Hilt and Helm Winter 2025 Status Update
Winter has come and gone. Though the weather outside was chilly, things have only started to heat up at Hilt and Helm! Check out what we’ve been up to!
Unicorn Cup 2025
On January 18th, Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club hosted it’s 2nd annual big ass tournament: Unicorn Cup 2025! This year we learned a few things from our first time around and made the following changes:
New Weapons: Our first year we were afraid of not having enough participants to justify renting an entire gymnasium so we had 3 tournaments that were all longsword. We decided to try something different and opened up a longsword, a saber, and a rapier dagger tournament. We have plans to host a gender minority tournament this July so all of our she’s and they’s don’t feel left out.
Bigger rings: We increased the size of the rings from 20’x20’ to 24’x24’ with the hopes that a little more breathing room would reduce the likely hood of injuries. We also bought enough gaff tape this time.
New rules: Thanks to some suggestions from Dan Evans, we made a few changes to the rules. This time fighters would have 10 health points and every time they got hit (double or not) their hit points would be deducted depending on where they got hit. The benefit of this change was that doubles would no longer drag out a fight by constantly resetting the match. If fighters wanted to win, they’d have to learn to protect themselves from retaliation. Additionally we opted for a spatial after blow window instead of a time based one. Fighters now had 1 swing and 1 step to hit their opponent and have it count as an after blow, meaning attackers had to not only hit their opponent but also get the hell out of the way while defending themselves if they didn’t want their hit to turn into a double.
Trophies: Thanks to the generosity of Tronix3D (a local 3D printing company here in Pittsburgh), we had 3 trophies donated to the tournament!
More slots: This year we expanded the longsword tournament to 48 slots and 24 for saber and rapier/dagger.
4 Pre-Tournament Staff Meetings: Finding one or two dates that worked for all volunteers was a nightmare, so instead we had 4 meetings 2 weeks before the tournament was to occur. As long as volunteers attended ONE of the meetings or reached out to me to get the short version they would receive their swag dollars. Otherwise we’d work around them on the assumption that they couldn’t make it.
Pre-tournament Sword Verification: After the new method of testing sword flexibility started making the rounds amongst tournament organizers, we decided to implement them with the following alterations: Longswords would have to have a flex weight of 40 lbs or less. If they were between 41 - 45 lbs, we would put orange duct tape on the the blade to indicate it was on the upper limits of flexibility. We would also use this opportunity to check the sword for tips and remove them before they were used in the tournament. Rapiers and sabers would have to have a flex weight of 30 lbs or less and would be allowed to have tips.
Award Ceremony right after the tournaments: Last year we held onto all of the awards until the after party with the expectation that people would stick around for the ceremony to receive their awards. THAT WAS A BAD IDEA. People traveled down for a day trip to compete, but if they planned to travel back the same day many people couldn’t stay that long. That and the tournament took literally all day and some people just wanted to go home after a whole day of fighting. So this time we had award ceremonies directly after the gold and silver medals finished.
So with all of those changes implemented, let’s talk about how the tournament went.
The inevitable delays …
Last year, the delay was with getting our scoring software working at all the tables. This ended up costing us 30 minutes, but thanks to our pre-tournament practice sessions we were able to quickly get our backup plan up and running and still finish an hour early. Unfortunately this year our excessive pre-tournament practice was the issue. The batteries on our sword scale died and we lost 30 minutes making a target run to get fresh batteries.
Also due to us selling out and having a bunch of people on the wait list, we decided to expand the roster for longsword by 6 so everyone could fight if they wanted to. Thankfully only a few people took us up on the offer, but it did mean that we had one pool of 8 fighters that took 30 minutes longer than every other pool to resolve. To get around the delay in our schedule, we decided to skip the lunch half hour break and move directly from longsword elims to the fashion show. We also budgeted a half hour break before saber and rapier/dagger giving us an additional hour of total cushion time in case we needed it. Longsword was also budgeted to have 3 hours for 48 fighters where as saber and rapier/dagger had 2 hours budgeted for half as many fighters.
