When it comes to learning new things we all have methods. When it comes to music, its drilling it into my body over and over again until I can’t stand it any longer.
I recently sorted all the songs in my playlist “SCA Songs to Learn” and was wondering: is 418 plays a lot? I added Rocky Road to Dublin Nov. 2014. As opposed to Queen of Argyll which was added Aug. 2018 with 199 plays. I find the data telling, and interesting.
A temporal snapshot of my playlist as of Sept. 2019
What are your favorite performance pieces? Do you have recordings that you listen to? What are your numbers? Care to share your list?
Using the voice as an instrument, how do you best learn a song? Do you get the lyrics and reread them? Listen to the song repeatedly? Tap rhythms as you listen? Learn the music? A mixture of these and/or more?
Screen shot or share your playlists!
So many other questions! For bonus points, read on…
This goes in to other areas fairly quickly. Do you only learn songs you love? Songs that you can stand listening to over and over? Stories or songs that are technically easier? Pieces that are popular? Curious about others thoughts all along the spectrum from professional bards, to people who just love to sing one song or tell one story.
As a combat archer, there are times when there simply isn’t any combat archery, or there are alternating scenarios, whatever the case may be… So I thought to myself, ‘Self, you should take up pole arm!’
Im no stranger to rattan having made made throwing daggers, and other things out of it. So I sought the help of the community and got some great assistance from Vlad Iliescu, and John Hutchings. Vlad was kind enough to send me some videos, I won’t repost without permission, but I will document what resulted from the assist!
Using the image below as a reference…
Materials Used:
12′ rattan or lengths fit to use
fiberglass strapping tape
duct tape (colors of choice)
leather cording
cell foam (the kind used for padding armor or similar)
saw or other method for cutting rattan
sander, planer or other method for shaving rattan
Step by step construction of a polearm for use in SCA armored combat
Let’s dive in!
Cut the total length yo your Kingdom maximum length, take away 6″ which we will make up later. The remaining piece cut to 18″ (or to suit, see below).
Cut a notch about 1/3 total diameter depth as long as you like for the blade length. Make sure to leave enough for strength. In this case as I recall the length was about 18 (as noted above).
Fit the additional piece in place. The tighter the fit, the better.
Notice the grading on the top part of the laminated piece. This helps decrease the sharp edging as looking more like a period weapon.
I tend to overdo this part. Ya know, safety… Wrap it up and down with (fiberglass strapping) tape. Pay extra attention to the joined ends and ensure a tight, secure taping job.
Now for the thrusting tips. Check your Kingdom rules, but mine are a full 3″ of padding. I start by cutting a series of discs that are the same diameter as the pole. Stack them up. You can additionally create two long strips about 1″ wide and about 8-10″ long, cross them over the end. After assembly side wrap top to overlap onto the pole by at least 3″. Cross tape over the top. Side wrap again even deeper down the shaft.
Repeat for the other end.
Now for the rondel. You can employ several methods for this part, in my case I used leather. Using 3/16″ leather I cut three discs, and center punched to as tightly fit the shaft as possible.
Laminate the pieces together using strapping tape. Use as much as you like to make it safe and ensure it stays together.
In my case I used purple duct tape to mask the ugly fiber tape.
Here I use leather cording (stripped from the same leather used in rondel). these are about 12″ long. One small piece of tape to hold one end down. Tightly wrap and secure with tape.
Place rondel and then repeat step 10 on the other side to secure the rondel in place.
Here I tape the shaft all up to ensure its all as secure as possible. Continuous taping ensures strength. Many little piece can fail more easily.
Taping with my base colors to make it puurrrty.
More puurrrrty and adding red tape for the striking edges.
Red for the thrusting points
(Not pictured) I used a sander and planer for indexing the handle. This is so that no matter what I know which way my blade is facing.
Thats about it folks, not much to this. In my case I needed a few friends to help me get started. Access to tools always helps. Lean on your community for tools, advice, space, whatever you need.
Greetings friends! It been a while since we had a gathering and discussed the proposal. This year at Pennsic there were two opportunities.
