Hilt and Helm Spring Status 2024

Apologies for the length between these blog posts. The rigors of being the President, Web Master, Event Coordinator, and Head Instructor make keeping up with this thing tricky in the best of times, but the shear volume of stuff we’ve had to deal with in the past 3 months has been quite frankly exhausting. This was the first weekend we’ve had free since April and that was only achievable by saying no to a couple of events. What’s important is that the club has rebounded from this volley of curve balls and I’m here to write a blog post packed with good news!

Ascalon Sword Festival 2024

Pictured left to right, Ryan Leonard, Kevin Brough, Chris Shelton, Robin Steele, Anthony Cavaline, and Ben Orr.

Even being in the midst of a club move couldn’t stop Hilt and Helm from hitting the road and competing in tournaments! Packed in a convoy of vehicles, Robin, Tony, Ryan, Nate, Kevin, Dave, Ben, and I headed up to Columbus Ohio for Royal Arts Fencing Academy’s annual tournament: Ascalon Sword Festival. This year Hilt and Helm was represented in 5 of their 6 weapons categories: Tier C Longsword (1), Saber (4), Tier B Longsword (6), Tier A Longsword (1), Sword and Buckler (1) and Rapier Dagger (1).

So … I’m gonna be honest about how I create these tournament blog posts. I do my best to get people to take pictures and video of my fights if I can. I also do my best to take pictures and videos of other people’s fights when I can. And this tournament was a perfect storm of everyone being too busy enjoying the moment to bother documenting it. On Friday when saber was happening, I wasn’t able to make it and no one thought to take pictures or video. On Saturday, I was judging during open longsword and everyone bounced during tier A longsword. And on Sunday, I was busy fighting in Sword and Buckler, then everyone bounced during Rapier and Dagger. So from all of the fights that went on, we were only able to get a hand full of photos.

Nate Dolphin placing 6th in Tier C Longsword!

Tony Cavaline placing 8th, long time friend of the club Joshua Derby Placing 7th, and Kevin Brough placing 5th in Tier B Longsword!

My gay ass placing 7th in Rapier Dagger!

My gay ass placing 7th in sword and buckler!

Now normally I give pretty detailed breakdowns of my fight highlights like who gave me the most trouble, how I overcame them, and my strategies for people seemingly unbeatable foes … but I’m gonna tell you a secret how I recall all of that information. Either I review video of the fights, or I go on Ferrotas / HEMA Ratings to review all of the fight scores. From there I start having Vietnam style flash backs to the moments of each fight and I’m able to piece together a pretty compelling narrative once my heart rate goes back down. (For those of you getting legitimately concerned I am kidding.) Sadly Ferrotas was deleted during the separation of the newly formed Columbus United Fencing Club from Royal Arts Fencing Academy and the event wasn’t posted to HEMA Ratings. So I don’t want anyone who fought me who was expected a cool ass shout out to feel cheated out of being mentioned on this blog, but I’m sorry. I promise I’ll describe our next fight in glorious detail at the next tournament.

The Conclusion of the Debacle at Hamilton Avenue

So I mentioned in my last blog post about the trouble we were having with our landlord. I’m happy to announce that it ended with all parties leaving on amicable terms! For those of you who didn’t read it, here’s the short version:

We signed a lease at an abandoned warehouse that would become our new home. The lease required that we get an occupancy permit to legally run the business out of that address. What both the landlord and our real-estate agent failed to mention to us was the length, duration, and expense of doing so. Previously the space was being used as (surprise) a warehouse, which has relatively few regulations regarding the physical accessibility of the space to the public. In the state of Pennsylvania whenever a building undergoes a change of use, a new occupancy permit needs to be applied for in order to make sure that the new business is able to accommodate the public by having things like accessible entry ways, bathrooms, and methods of escaping the place if there’s a fire. By pushing the burden of acquiring all of those updates onto the the tenant, the landlord was essentially attempting to get us to make all of those renovations while also paying him for the privilege of doing so. For most tenants this is completely unfeasible, but it is technically legal since there are cases where large enough businesses are able to eat the cost of both rent and renovations. So legally he was well within his rights to do what he did.