So thankfully between the cushion time naturally budgeted into the schedule and the over budgeting baked into the two smaller tournaments we were still able to finish an hour early! Still though, if there are any tournament organizers out there be sure you learn these lessons from our mistakes:
Budget an hour to pools of 7 fighters, but 1.5 hours for pools of 8.
Budget half hour breaks between your tournaments, but be prepared to run straight from one tournament to another if delays occur.
The fashion!
Ever since I won the title “HEMA Fashionista” back at Clash of Claymores in 2017, it was my dream to highlight those with exemplary style in HEMA. Our first fashion show last year had some really awesome stand out kits but I’m happy to report that this year’s crop of HEMA fashionista’s was even more fierce than the last batch! Let’s start off with our judges. This year I asked 3 of our newest consistent students: Mae, Lane, and Julia to be on my panel of judges. They would be in charge of judging the contestants on the first 3 categories: Color, Uniqueness, and Theme.
Pictured: Mae, Lane, and Julia. Our fabulous fashion show judges!
We asked last year’s winner, Matt Melonuk to be our final judge for the toughness category.
Matt pictured with his club mates Tan and Josh.
This year’s fashion show contestants were giving off major main character energy.
Tasia Socha (the kitty cat cleaver) tore up the runway. This was an outfit with teeth and claws!
Eryn Mae Stephen wow-ed the audience and her opponents with her studio Gibli inspired No-body mask and beautiful dragon shield and throwing ax.
Will McCarel fought with all of the colors of the wind in this dazzling array of every color in the visible light spectrum.
Tan Nguyen was THAT BITCH with an amazing chinese gambeson and hair to put us all to shame.
Brienne Charlon brought not a world of hurt, but any entire galaxy of it with this amazing star studded outfit that was my personal favorite.
Veran Stanek showed why you better not mess with baby Yoda or else you’ll face the wrath of the Mandalorian! (Ok I know his name is technically Grogu, but they didn’t tell us that until like 6 episodes in and baby Yoda is a cuter name. Fight me.
In the end, the judges handed the fabled “Most Elegant Fighter in Pittsburgh” sash to Will McCarel!
Will McCarel: the most ELEGANT fighter in ALL of Pittsburgh!!!
Although this person didn’t compete in the fashion show … I really wish that they had. Check out this absolutely glamorous kit from the longsword tournament! I’m not sure who this fighter is but someone tell me so I can credit them on an absolutely stunning fit!
The Fighting!
Summarizing the fighting across 69 fighters participating in 3 weapons tournaments is …tough. Especially since the last time I tried that the web page couldn’t handle all of the photos I uploaded. So we’re gonna try something a little different this time. I’ll post my favorite action shots and a couple of fighter highlights then move onto announcing the winners.
Action Shots!
Fighter Highlights
Aleksei Bulan
Our Master of Staff and Lessons, this was their first tournament in a while. Although it isn’t required that instructors compete, it’s always nice to see them leading by example.
Connie Burns (pictured right)
Longtime friend of the club and myself, Connie came out and dominated in every tournement they competed in taking 2nd is Saber and 5th in Rapier/Dagger.
Daniel Evans (pictured right)
The subject of Pillowfecht 4: Oh Danny Boy, long time friend, one of my finest students (for the time I had to train him), and powerhouse of the Mid-West HEMA scene, Dan was kind enough to fly back out here for Unicorn Cup. He would go on to take 2nd in Longsword.
Devon Christman (pictured right)
One of our newer students, this was Devon’s first ever tournament! Here she is fighting her instructor Eric McChesney!
Josh Derby (pictured right)
Long time friend, top fighter and head honcho at Waterfront Historical Fencing Club, Josh is a relative new comer to the competetive HEMA scene but already he’s proven himself a force to be reckoned with. Last year he took home the gold in Open Longsword. This year his haul was even more impressive taking home gold in Rapier/Dagger and Saber as well as 4th in Longsword!
Keith Datum (pictured right)
Keith started with the club shortly after we moved into our new space in Squirrel Hill and has been a consistent part of the club ever since. He got his “Damn! You Scary” sticker in small sword, is getting ready to teach the next group of beginners in May and this was hist first official HEMA tournament!
