swordsmithing explained
932350
Interesting characters and premise....details of the art of making iron weapons were interesting, and nicely woven into a story about a woman with strength of character. This book led me directly into Fox's sequel. A good historical novel.
3917072
Lorelei does an excellent job on teaching basic blacksmithing and giving tips to follow or look out for. Must for new blacksmiths. The book is well written, has very good photographs that demonstrate the text and has lots of useful information.
835644
A great resource book for the Japanese sword collector which deals mainly with modern sword smiths.
Gives detailed information and illustrations. Good content.
2962965
As a collector of edged weapons, I was reading a copy of Knives Illustrated, they most often have a write up on a sword or two in each issue, I read the article on the Henwei "Side Sword" and I found it quite interesting and decided to get one, most of my swords are of the Japanese styles, Katanas,Wakizachi etc. I do have swords of the Viking era (7th century & up)and some of the medieval times (11th century & up) also I have a couple of sabers from the 1800's (all reproductions of course-CAS Henwei/Cold Steel & all of carbon steel & battle ready, NO stainless steel wall hangers for this fellow LOL) but I did not have any Rapiers or anything from the 16th century. Well this sword is such a value! paid less than $150.00, it is light, very well made and exactly as it was described in the magazine and here at Amazon, the blade is razor sharp from the tip to the base of the fuller. This type of sword was made for thrusting like a rapier BUT also had the capability to inflict very serious cuts (Rapiers depended on their long and sharp points to do their deadly deeds and therefore their blades were not sharpened, some had crucible type blades etc.). I had to play with it a little  this afternoon and I am quite delighted with it's speed and agility, this is indeed a deadly blade in experienced hands (I am just a lowly novice,should trouble come our way you will find my trusty 1911 ready for action in my hand LOL). If you are a collector or just someone that would like to own a "REAL" sword, you cannot go wrong with this one! A word of warning! buying & owning battle ready edged weapons (swords/knives/axes/spears etc)is very addictive LOL, in March it will mark my second year of collecting and so far I have 79 pieces and am looking foward to a few more before the end of this year, now IF only I could get the right numbers for the lottery LOL.
3267345
This book holds a lot of research and many thought points and techniques to practice and test in practice and if you are unlucky in life. It gives you a history to justify and elaborate on the subject and it is a great starting point to learn knife fencing. There are a lot of other books the author wrote on the subject and from the little I read of them. They hold the same quality. I would also like to note that the book holds many drills for the student to develop with. The one with hanging a target of a tree is very much to my liking.
3926018
"SWASHBUCKLING" is a well thought out, easy to understand book (lots of clear, step-by-step pictures help). Anyone interested in theatrically-oriented swordplay should buy a copy. As the author of "The Art and Science of Fencing," "The Inner Game of Fencing," "The Encyclopedia of the Sword;" and the editor-in-chief of "Fencers Quarterly Magazine," I recommend this book.
2710388
This is one of the better books out there devoted to actually being able to use your body's weapons with skill.  The book starts off on body movements, stuff like footwork and distancing.  It then goes into attacking with the hands, and then attacking with the feet.  Parrying is also covered, and then targets and stances.  This book is devoted to eliminating bad habbits, and has a lot of comparisons of JKD vs. classical martial arts.  As I mentioned in my other reviews of "Bruce Lee's Fighting Method", this book works much better when taken with the series, as well as a couple of other early JKD books.  However, it is useful to the average martial artist when it comes to making fighting movements more efficient, and more crisp.
217088
Illustrated book on how to fight with a dagger. A lost art I am learning now.
2226371
This book can be very confusing to read, but then again it was written in the 1500s in German and was recently translated.  If you are into historic combat arts, it is very good. It begins with longsword techniqus, then transfers them to dusak (precursor to German Sabre) techniques, then translates them to rapier techniques. If you're only interested in rapier, then you may look elsewhere, because the rapier part only make sense if you've studied the dusak part, which only makes sense if you've studied the longsword part.

I've found it not too difficult to follow, especially with the woodcuts included with the text.
2203137
The book is pretty clear on what it takes to do the work and how to get started. It's worth the money just to help you decide whether or not to give knife making a try.
4525913
The book is appropriately titled and therefore, for those indivduals who have no experience in the world of historical fencing and historical martial arts, and who do not wish to delve into the extreme subtleties of any form of historical fighting arts - a "reader's digest" of the art of longsword fencing, this book is for you. For novice practitioners, the book is useful as a review of the fundamentals, important if one intends to "test" at their particular training school or academy. For instructors of historical fencing, this book may offer some new ideas in the approach to instructing their students and therefore, a useful resource in that regard.

