Sickle, Tactile Blade Trainer
Our synthetic sickle was designed to be sturdy enough for hooking the arms, legs or body as depicted in Mair’s compendium, yet be flexible enough for safe sparring (with adequate protective gear).
History of the Weapon
The sickle is one of the unconventional weapons detailed inthe massive mid 16th century OpusAmplissimum de Arte Athetica compiled by Paulus Hector Mair (1517-1579).Three versions of this multi-volumecompendium have been preserved: the BSB Cod.icon. 393(1/2) in Latin, Mscr.Dred. C 93/94 in Early New High German and Codex Vindobensis 10825/26 in bothLatin and German.Mair lived inAugsburg and was a civil servant and fencing enthusiast, though there is noevidence that he ever certified as a fencing master.
There has been some debate on whether the techniques of thesickle and the other “peasant weapons” depicted in the compendium were based onactual observation of contemporary peasants or speculation by Mair, but ineither case the 16 illustrated pages devoted to the sickle depict and describea variety of attacks and counters that include strikes, parries, hooks, disarmsand grapples.
Although Mair believed that fencing in its various forms was instrumental in building character, he apparently didn’t do enough of it to keep him from embezzling money from the Augsburg city coffers so that he could live well beyond his means. He was ultimately hanged as a thief at the age of 62. Don’t make his mistake! Order our sickles and train hard!