Kyle Meechan (pictured left)
Kyle has been with the club since last October. Though he started off in Saber, he’s trained in longsword and rapier. Unicorn Cup was his first ever tournament!
Matt Melonuk (pictured right)
One of the head honchos at Waterfront Historical Fencing Club, winner of last year’s “Most Elegant Fighter in All of Pittsburgh” sash, and one of my finest students, Matt can be seen here skillfully dodging one of Aleksei’s cuts. He would go on to take 4th in Saber and 7th in Rapier/Dagger.
My Pink Ass Suit!
Had to return with this old favorite with a new necklace and earrings! My take on tactical opulence (so I can be seen from anywhere in the room). Here I am giving out this year’s fashion show award.
Robin Steele (picture right)
Long time student, Master of lessons, and Hand of the Jarl, here Robin can be seen skillfully fending off Ryan.
Ryan Leonard
Speaking of Ryan, here he is facing off against Robin from another angle! Long time student and Master of Lessons, Ryan has been a dependable cornerstone of the club for years. Hmm … I should figure out some way of rewarding such dedication.
Sam Ryals (pictured right)
Sam is one of those fencers that you can’t help but love and envy. Tall, handsome, and one of the best fighters in the world, he would walk away from Unicorn Cup with a gold medal in Longsword and a Silver in Rapier/Dagger.
Tan Nguyen (pictured left)
One of the head honchos at Waterfront Historical Fencing Club, Tan is a master of several weapons. Here he is kicking Matt’s ass with a chinese saber. He would go on to win 4th in Saber.
Tony Cavaline (pictured left)
Our master of lessons for Longsword, one of our most decorated fencers, here he is saving off against Dave Burgman. Ulltimately he’d place 8th in Rapier/Dagger and 8th in Longsword.
The Winners!
Longsword:
Samuel Ryals Gem City Duelists Society
Daniel Evans Ram's Head Fencing
Stephen Dougherty Crossing Fight School
Joshua Derby Waterfront Historical Fencing Club
David Socha Two Ravens Fencing
Justin Moore Indianapolis Fencing Club
Michael Asbury Philadelphia Common Fencers Guild
Tony Cavalline Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
Rapier/Dagger
Joshua Derby Waterfront Historical Fencing Club
Samuel Ryals Gem City Duelists Society
Nate Dolphin Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
Wesley Halstead Unaffiliated
Constance Burns New Jersey Kloppfechters
Brandon Ransbury Two Ravens Fencing
Matthew Melonuk Waterfront Historical Fencing Club
Tony Cavalline Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
Saber
Joshua Derby Waterfront Historical Fencing Club
Constance Burns New Jersey Kloppfechters
David Socha Two Ravens Fencing
Tan Nguyen Waterfront Historical Fencing Club
Steven Corwin Unaffiliated
Matthew Melonuk Waterfront Historical Fencing Club
Morgan Redfield Hilt and Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
Charles Sees Lake Erie Historical Fencing
The Volunteers!
Last but certainly not least I’d like to thank all of the volunteers that helped make this event possible. We literally couldn’t do it without you and we hope you and everyone else will come back for Unicorn Cup 2026!
HEMA Arcade at Waterfront Mixed Martial Arts
On Feb 15th, Waterfront Historical Fencing Club hosted their quarterly in house tournament: HEMA Arcade! If you’ve ever played Mortal Kombat, the tournament was set up kinda like single player mode where each player would ascend a tower populated by random other fighters. Every player who got to the top of their tower was automatically put in the elimination round. This meant you needed 3 wins in a row to keep the tournament from taking all night.
Before the tournament, Connie Burns lead a rapier work shop. That I couldn’t make to because we had class that day, but I managed to go along with Ryan, Keith, and Nate, Robin and Dave. In honor of the rapier workshop, the first of the two tournaments (yeah that was news to me to) was doubles rapier. Teams of two could compete together and swap in for each other in between bouts. The rules were similar to Unicorn Cup in that teams had a collective pool of health points and any hit would deduct from them. Teams from the same club would get 13 health point but teams with differing club members would get 15. This was meant to encourage people to get out of their comfort zone and try competing with someone new. That did not work on me and I teamed up with Ryan.
