Olympia Auctions: www.olympiaauctions.com/auction/lot/lot-210---a-north-european-rapier-early-17th-century-with-silver-encrusted-hilt-17th-century-and-later/?lot=44695&so=0&st=&sto=0&au=129&ef=&et=&ic=False&sd=0&pp=96&pn=3&g=1 A real original antique 17th century sword with a thumb ring, handled and explained by Matt Easton.
@squarewheels2491
2 ай бұрын
Wow, the artwork on the pommel and guard of that piece are amazing. You really should have shown them off.
@valkoharja
2 ай бұрын
What a gorgeous sword
@TristanBehrens
2 ай бұрын
If you finger the guard he might let you in through the back gate
@mattlentzner674
2 ай бұрын
The holes in the glove were driving me crazy!
@scholagladiatoria
2 ай бұрын
Haha, I didn't notice until after this video and then changed the glove. I might have caught it on something.
@edi9892
2 ай бұрын
Me too! I found it very distracting! Also, I believe that I work with the same gloves and the quality has gotten a lot worse!
@HobieH3
2 ай бұрын
I was once wearing some working with a solvent and thought "wow, I can really feel the cool down from evaporation". Then I looked - I was essentially wearing a rubber band around my wrist. Safety 3rd, as they say on Arms and Armor!
@dgoodman1484
2 ай бұрын
Same 😆👍🏼
@oldmonk_
2 ай бұрын
That's because of all the fingerings. 👀
@PoorMansHEMA
2 ай бұрын
This is the shortest Matt Easton video I've ever seen
@Omniseed
2 ай бұрын
He had to hurry before the guide noticed his absence or security spotted him on camera
@kaoskronostyche9939
2 ай бұрын
I am glad you came back to this. Thumb rings have been a bit of a mystery to me and this made everything clear regarding their purpose and use. And what a wonderful sword! Thank you for more from the Auction Collection. Cheers!
@scholagladiatoria
2 ай бұрын
Glad it was helpful!
@SuperOtter13
2 ай бұрын
I have only held one original sword with a thumb ring and no reproductions.Felt great in the hand extremely controllable in the cut. Wanted one set up like that ever since. Thanks for sharing this beautiful piece with us Matt!
@bBlaF
2 ай бұрын
Me immensely enjoying all these videos from Olympia while ceaselessly salivating over the Elizabethan basket hilt that got teased in the Schwing video.
@deltabravo2678
2 ай бұрын
"fingering the guard".. There 'e is! That's 'im! 'E did it, I saw 'im!
@michaelsmith8028
2 ай бұрын
The 17th century really had the most beautiful swords. Some might even say the best.
@javilorenzana
2 ай бұрын
I'm glad you're teaching that when using your sword it's crucial to employ proper finger-ring.
@chehalem
2 ай бұрын
This whole series of videos of real historical swords as examples of concepts and features you've taught us about in other videos feels like a capstone for a class. I'm absolutely loving it, but also wondering if there will be an exam at the end. 😄
@daemonharper3928
2 ай бұрын
Very interesting - I'm loving this little mini series.
@scholagladiatoria
2 ай бұрын
Glad to hear it!
@braunmcash3117
2 ай бұрын
Discovered this on a couple of rapiers and one falchion in the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto over 40 years ago. A friend made me a Pappenheimer rapier with this feature included. I experimented with it for a couple of months, (including fighting) and then wrote an article for the Fight Master, a then-publication of the ASFD. I found that it adds some power to a draw-cut and also increases stability in a moulinette.
@Jim58223
2 ай бұрын
Wow that is a beauty
@watcher314159
2 ай бұрын
I was under the impression that one of the major uses of a thumb ring was to give more leverage not so much in the cut, but in the recovery, when pulling the blade back. Marginally faster parries and feints are after all just as useful as marginally stronger cuts, and thumb rings offer such an advantage where other grips (and devices facilitating them like finger rings) don't. One of the reasons I want a schiavona is because they often came with both finger and thumb rings, to truly maximize control while also offering some of the best hand protection out there. Also, that glove was really proving the lack of a ricasso on that sword, eh?
@luisyanez6261
2 ай бұрын
Smith: you want a finger ring or a thumb ring? Bars over the quillons or a basket? Schiavona: yes
@waynebelshaw7961
2 ай бұрын
Thanks i found my grip improved dramatically
@Gashren
2 ай бұрын
Let me commend you on how beautifully you pronounced "szabla". Kudos!
