I will be teaching a workshop on the mountain axe again this year at the local SCA event called Saxon Summer on September 12. I believe the event is being held in hubbard Ohio again this year but will post the address when I get it.

Should be a good time. Last year it was pouring so hopefully this time around the rain gods are less pissed at me for whatever reason.

We got to play with all sorts of axes last weekend at the 5th annual Recreational Violence Weekend here in Northeast Ohio.

Medieval pollaxes, tomahawks, entrenching tools and our beloved moutnain axe were all featured in classes this past weekend.

Photo courtesy of Kirk Lawson

The first axe class was on the use of the knightly pollaxe taught by Josh Little. Both Steve Huff and Kirk Lawson taught classes on the use of the tomahawk. Randal Gustitis and Matt Sparks took us through the use of the e-tool according to ROSS priciples and I taught the use of the mountain axe.

Always great to see this many axes in one place!

Recreational Violence Weekend V

June 11-12 here in beautiful Northeast Ohio..we will have a variety of axe classes including a class Sunday on the mountain axe. I am picturing this as the most people ever swinging mountain axes in one place outside of the Carpathian mountains ever…or at least in a very long time. Should be alot of fun. Will give an update after the event.

On saturday afternoon I taught a 1 1/2 hour course on the Carpathian mountain axe. While taught a shorter course at a local SCA event last year, this marks the first complete class of this kind ever taught by me using this material.

IIRC we had 12 people in the class…for a while it looked like there would be 3 but people straggled in…better late than never really applied here. Few things worse than teaching to an empty room. As it was, the number of participants perfectly fit the room.

I went over the 3 basic stances with variations and talked about the reasons and origins of each. We also went over a large amount of figure eight motions with more of a focus on how to move with the weapon rather than fit techniques.

Of course we did do some set plays to illustrate the use against a like weapon. I would have really liked going over it’s use against saber and bayonet but with only and hour and a half I wanted to get as much of the basics of movement down as possible.

Everyone seemed to grasp the material quite well, which is not surprising in the least since for the most part everyone in attendence at ISMAC tends to do a lot of weapon work…still I need to polish the presentation and work out a few kinks in how things are explained. I will get a chance to teach it again this year at the Recreatioal Violence Weeked in July.

From wiki

A redrawn version of a Russian caricature (on Napoleon’s 1812 campaign in Russia) by British artist George Cruikshank. A Russian peasant holds a bloody axe above Frenchman’s head, ready to strike. On the ground are the bodies of two French officers, whose skulls have been split by the Russian soldier’s axe. British caricature. Dorothy George translates the caption as: “There were hordes of you, weren’t there? Well, that’s the lot! That’s what you were up to, trying to hack your way through; in future you won’t give any trouble!”

Not really on topic but a very cool period illustration as long as your idea of cool is split open craniums:)

Here is a link to a nice site that deals with Viking use of the axe…a bit off topic for us but don’t all of us axe swinging wildmen have to stick together? I mean it’s not like we are fencers or something. So vistit the Hurstwic site now!

Stara Basn…When the Sun was God. Pretty nifty film. Definitely did not win any major awards nor should it have but still fun to watch for self styled warrior types who swing axes around:) 

Set in pre-christian times in the land that would become Poland…Stara Basn tells a familiar tale of greed and betrayal in an interesting setting. Long handed mountain axes make several appearances in the film. Not saying that we should look to this film for anything more than entertainment…just nice to see a ciupaga or three in a film.

• The Dances of Podhale (Poland)

• Joseph Needham
• Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society, Vol. 3, No. 2 (Dec., 1937), pp. 117-119

The Cornhill Magazine

By George Smith, William Makepeace Thackeray

Published by Smith, Elder and company., 1879

At one place we had to cross the river, and found the wooden bridge gone. The guides seized their axes—in this country every one carries an axe—and hewed down two trees long enough to span the stream, which they made firm by felling a third and laying it across the end, and so we safely crossed.

Threw this together yesterday at the end of our regular training session. After watching this it was evident to me that i am no good at pretending to have my axe knocked out of my hands…..I look like I throw it:)