Ryan and I weren’t the only stacked team. From Waterfront Historical Fencing Club, Matt and Tan teamed up. Similarly Connie and their boyfriend (at the time) Sai also teamed up. For Ryan and I, this felt very much like tag team longsword tournaments I’d done before where I got to be the anchor and clench the win if they managed to beat my goon. And although that was fun, I did get to be the lead a few fights. It was immensely satisfying to start 2 points down, wittle the enemy team down to 4 points, and say “Ryan, I’m gonna take a nap. Please handle the rest of them for me!” while cartoonishly yawning and stretching as I walked off the field. To anyone whom I may have offended I do apologize, I was just trying to be funny not arrogant. As you may have guessed, the finals came down to Connie and Sai versus Ryan and I. After a rousing round of combat, we took the fight to sudden death in which all fighters got to go on the field at the same time. As Sai and I were crossing blades and spouting our monologues, Connie Tokyo Drifted over and stabbed me while blocking Ryan’s attempted thrust. With me gone, Connie and Sai descended on poor Ryan to clench the gold.
Picture: Ryan, Chris (Me), Sai, Connie, and Josh.
After the doubles rapier tournament was another round of single player tournament fighting. In it, Connie and I got to have another duel with some pretty awesome pictures to show for it.
In the end, Sai and I tied to get into the finals. He beat me (damn … he’s scary) and then went on to take gold. All in all this was a super fun tournament format and I’m glad they invited us. My one and only criticism is that you couldn’t see the towers, so you had no idea when you were going to fight. If they can get a screen going to show that info, I think this would be a pretty awesome format!
Lynx Cup 2025
On Feb 15th, Columbus United Fencing Club hosted their new annual big fencing tournament: Lynx Cup 2025! This was the spiritual successor to the Ascalon Sword Festival which was the spiritual successor of the Arnold Classic Fencing Tournament. I feel bad about this one because I wanted really bad to go, but it was held over Valentines Day weekend and my husbands wanted me home for that. We did manage to send Adam Whaley who took 6th in Open Sword and Buckler!
Scotty Scuffle 2025
On March 9th, Carnegie Mellon University’s Fencing Club hosted their first ever tournament: Scotty Scuffle 2025. This tournament would feature 4 events: Synthetic Longsword, Open Longsword, Open Saber, and Open Single Rapier. They reached out to all of the local HEMA clubs to ask for assistance with staffing and Hilt and Helm was happy to offer our assistance as judges and directors. The rules were pretty simple: fighters fought on a stopping clock to either 1.5 minutes or 5 points. Each hit was worth only 1 point and target priority helped mitigate doubles. So hits to the head and torso were highest priority, followed by arms and legs. This was a ruleset stolen from Colin Venderburg down in Maryland and honestly I’m a huge fan, both of Colin and this ruleset. Had we not developed our own ruleset I’d highly consider stealing it myself.
A bunch of us from the Pittsburgh Area showed up either to fight or to volunteer. From Hilt and Helm we had Pete, Ryan, Adam, Nate, Keith and I either directing, judging, fighting or some colorful combination of the three. From Rochester Institute of Technology, Veran and Conner came down to judge and fight. And last but not least from Wes and Mary’s drive way we had Wes Halstead and Steve Corwin. All in all Hilt and Helm walked away with 4 medals, RIT with 1, and Wes and Mary’s drive way with 2. I won’t burry the lead any further, I took Gold in Longsword, Saber, and Rapier.
Pictured all of the 1st place winners: Connor Stewart for Synthetic Longsword and Chris Shelton in everything else!
Since there was a LOT of fighting going on, I’d like to reminisce on my 4 favorites.
Kody Keeting (Gold / Silver Match for Open Saber)
Kody came down from Niagara Historical Fencing. When we first crossed blades I recall throwing a 1 cut (which he blocked) followed by a 4 cut which hit him on the chest. The second time I tried that same move, but this time he retreated out of the way. I audibly said “Nicely voided” and he responded “Thank you for noticing”, and that’s how our friendship started. I only narrowly won that match but afterwards we discussed each other’s back stories. Apparently he’d been at this for about 6 years and his quick adaptability proved it. He came all the way down from Canada to compete. Given the current … situation in the U.S. the man was clearly as brave as he was skilled.
