spetsnaz, the famous Russian special forces, are handpicked from Paratroopers In 2006, 5 off duty Paratroopers on vacation from Russia got into a fight with about 30 local thugs in Crimea, and beat the **** out of them, stabbed one to death with his own knife, and put like a dozen others in hospital. That's how badass they are

But, I foolishly thought I was badass too, back then lol So, I said, ok, bring it, uncle Alik. And he just grins and kind of moves at me with that stick. I start to block, and suddenly, he is on the entirely other side, and he trips me, take me down, and jabs that thing at my ribs, it hurt like hell too, even if it was blunt. And I had no chance to block or deflect or anything. Crazy.

Well, he says after, still think you are so tough? Well, maybe not against you, uncle. But when would I ever fight you for real? Hopefully never, he says (hopefully for my damned sake, the implication is hehe). But if you keep picking fights with other guys, as your whole generation now insists on doing all the time, you will run into someone, one day, who has a knife and knows how to use it. I want you to, at least, know wjat to do, in that situation.

So, he made me go to his knife fighting classes that he taught (and still does). And I enjoyed that too

Well, anyway, so, that is the story of why I know how to handle the knives. Katana is different. Much more difficult. Long (I barely can find space to swing it around indoors without smashing something valuable lol) and a bit heavier than I thought it would be also. I'll master it in time though, I am sure hehe

 

Knife fighting is definitely one of the most useful armed melee skills to train in. I practiced that a lot, even brought my rubber training knives with me on deployments to Iraq. That's me on the right, killing time in the back of a C-130 during a long mission.



Me on the left, we're on top of the wing about 20 feet off the pavement. Probably not the smartest thing I ever did. Good for bragging rights though.

 

I have a weapon from Russia on its way to me as we speak. Not a sword or an edged weapon though, a sausage sap.
At some point I want to acquire one of those Cossack whips with the lead head too.

 

Oh, yes, the nagaika (Cossack whip), pretty cool.

It can easily break a plastic milk canister

Yes, even Putin likes them lol

In skilled hands, can be a dangerous weapon, take out an eye or such easily.

Here is a Siberian Cossack master showing off his skills with knife and nagaika

I like the girl too

 

Er um I have this little pocket knife....right here.

 

Me too. Mine's American (it's a Buck) but I don't hold that against it. It's actually very well made.

 

SergeyX2017, I like the way he uses the trees against his opponents. I've used similar tactics fencing in the woods, I usually parry my opponent's sword and pin it to a tree with my dagger and finish him with a thrust or cut from my sword.

 

I actually have a scar on my arm from fencing in the woods . . . I was playing with my friend with sticks, and mine had three long branches coming out if it, like prongs. I tried to use one as a hilt and the other two as quillions, to trap his "blade." When I twisted my stick-sword to try to trap him, one of the quillions gored me just below the elbow. It's not a big scar, but it's noticeable.

So play carefully when you try to beat your friend with a stick, kids.

 

Yes, trees are definitely your friend when fighting in that sort of environment. In a more urban setting, lamp posts and such can work the same way, and especially those older, wooden electrical wire poles

 

I've never fenced on a real ship, but I used the masts on our stage SCA ship the same way. And since I was one of the shipbuilders, I always knew exactly where the masts were, even when I wasn't looking at them.

 

Nice. Jack Sparrow

I tried sport fencing, at high school, here in Canada already, we had some lessons in our gym. I was not very good at it, mostly because I could not understand the rules. Kept trying to knock the rapier from the other guy's hand and such, swinging around and leaping wildly like in the movies, like Zorro or some such person lol

I have a friend, he came here from ex-USSR also, from East Ukraine, his dad was on the Soviet Olympic fencing team. And he himself won a junior world championship for Canada when we were still in high school together, and later competed in the Olympics for Canada too, great guy, Igor... It's a great sport, I am sure, certainly looks awesome, as a spectator. But, yeah, I never would or could compete in that.

 

Renaissance-style fencing is way more fun than collegiate fencing, IMO. You still are discouraged from kicking a blade out of your opponent's hand (can break fingers that way), but you can swing around and leap wildly all you like.

 

Yeah, fencing with a rapier might be highly skillful and refined but I'm definitely more of a hack someone in half with something heavy and brutal kind of guy. If I get to throw in the odd headbutt or elbow strike, all the better!

 

Play to your strengths, yeurgh.