A few people showed up for the first meeting and we discussed a variety of things, including what they have been doing in their Kingdoms, what they have seen, and the status of various orders and awards.
An issue regarding inclusion and welcoming others into awards was not only a topic here, but also in fireside conversations as well. There are those who guard their awards and don’t necessarily welcome inclusion, but that will be a topic for another day.
Generally when it comes to participation, it seems there is more work to be done where inclusion, and cross discipline events are concerned. One thing that came up previously was the idea of having competitions that span several martial areas. Such as a tourney where a score must be submitted for thrown weapons, archery, and atl atl (for example). This could be any combo of activities, including other areas such as: rattan combat, siege, etc.
There exists in An Tir the ‘Three Pillars‘ (see below) competition where participants need not participate in all the ‘things’ but have scores submitted for the things they participate in. The scores are tallied and there is an overall winner. In this case on need not even participate in a specific thing, but they get points for what they do. if atl atl is one of them, great!
One serious issue that did come up was the concept of using scores to gauge viability. We can all agree that scores in the area of martial skills can be a way of determining prowess. The prevailing wisdom was that being the best shouldn’t be a requirement, and this was generally the feeling in respective communities. A point was discussed that when a Laurel, for instance, is polled they do not include A&S scores in the polling for consideration. In that same mindset, scores for martial areas should not be a precluding factor, but might be fair to consider. Using the same analogy, one may enter every single A&S competition and place last, perhaps then this wouldn’t be the best candidate. So too likely would be the case for a martial candidate. In both cases however, scores do not nearly tell the whole story, rather lend to the narrative.
Making sure martial events are happening with regularity, opening avenues for discovery and inclusion. Make sure we as a community are talking to autocrats, event planners, and local groups about how we can better integrate and be more visible. More here. We can’t wait for our passion to be represented, we need to wear it proudly and share!
Other topics we revisiting older issues and looking deeper into the culture and inclusiveness. I’ll link to a previous posts (2018, 2016) so you can read what was shared.
There are many ways to show your support, please learn, share, and actively support the inclusion of the remaining segments of our Society actively precluded for bing recognized for exactly who and what they are.
Friends it is the case that many groups work in a vacuum. That may for technical, safety, or any number of reasons. However decisions have been made in the past about how well some things do fit together, or whether they fit together ‘well enough’.
Take the case of the Laurel. Arts can, and do, vary vastly in process, scope, materials, and so much more. Yet we can in almost every situation take an art, break it down, and assess it. What do I mean? Arts can be studied, documented, reviewed, and displayed. A similar review process can be applied across art forms. We can standardize on what is an art, and get people to judge it who may not even be in that specific field.
This brings me to the idea of being inclusive where it comes to polling orders, and other orders of merit. Let’s take the Order of the Yew Bow as an example. The order includes a wide range of activities, presumably open to others not technically listed. This makes sense in that those in a martial community are able to apply the same logic in their fields, to others. Teaching, prowess, skill, related arts, teaching, and more. The same way we could ‘judge’ a candidate using my time as an archer, would equally apply to a combat archer. Can they hit a target, are they proficient, make and repair equipment, empower others, leaders, etc.
We can make decisions about how we assess candidates, and apply knowledge we have, and fudge as necessary to make accommodations for any ignorance.
Those who are worthy, and valued should not be made to wait until an order exists that fits perfectly. We are an imperfect Society, and as such should be tolerant, and forgiving.
If you have an order in your Kingdom, or group, and you are currently not inclusive, I humbly beg you to review your reasons. Are they sound? Founded in solid logic with an eye to inclusion? Would a group of archers be harmed in including a combat archer? Are we not cut from the same cloth?
For me the solution is quite straight forward, but we should always welcome discussion and be willing to be swayed by a good argument, even if we don’t like the result. If we have a light to shine, let’s shine brighter and be a beacon across the known world. Talk to your fellow members. If not a member, speak with the Principal, or members of that order or group that are in a position to make a difference. Let them know it makes a difference to you.