I’d no way of knowing initially that we’d end up seeing each other again in the Gold/Silver match, but when I did I was as delighted as I was concerned. This guy was good. Really good! And perceptive as well… During our first fight he was very adaptive to my paradigms. And so for our next fight, I stood still as a statue. Now … I can understand how “not moving” in most circumstances would seem a poor choice in a pursuit as active as a fencing match, but I had a plan. By minimizing my movements, I gave away very little of what my true measure was. He only had his recollection of the cadence of my attacks, meaning when the time was right I could surprise him. As I stood there, I forced him to come to me and my intention was to parry and void everything that came my way until I saw a clear opening. The first few exchanges resulted in nothing. he attacked, I parried. He attacked again, I voided. Only after his next attack when I saw an opening did I suddenly animate and strike at his arm. The second point came same as the first, I waited until I saw an opening. I feinted and struck my true target once he’d committed his guard to another area. By this time I’d eaten up most of the allotted time standing around looking menacing. Now time was running out and he’d have to struggle to over come the point disparity and rip victory from the jaws of defeat. But now I had the advantage, and my stone walling only helped cement my victory and achieve the first gold medal of the day. Still though that took literally every trick in my book so Kody is getting a “Damn! You Scary” sticker in the mail.
Caleb Wickline (Semi-Finals for Open Longsword)
Caleb and I had fought during pools and he came up and chatted with me after the fight. We regaled each other with our back stories. Apparently this was his first tournament and his club was relatively small. I told him about myself and during the conversation I mentioned all of the cool stickers we have at the club. Since I decorated my shin guards with them I could just stick out my leg and show him. When he asked about the Bee Sting I demonstrated my take on the Meyer behind the back thrust and explained “If you get the bee sting, you get the bee sting sticker!”
THE BEE STING!
For those of you who aren’t aware, this is the BEE STING sticker
When I ran into Caleb again at the semi-finals, it was a pleasant surprise! I was very proud to see him get this far in his first tournament. Unfortunately for him this was not my first tournament, both butt cheeks were engaged and he was about to earn that BEE STING sticker the hard way. Was it my plan to pull it off during the fight? Absolutely not. But when I managed to grab his blade, it felt too poetic not to do it. With his sword in hand, I rotated my sword behind my back, rested the blade on my lower back, guided the point into his chest and shouted “THE BEE STIIIIIIIIING!” to the exclamation of those who were there to witness it. After getting Caleb’s contact info I promised him he’d get a sticker and I plan on making good on my promise.
Wesley Halstead (Gold/Silver Match Open Longsword).
Wes and I have both been fencing for 11 years. He started a few months before I did back at Broken Plow, we moved to Steel City Historical Fencing together, but when Steel City dissolved he and Mary found it easier to host fencing at their place since they had kids and could spar between naps. They’re still very good friends of the club and I make it over when I can but keeping this place running is exhausting and Sundays is when I usually when I catch up on Jarling. When we ran into each other before the tournament started I told him “if I was gambling man, I’d say it’d be you and me in the finals”. At this point I really should start gambling because I’ll be damned if that isn’t exactly what happened!
Unlike my fight against Kody, I couldn’t rely on Wes knowing my moves or my measure. We’ve been fighting each other for years. I did catch a peak at some of his earlier matches and I saw some him use one of his go - to moves: a deep left oberhau. Knowing he likes to throw that move a bunch, I waited … keeping my distance for him to throw out his signature move. My patience paid off because when he threw it, I squatted low, blocked it, and hit him in the chest. Score one for Chris! At this point I was plotting my next move and the bastard did it again, except this time I wasn’t expecting it a second time and this one got me. I tried going back on the defensive, but he figured out my strategy and started feinting. The first couple of strikes I managed to barely avoid but he did get me, taking a quick lead.