The book does not focus on any one particular style of longsword fencing, but does cover the basics, with an excellent presentation on the longsword, its parts and its characteristics. Important information that all novices must internalize, regardless of fighting style studied. Steaphen then moves into combative foundations of posture and lines of attack. He also delves briefly into concepts of movement, measure, distance and tempo - concepts that both novice and experienced practitioners must know well. Steaphen also makes a point of ensuring the reader understands the importance of footwork, the very foundation of all fighting systems. This concept is explained with a series of intuitive images and illustrations aptly describing the basic of the foundations of footwork.

After detailing the basics, he begins the various guard positions, interestingly sourcing the names and the positions from the Italian style documented by the Italian swordsmaster Fiore dei Liberi in 1410. The treatise used as the source was entitled "Fiore di Battaglia". These guards or "poste" are described with plenty of text accompanied with black & white photos which clearly depict the guards described. This section of the book continues with a presentation on a number of simple drills, each drill focused on some specific attribute, such as a drill designed to highlight distance or tempo or parrying.

The book concludes with a good description of appropriate equipment to acquire should one decide to pursue longsword fencing, regardless of the style considered. Suggestions for hand protection include leather gauntlets or hockey gloves or lacrosse gloves, although, it is the opinion of the reviewer that hockey or lacrosses gloves are too bulky to train with, and may introduce training artifacts. The book closes with a basic glossary of terms, useful for the individual who may be considering beginning their journey into the study and training of historical fencing.
1420294
This book is great for anyone interest in historical swordsmanship. The author provides translations of three works on the two-handed sword or spadone. Alfiere, Di Grassi and Agrippa- all three of which are more famous for their single-sword work, but have something to say about the use of the two-handed sword as well!

Alas, the translations provide hints, but not a complete picture of the system involved. The artwork is sparse, the instructions simple and sometimes frustratingly lacking and even with three translated texts- there is a sense that something is missing.

Not a problem!

Ken Mondschien, PHD has taken the bold step of providing his interpretation of the system and included photos, instructions, reasoning and text-citations to support his conclusions. It's hard to take a large work and interpret it for a modern audience. It's truly yeoman's work to take sparse text and do the same thing.

For the price, the book is a steal. You get THREE translations with art, then a whole interpretation from the author with photos. For anyone interested in medieval longsword the book shows 'where things went', for those interested in Renaissance swordsmanship, the book is ready to go for drills, techniques and application. A fine addition to one's historical, or western martial arts bookshelf!
658490
Not only does this book provide a great basic explanation of basic iaido kata, it offers a very in-depth history of Japanese swordsmanship that makes this even more of a must-read.
641997
beautfifully illustrated and with knowledgable commentary this provides an excellent insight in to the art of Japanese sword fittings. good at many levels but particularly as an introduction to the beautiful workmanship of the fittings artists.
4231695
Great book to add to any blacksmith library!!  Covers a lot of material ranging from design, execution, and tool making.  Everything is well explained and beautifully photographed.  You can tell Robert Thomas and his design team spent a lot of time creating this book.  Everyone from the beginner to full time smith would benifit from purchasing this book.  ***** James Johnson /  Anyang USA
4877852
While I can't rate this book with5 stars, I think it's an excellent book if you've some extra cash.  The pictures of Gaudi's ironwork are probably worth the price.  While the techniques shown are pretty basic, and the authors skill is not going to overwhelm you, neither will it intimidate you. I really like that the author is not fixated soley on traditional technique.  Tradition has an important place in the blacksmithing  craft, but it can be frustratingly slow and take an apprenticeship to aquire.  Sometimes you just need to get something done, or have to make a profit and using a torch or grinder can make a lot of sense.
491825
The sword was packaged in a nice secure way with Styrofoam spacers holding it in the center of the box. It arrived in three days from Kentucky. I did a fair amount of research on this sword and I must say that it exceeds my expectations of what 100.00 dollars could buy. When I unboxed the sword the workmanship was outstanding, not flawless in a machine made way but beautiful in the way a handcrafted sword is made. The sword is forged on power hammers and made of modern 1060 steel but the finish looks like it was done by hand. The Hamon line from the clay tempering is clearly visible though I may try to darken it some with vinegar later. I intend to test it's cutting power to see if it's a looker or a fighter. The edge was nearly shaving sharp when it arrived so I touched it up just a little bit. The sword shows a nice hardness to the edge with only a very small curl or wire when sharpening on a diamond rod. This was proven by inspection under a lighted magnifying glass. In my opinion this was money well spent. I am really impressed and I may buy another one. I know it's made in China and not Japan and it's not hard forged and folded 200 times. But it doesn't cost 10,000 dollars either. I will adjust the score when I test it for cutting power and edge retention.