Thankfully we hired two professionals who really saved our collective asses! First was our engineer, Jared. He pointed out several areas within the building that were outside of our leased area that would need to be updated in order for us to obtain our occupancy permit. Secondly was our real estate attorney who highlighted the quiet enjoyment clause of our lease. What most people think it refers to is that the area be free of noise. In reality it means that the tenant should be able to enjoy the leased property without the interference of the landlord. By placing the burden of obtaining the occupancy permit onto us but excluding the areas we needed to upgrade to obtain the permit, he made the lease impossible to fulfill; allowing us to argue that the document was illusory if we took it to a local magistrate. After talking with him and convincing him that the property “as is” was not legally usable, we were able to convince him to let us out of the lease.

So if any one else is looking for a space to lease to run your fencing club, please follow these 3 pieces of advice BEFORE YOU SIGN A LEASE:

Have a real estate attorney look over your lease before you sign it. Not a real estate agent … an real estate attorney. The agent only gets paid if you sign and aren’t legally obligated to look after your best interest. The attorney will charge you an arm and a leg, but they’ll save your ass.
Have an engineer or an architect look at a place before signing ANYWHERE THAT REQUIRES YOU TO GET A PERMIT. It may seem like an easy process, but depending on where you’re trying to lease it may not be. The only way to know is to hire a professional. I assure trying to google it will only raise your blood pressure and shorten your life span.
DO NOT MOVE IN ANYWHERE THAT REQUIRES YOU TO GET PERMITS. You’re just renting/leasing the space. It doesn’t belong to you. You can’t take those improvements with you. There are other places that are move in ready. Don’t be so desperate to have a place to practice that you accidentally impoverish yourself. This is a fencing club, you will not make that money back.

Funfecht 2024

This Funfecht was not only the largest it’s ever been, it was also the largest HEMA sparring camp …

IN THE WORLD!!!!

At 125 attendees, Funfecht beat out Harvest Fecht 2023 which had 105 attendees making us the largest HEMA sparing camp in …

… or so we thought. Apparently there’s an event in Great Britain called Fight Camp that has the current world record title at 205 attendees. Considering that Levertine does not have enough space to come anywhere close to that number we’ll settle for the largest HEMA sparing camp…

IN THE USA!!!

Ok … now that the obligatory bragging section of the blog is over, lets talk about what actually happened at Funfecht. This year we had a star studded assortment of classes from some of the Tri-State Area’s top fencers. From Sword and Buckler with Brian Stone (head of Two Ravens Fencing School) to Longsword with Sean Franklin (head of Sword STEM), attendees looking to perfect their skills had a plethora of options across a myriad of weapons. We also got Chuck Gross from HEMA Strong to come out and give us not one but TWO lectures on both exercise and nutrition. There were also crafty classes such as my patch sewing class where I taught people how to sew and mend their jackets and J.J. Conlan’s mask painting class which yielded some of the events best looking masks yet!

Check out the results of J.J. Conlan’s mask painting class! Seriously talented work everyone. It’s not every event where I have FIVE favorites!

Michelle Gully from HEMA Lexington came up and taught a Longsword class called “Rhythm and Blows” where she discussed the specifics of when to attack. By teaching students concepts such as “broken timing” and how to change their rhythm, she taught them that while speed is great rhythm can be used to create openings which wouldn’t otherwise exist. The class was then punctuated by a sword conga line which was every bit as fun as the name suggests!

Michelle Gully teaches her Longsword class “Rhythm and Blows”!

We also had a guest instructor Peter Kou who taught a grappling class! The class covered stand-up wrestling (takedowns/throws), Muay Thai style clinch work (including knees and elbows), hand trapping, and how to fall safely. Though not all of the class was geared towards specifically HEMA, we always enjoy having a little variety in our class lineups.

On the topic of “non-sword” classes, Nick Bulan returned to teach an archery class which featured some rather interesting projectile weapons!