Knowing I couldn’t rely on my parry repost game I started going on the offensive. I knew he knew about my famous busted zwerck-copter so I feinted it and went for a gayzlin instead. This landed and we wound up even. As I prepared for the next bought he also went for a gayzlin but I managed to dodge. The next few exchanges basically amounted to high stakes rock paper scissors in that neither of us knew what the other was about to do but we just had to guess and do our best. Double after double after double occurred only resolving in points from weighted target priority. At this point it was 4 to 2 in my favor with thirty seconds on the clock. He needed to climb back so I knew he’d be aggressive. The only question was how. Another exchange, double … no points. One more exchange happened with the same results. At this point I took a moment to analyze how each of these exchanges was playing out and I realized we would hear “start”, feel each other out, then make a decision. Time to break the pattern! The next time the director shouted fight, I immediately launched a shiel-hau, locking out Wes’s blade and securing the win!
Mary would later send me this absolutely adorable video of Lauralie watching our fight on Youtube!
Ethan Huang (Semi-Finals for Rapier)
During pools, I noticed Ethan was doing rather well even when he wasn’t winning. Excellent timing and distance, and super fast. Yet there was one move he kept attempting over and over again and it wasn’t exactly working out for him. The Night Thrust or passata soto is a cool ass move better described by the source I’m about to reference:
The passata sotto!
“A staple of many Western fencing texts since the Renaissance, the passata soto, or passata sotto, also known variously as the sbasso, sottobotta, and cartoccio on occasion, the various dessous of the French masters of the smallsword and the passata di sotto of the modern, is usually defined as a counter-attack made by lowering the body while simultaneously thrusting, extending the rear foot in a reverse lunge, and placing the unarmed hand on the ground for support. Occasionally the technique is recommended as an attack with a true lunge, rather than a reverse.”
Ethan’s problem was that he was using it as an attack which kept falling short. After pools resolved we chatted and he mentioned that pulling off that move was one of his goals for the tournament. I applauded his ambition but mentioned that typically when I’ve seen it done successfully it is performed as a counter when someone lunges at you with no regard to their defense.
Little did I know that I’d be facing off against Ethan in the semi-finals. For most of the fight I relied on just parrying anything that came my way to frustrate him. Then while he was trying to regain his footing I’d either thrust or feint an attack, disengage, then attack on the opposite line. This got me up to 4 points to his 2 with 30 seconds left on the clock. I could tell he was getting desperate and was being much more aggressive this time than last. And that’s when I got a wild idea. As he lunged towards me, I ducked down, balance with one hand, thrust out my rapier, and performed the move he’d be trying to land all day. What a way to get into the finals!
The Winners!
Synthetic Longsword
1st: Connor Stewart
2nd: Andrew Kwak, CMU HEMA
3rd: Matthew Bissman, CU-Lock Haven HEMA Club
4th: Zhiyu Ye, CMU HEMA
Steel Sabre
1st: Chris Shelton, Hilt & Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
2nd: Kody Keeting, Niagara Historical Fencing
3rd: Steven Corwin
4th: Douglas Silfies, L’Arte Della Bellica
Steel Longsword
1st: Chris Shelton, Hilt & Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
2nd: Wesley Halstead
3rd: Kody Keeting, Niagara Historical Fencing
4th: Caleb Wickline, West Virginia University Institute of Technology
Steel Rapier
1st: Chris Shelton, Hilt & Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
2nd: Nate Dolphin, Hilt & Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
3rd: Ethan Huang, CMU HEMA
4th: Keith Datum, Hilt & Helm Pittsburgh Fencing Club
All in all, for this to be their first ever tournament it went spectacularly well! My only piece of advice for next year would be to hold to awards ceremonies right after the tournament so no one leaves before they can get their awards.
Warrior Arts of Ethiopia & The Horn of Africa Seminar
Pictured: Da’Mon Stith, master of Historical African Martial Arts and me. I goof ball with a spending problem!