@scholagladiatoria
2 ай бұрын
I know a lot of Polish people! :-D
@robinswords
2 ай бұрын
I deliberated a long time on if I wanted a thumb ring on my custom sword. I ultimately decided against it because I didn't want it getting in the way of transitioning to a thumb-grip on the flat. I did have the inner guard made tight enough that you can get some purchase on it though.
@thomasesau2376
2 ай бұрын
Why didn't Game of Thrones talk to you. Arya Stark always used NEEDLE backward.
@cspahn3221
14 күн бұрын
>>>
@urseliusurgel4365
2 ай бұрын
I have an early South German basket-hilt broadsword c.1590, with both a thumb ring and a finger ring/blunt ricasso. It is definitely a cut-centric sword and the tip of the blade is slightly rounded.
@GaryHoward87
2 ай бұрын
Loving all the content you're getting from these lots, Matt. Keep it coming!
@williamarthur4801
2 ай бұрын
Re 'keeping a grip' in a tumble it could mean you loose a thumb as well as a sword.
@ericlayton8888
2 ай бұрын
Anyone else struggling not to smirk when Matt talks about finger-rings and fingering the guard?
@robo5013
2 ай бұрын
(Today) I used to be an adventurer like you then I took an arrow to the knee. (Years later) I used to be a guard but people kept fingering me.
@BIG_ump
2 ай бұрын
I think I involuntarily rolled my eyes lol
@peterchristiansen9695
2 ай бұрын
I keep getting weird allusions to an old (late 20th century), Australian ‘women’s prison’ dark drama TV-soap, of questionable quality - and I honestly don’t know whether to laugh or cry… 😆&😭
@aparioss1072
2 ай бұрын
2:51 Fingering 2:52 Finger the guard 2:54 Fingering the guard Matt is on a roll
@borealmarinda4337
2 ай бұрын
Me, during a DnD session, when my bard character is supposed to deal with the guard at the entrance.
@dogmaticpyrrhonist543
2 ай бұрын
This got me wondering about rapier type swords specially made for the old swordsman who's lost their index finger.
@FiliiMartis
2 ай бұрын
Beautiful piece! Silver inlays on blued (blackened) fittings makes for such an elegant design choice. And it avoids being ostentatious, proving that in the period, among people with too much money that gilded everything and placed rubies and other stones into hilts, there were some with good taste. 😄 Btw Matt, I can't believe you didn't mention the Schiavona in the list of swords with thumb rings. The one sword that clearly represents Italy in the thumb-ring crowd. I do have a speculation that thumb rings that are positioned higher (or is it lower; anyway, placed more towards the blade), are made so with the idea of allowing you to finger the cross-guard (so you get a choice of grip, as the higher thumb ring won't inconvenience you in this case). It makes sense for Schiavona hilts paired with appropriate blades. You make an excellent point about the absence of a blunt ricasso being an indication to keep your finger off. Walloon-hilt swords and the type that have shells, naturally, don't allow for that and the thumb ring in placed lowered on the grip. So I think there might be a separation between thumb rings associated with cutting and thumb rings associated with control. For people interested in this: there are opinions that say that you only rest the tip of the thumb on the ring for leverage, without passing it through fully. With the piece from the video, rest the flat pommel at the base of the hand (the shape is perfect for that), use a hand-shake grip, and rest the thumb on the ring (it's like a sabre grip, but with the thumb on the ring rather than on the spine of the grip; or, don't shoot me, a Thibault style grip). The blade is still extended for the thrust, but now you have more control around the axis of the blade (like going from 3 to 2 in rapier positions). And all of a sudden, rotating the blade is not so annoying with a circular grip (like this one seems to be). One thing for sure, no Meyer thumb flat on the blade use for this sword, even if the overall aesthetics of the sword give that Meyer's rapier vibe to it. But it would work in his dusack system, even if the blade is straight.
@billpark8988
2 ай бұрын
Absolutely great little series. Well done. Cheersl
@HobieH3
2 ай бұрын
Be very interested in a more detailed explanation of the thumbing on a Polish sabre. Please, please! I'll beg harder on Patreon.
@ScottWoodruff-wh3ft
2 ай бұрын
Love those thumb rings. There is a beautiful complex-hilted bastard sword with thumb-ring in the museum at Acoma pueblo, and I have noticed thumb-rings on several other bastard swords left by conquistadors in the southwest US.