Once again we had our main event, “The Fight for Fortunes” where all attendees who wish to participate are given a deck of tarot cards which all contain 80 copies the same card. Then whenever they fight someone (win or lose) they exchange cards. Whomever has the most of other people’s cards by the end of the event wins a wooden sword with the event burned into it. With the most fighters at a sparring camp IN THE COUNTRY, whomever won was on track to break the previous record.

In the end, Bill Hannings won the coveted sword with a whopping 86 fights! Congratulations, you’ve made some very very large shoes for all other Funfecht fighters to attempt to fill from now on.

Bill Hannings winning the Funfecht sword with a whopping 86 fights!

Last but certainly not least was our second main event, Foam-ma-geddon! To participate, fighters of all ages throw their cards into a bucket. Then teams are randomly assigned by drawing from the bucket. Each fighter is also assigned a foam weapon by drawing from a different bucket, so you’re as likely to be fighting with a foam long sword as you are a foam frying pan or a tiny foam dagger. The teams are then sent to different parts of the Funfecht Field and a melee like nothing you’ve ever seen ensues! For added insanity, instead of teams being designated by colors they were instead differentiated by funny hats, beauty pageant sashes, or safety vests!

Pittsburgh Pride 2024

This year as with every other year this organization has existed and I have been at the helm, we were determined to march in Pittsburgh Pride. Two years ago when we first marched, there were exactly 3 of us. A little embarrassing considering I’d bought 6 capes in different colors to make a rainbow as we marched.

Pictured: Shawn Howering (my Husband), me, and Panda Ray. The original rainbow warriors!

Thankfully this year there were 15 of us! (Sorry I forgot to snag a picture of us this year). The other big change this year from last year was the cost. In 2023 it was $200 to get a tent, table, and couple of chairs. This year it was $500 just to get a spot to set up your own tent and $750 if you wanted it to be provided. Not sure exactly when it became so expensive to be gay, but as far as I was concerned it was a price worth paying.

Firstly, there’s the principle. When you google “gay fencing club pittsburgh” we are the number one result! This isn’t some callous ploy to monopolize on a demographic that has been historically marginalized, nor some bad faith attempt at virtue signaling to make a political statement. We just wanted a safe space to stab each other. Between mentioning that we went to pride, and having a bunch of lgbt+ merchandise and art, that was apparently enough to have the internet deem us the THE gay option for fencing in town. Well … it wasn’t the designation I was going for when I started the club, but if the rainbows keep away people who would otherwise belittle us and attracts cool individuals regardless of their sexual orientation then I suppose the rainbows are doing their job.

Secondly, there’s the advertising space and location. Getting just one student signed up for a whole year equates to about $800 in revenue for the club. So this year we ordered about 50 fliers expecting things to be kinda slow like they were last year. Boy were we wrong! Pride this year was absolutely packed. We blew through those 50 fliers in the first hour. Thankfully we had a qr code on our banner (hint! I suggest you do the same!). It also helped that because we brought our own tent we were able to put together a much more inviting space filled with swords, patches, stickers, and t-shirts for people to come in and ogle. We even had a new Hilt and Helm iPad to play videos of us fighting so people had even more stuff to interact with! All in all between our merchandise sales and the four new members who’ve joined since then we’ve more than made our money back. So this year’s pride was not only fun, but profitable to!

Pillowfecht 6: Ben-Voyage!

Pillowfecht 6: A going away party / in house tournament for beginner longsword instructor and long time part of the club Ben Orr

On June 8th, Hilt and Helm Fencing Club gathered together to celebrate the life of Benjamin Orr. A long time part of the club and beginner instructor to many, he will be surely missed. It broke our hearts that we had to say good bye to him and his wife Christina … as they prepared move to Uruguay. That’s right, he ain’t dead but he was moving away. So this Pillowfecht was dedicated as a going away party to our dear friends as they prepared for the journey of a life time.