On March 22nd, Hilt and Helm welcomed Da’Mon Stith, Master of Historical African Martial Arts to teach a seminar on the following weapons:
Stick Fighting
Gurade Saber & Shield
Spear and Shield
Shotel & Shield
Jile Dagger
Caribbean Machete
What’s really enjoyable about having guest instructors is seeing how other masters convey complex ideas in a limited time span with whatever equipment they are accustomed to. Da’Mon’s classes are heavily focused around music and getting students into the groove with flowly drills meant to ingrain correct structure into your muscle memory. This tended to have classes last a long time, but once you got into the flow the hours just zoom by! Through the stick fighting class we learned the importance of getting the hell out of the way, specifically because sticks notoriously lacking in guards when being used to attack. To drive this point home, he taught us the fluid motions taught by ancient African warriors that would later be incorporated into the motions of Capoeira! Also through stick fighting we learned that when grasped in the middle they make decent deflective weapons, so by wielding two sticks (one for offense and one for defense) you could have a decent low budget approximation of the next weapon system: Gurade Saber and Shield.
Liz and Kavan learning the basics of stick fighting!
During the Gurade Saber and Shield class, we used our plastic sabers as they were a closer relative to the actual sabers used in the time period we were examining. It’s interesting to see how other cultures learned to use the saber because it really drives home that there are only so many ways to swing a sword. This lesson felt really familiar, but the next one was very new to me.
The spear and shield class was something I’d never really experienced before because in most HEMA classes we focus on full contact sparring and there’s not really a safe way to practice that with spears. The foam partisan spears from Purple Heart and the Go-Now foam spears are the closest we can get to sparring spear safely, but even then one spirited match could end up with a concussion. But going slowly with minimal gear definitely got the point across and lead to some real excersize.
Da’Mon teaching Liz the basics of saber with a stick before moving onto the plastic weapons.
The next day, we studies Jile dagger first. I’d had some lessons on dagger, but they were all focused on stabbing real fast and engaging in grappling. This class focused less on controlling your opponent’s blade and more on maneuvering around your opponent to find an opening. Thankfully I’d taken the stick fighting lesson from the day before since this lesson also utilized those smooth Capoeira movements, but sadly I’m not as young as I used to be and that shit was tiring.
Liz and I practicing stabbing each other!
Next up was shotel and buckler and this was by far my favorite weapon. The shotel is a curved blade that is designed to hook around your opponent’s shield and stab their arms when they think they are safe. It can be wielded two ways: convex side out to fight like a sickle or convex side in to fight like a saber. These were used extensively during a little “misunderstanding” between the Ethiopians and the Italians when the later decided to invade and discovered that land wouldn’t be so easily conquered.
A shotel Da’Mon made for us to keep!
Lastly, we learned about Carribean machete. This was a weapon system I’d already knew about extensively and forms the back bone of my sword and buckler training. It was cool to see Da’Mon’s take on it but a lot of the drills were focused on paired movement with little to no equipment. Once we all put on gear, it was easy to spot which habits were sound and which artifacts picked up by practing without gear. People naturally avoid hitting hands and faces when they aren’t properly protected, but in competition or … you know … and actual sword fight … that kind of hesitation will lose you a match or get you killed.
Thankfully Da’Mon was kind enough to gift the club 12 shotels so we can have our own class with as much or as little full speed sparing as we want! Currently the goal is to cycle it in for 2 months at the end of advanced sword and buckler. In the coming months our goal is to reach out to any study groups in the Pittsburgh area who are interested in learning more about African culture and heritage through consensual violence and inviting them to this up coming class.
Pillowfecht 9! Es-cape-ades
On March 29th, Hilt and Helm hosted it’s 9th rendition of our in house tournament: Pillowfecht 9! Es-cape-ades. This time we used the Unicorn Cup ruleset with just one exception: fighters had to go in with a cape and one weapon. As long as the cape was on them or in their hand and both fighters had weapons that required the same level of protection, any weapon in the club was fair game. The prize this time were LARGE versions of our sword-i-corn pillows currently on sale in the club store.
As usual we ordered a cake with the artwork on it and gave new students a taste of tournament life with out the pressure of having their results posted to HEMA-Ratings … which is good became some of the combinations were wild! Everyone expected rapier and cape. Small sword and cape wasn’t a huge deviation from the norm either. But Dave wanted to fight in the gold/silver match with cape and spear! Technically all the rules specified was that they had to have the cape. There was no rule saying you couldn’t just wear it. And so it began with the final fight of Pillowfecht 9 all eyes were on Morgan and Dave but most importantly our fans. With 4 straight doubles in a row, Morgan clenched a victory by parrying Dave’s thrust to the body and sniping the arm! Congratulations to our winners! And to anyone else who wants a sword-i-corn pillow we do have them for sale on our website in small. If you want one in large, please let me know and we’ll make it happen.