@jenssylvesterwesemann7980
2 ай бұрын
I worked with a heavy stage-combat schiavona once that had a thumb ring on it. Went like a dream, despite the extra weight.
@emarsk77
2 ай бұрын
Schiavone also usually have thumb rings, at least the ones I've seen.
@MrFiremagnet
2 ай бұрын
Wish there were more swords like this in the public consciousness.
@emblemarms
2 ай бұрын
Wow, you learn something new every day
@crazypetec-130fe7
2 ай бұрын
The bars that guard the thumb will also add a lot of structural bracing to the thumb ring.
@bencoomer2000
2 ай бұрын
Time for a new glove Matt...
@neutronalchemist3241
2 ай бұрын
The Schiavona typically have a thumb ring.
@-RONNIE
2 ай бұрын
Thanks for the video ⚔️
@BladeFitAcademy
2 ай бұрын
Neat. And what a beauteous sword.
@mattnobrega6621
2 ай бұрын
A blade addicts heaven 😲🤤
@Omniseed
2 ай бұрын
thumbin' the nubbins is good too
@smsfte4699
2 ай бұрын
Not to hijack this post but Matt should do a video on the HotD sword fight between the twins. Interesting sort of falchon like swords they were using, same kind of cross guard in this video. I was disappointed, to me that would have been better with longswords. They even could’ve incorporated helmets and half sword ing as they are twins so you don’t need to keep track of who is who.
@thomasrobinson8789
2 ай бұрын
On the topic of thumb rings, how important would you say they are for late period polish? I’m personally a rapier fencer by trade, but I wonder if practicing saber of some fashion would help me with my inadequacies in cuts with rapier/side-sword training.
@clockworkninja884
2 ай бұрын
"There is no fingering." Phrasing!
@evgenykechin
2 ай бұрын
думаю поход к кузнецу это как поход к портному, ты приходишь и говоришь-"сделайте мне так и вот так".
@TheAncientAstronomer
2 ай бұрын
Because they were OK!👍😁
@urmominabox87
2 ай бұрын
Bacause keeping your thumb is advantageous to holding your sword
@thomasesau2376
2 ай бұрын
Perhaps this sword was made for someone who had lost his forefinger. It was a common injury cutting firewood.
@cspahn3221
14 күн бұрын
wishing i was the guard rn
@demoths
2 ай бұрын
You're doing WHAT to the guard???
@corinfletcher
2 ай бұрын
Sorry, "fingering the guard" still makes me chuckle after all these years.😅
@stefthorman8548
2 ай бұрын
lmao, 3:51 i notice how similar the hilt is to an Chinese/Japanese guard, it's basically an disk guard, except it has some small curved cross guards for additional protection, and an thumb ring, but it is basically an disk guard, an large side ring, plus an large thumb ring, coming together to make an circle of protection around the sword, like an disk guard, and some people still think that disk guards weren't for stopping sword blows
@christopher5723
2 ай бұрын
Thumb rings were popular on swords because people are fond of having thumbs.
@storyspren
2 ай бұрын
2:50 one such reason is if you're the swashbuckling protagonist of a pseudo-renaissance lesbian nemeses-to-lovers action-comedy movie
@raydrexler5868
2 ай бұрын
You should slow down when saying “finger ring”. It sounds like one word, which means something completely different. 😂
@arx3516
2 ай бұрын
Fingering the guard without his consent is still a felony.
@dougsinthailand7176
2 ай бұрын
It’s almost like a user’s manual: use this sword for cutting!
@ajm2872
2 ай бұрын
I am a mature adult. I am a mature adult. I am a mature adult. I am a mature adult.
@bobrobinson1576
2 ай бұрын
Why wouldn't they want you to finger the guard? It looks like it's got the same grip as your last one!
@SPACENECK40IN
2 ай бұрын
*kid named guard*
@narcotics-eb3om
2 ай бұрын
Lol
@elshebactm6769
2 ай бұрын
🗿👍
@torbenjohansen6955
2 ай бұрын
new gloves please
@Α.ΜΑΝ.324
2 ай бұрын
What are you doing with the gloves before you take the sword?🗡️ Jeez i don't really want to know. Is rhetoric question.😂😂😂 I know cheap joke.
@chucktesta7192
2 ай бұрын
Did not watch but the answer is that people tend to like to keep their thumbs.
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