This time around, we changed up the rules a little bit. Score targets were the same: head and torso are worth two points, arms and legs were worth 1; however we changed up the win criteria and after blow window. All fighters would start with 10 health points. Every time they got hit, that would deduct points from their health bar. To win, you needed to reduce your opponent’s health bar to zero while still having health yourself (otherwise it was counted as a double loss). The other change was that instead of after blows being deductive, they would still deduct from your score so long as they occurred within one sword swing and one step of your hit, meaning that if you wanted to win you needed to protect yourself after landing a blow instead of just rushing to be the first one to hit. We changed up our score board to reflect the new rules, and I have to say I’m pretty proud of it.

Our score board is a vba enabled power point presentation that works off line and allows you to adjust the scores by pressing the check or x buttons, you can increment the score of one fighter and reduce the health points of the other. When one person’s health bar reaches zero, a winner banner appears under the fighter who … well … won.

Alternatively, if both fighters lost all of their hit points, it would show a double loss banner instead. If anyone is interested in getting a copy of our tournament powerpoint presentation, please feel free to reach out to us via email at hiltandhelm@gmail.com and we’ll send a link where you can download it.

During the tournament, the rules were recieved very favorably! There was only one instance where there was a double loss and the other fights were fought cleanly and with a greater sense of self preservation than in previous in house tournaments. We think that we’ll adopt these changes to our typical ruleset going forward; however Pilowfecht will remain our testing ground for new and exciting ways to regulate stabbing each other.

Lastly, there’s who won the event. In not only one, but two upsets Ben Orr actually managed to win the tournament that was named in his honor thus earning him the coveted “Damn! You Scary” sticker.

This sticker is only awarded to those who beat me in a competition setting where I am absolutely not holding back. Never in a million years would I sully my reputation by selling this glorious sacred artefact as if it were some common piece of mercantile fodder. In fact, the only way I would even consider parting with this holy relic, this nigh unobtainable testament to the blood, sweat, and training it takes to best a fencing master for anything other than the taste of defeat on the tournament stage would be if someone were to offer me bribe so steep that King Mansa Musa himself would clutch his proverbial pearls and pause in consideration. The ONLY way I could EVER besmirch my honor is if someone offered me THE PRINCELY SUM …. of $5, when the stickers go on sale next month.

That’s right Ben beat me AND Dan Evans to become the winner of Pillowfecht 6: walking away with a cake with his face on it, a cool sticker, and a free t-shirt from the event named in his honor. In second place was Dan Evan, who also got a t-shirt. Tied for third place was myself and long time friend of the club and head of Waterfront Mixed Martial Art’s HEMA program: Joshua Derby.

Hilt and Helm’s New Home: 5842 Forward Ave

Here's a before video of our new home!

After the debacle at Hamilton Avenue, I was ready to never sign another lease for a commercial property again, but thanks to Anthony Cavaline and his husband Kyle we were introduced to this beautiful location! After talking with the landlord, discussing rent and lease terms we were able to come to an agreement which should hopefully have us at this location for the duration of the club’s existence (because I do not want to move again). The amenities include:

2 bathrooms (one of which is ADA accessible)
An occupancy permit for (you’re not gonna believe this) a fencing school!
A shower
A lounge area for us to put in a couch and tv
1800 square feet of fighting space
2000 square feet of basement storage space
Air conditioning that works!

Classes will remain at Ace Axe Throwing for the rest of June; however, June 29th will be our moving day. Class won’t be happening but all students who help us move from our old location to our new location won’t be charged for attendance and will be credited with a free class for helping out the club. Starting on July 1st classes will be as such:

Mondays
- Beginner Longword Class - 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
- Free Spar - 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Tuesdays
- Intermediate Saber Class - 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
- Free Spar - 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Wednesdays
- Rapier and Dagger Class - 6:30 pm - 7:30 pm
- Free Spar - 7:30 pm - 8:30 pm
Saturdays
- Guest Class - 1:00 pm - 2:00 pm
- Free Spar - 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm

The hours will remain the same going forward, but we will switch around what classes are happening on Wednesday every 2 months. During our first week, all classes will be free spar to allow our instructors and administrators time to finish up with cleaning, moving, and getting their class curriculums in order. There will be a special Potluck on Friday July 5th at 6:30 pm to celebrate us moving into the new space. Please check our events page for details.