1st Place: Morgan Redfield
2nd Place: Dave Burghman
3rd Place: Ben Orr
4th Place: Fione Kusnir
Hilt and Helm Gender Minority Night
Thanks to everyone who came out for our first Gender Minority Night!
On April 11th, Hilt and Helm hosted it’s first ever Gender Minority Night! Inspired by the Valkyrie Nights at Two Raven Fencing Club up in Cleveland, Robin Steele pitched the idea to our club mates and made it happen! The goal is to have it once a month each month to give all non-cis dude members of the club a chance to get to know each other.
Who's Welcome?: Women (cis and trans), trans men, non-binary and genderqueer people. Partners, friends, or family not in the above groups are welcome to tag along and hang out in the lounge or on the benches.
What're we gonna do?: The first one or two to just be open sparring or sparring games, but we may have classes, guest instructors, informal competitions, or other events later down the line if the interest and resources are there!
What's it cost?: Anyone with an active H&H membership/knight school pass can attend at no additional cost. Those without just need to pay the normal fee for a drop-in class, $30 including gear rental or $20 if you have all your own gear.
Club Officer Roster Changes
A NEW HAND TOUCHES THE BEACON!
Sadly as much as we love her, Liz’s time as my hand of the Jarl has come to an end. Her husband got a really big promotion in Atlanta and they will need to move at the end of February. Thankfully, Ryan is going to step into her position and fulfil as many of her old duties as his schedule allows.
ANNOUNCING A NEW MASTER OF LESSONS!
Keith Datum will be the new Master of Lessons on Wednesdays. The new beginner class will focus on small sword.
ANNOUNCING TWO NEW MASTERS IN TRAINING!
Adam Whaley and Morgan Redfield have both demonstrated mastery over longsword and saber respectively. After conferring with them, they’ve both expressed interest in becoming full instructors. Over the next few months we will work with each of them on putting together lesson plans with the goal of Adam becoming the new beginner Longsword instructor in July and Morgan the new beginner Saber instructor in September.
WE WANT YOU TO ADMIN!
If you are a consistent student who would like to help the club in exchange for comped membership, send us an email at hiltandhelm@gmail.com and express your interest and availability. Admins are expected to do the following:
Arrive at the club 15 - 30 minutes early to open up.
Stick around 15 - 30 minutes after class ends to ensure everything is closed up.
Master the push press system to assist people in
Signing up for class.
Renewing their memberships
Answering questions from random people from the street
Helping to familiarize new students with the gear
All admins will receive a complimentary club membership for the duration of their tenure and are only asked to work as an admin one day per week.
Future Event Plans
Funfecht 9: So Many Swords
Date: May 23rd - 25th
Description: Join us for our big annual Spar-Be-Que! We have instructors from around the HEMA-sphere teaching everything from longsword and saber, to stage combat and patch sewing. Tickets are currently sold out, but check out the wait list and be notified if someone cancels.
Pittsburgh Pride
Date: May 31st.
Description: We will be marching in the annual Pittsburgh Pride Parade and setting up a booth in the park to raise money and awareness of the club by selling merchandise and handing out fliers.
Demonstration at Camp Kon-Oh-Kwee
Date: June 7th
Description: We will be going to Camp Kon-Oh-Kwee to perform a fencing demonstration. If you’d like to help, email us at hiltandhelm@gmail.com.
The Alicorn Cup - Summer 2025
Date: TBD
Some people were upset that we had to remove Gender Minority Longsword from Unicorn cup. The reality of the situation is that we had a really low turn out last year and needed to replace it with event that would draw a larger crowd. Instead, we are planning a Gender Minority Tournament at the club. We’ll have it in the summer with twelve spots for Longsword and 12 spots for Saber. Once we have more information on the date, time, and tickets, we will announce it.
