[Patrick Kelly]

Once again the local highschool is covering Beowulf, King Arthur and The Canterbury Tales and I was called upon to give another presentation. This time around I was fortunate to have Gregs assistance, something I was very grateful for. Throughout the course of another eight hour day in armor, we gave seven one-hour presentations and lectured to over six hundred students. We were also assisted by my wife Dorathea and Gregs lady Linda, both of whom spent the day in period dress. I thought I'd share some photos.











Most of the students were fairly attentive. At least those who weren't kept quiet.


A full day in armor was followed by a return home for a shower to scrub off the armor grime and a quick dinner. Then we were off to an evening dance class we're all taking at the local college. Man, I'm ready for bed!

[Gary Venable]

Patrick,

That's really great and I see that Greg's Knights Hospitaller of St. John kit is developing nicely as well. Do you (or did you ) have any issues with bringing the swords to the school? I know many have a zero tolerance and what not about weapons.

[Allen Andrews]

Thats really cool! I'm a School Resource Officer at a high school, and I KNOW that your presentation would be well received here. And while we have a "zero tolerance" policy around the possession of unauthorized weapons in the school, exceptions can be made for educational opportunities.

Now I just need to get you to take your show on the road to Maine

[Allen Andrews]

Hmmmm, having read my post I guess if we make exceptions, its not really a "zero tolerance" policy is it?

[Patrick Kelly]

Thank you.

Gary, Allen is correct, most schools don't seem to have much hesitation about displaying these types of things in an educational venue. Those particular laws have been relaxed a bit from their rather draconian interpretation when they were first enacted. I stopped doing these presentations around that time due to those very reasons. At the time, as the laws were written, they didn't allow for any flexibility. Back then, when I was asked to do this kind of presentation I would remind the administrations about these new laws. Their reply was usually, "You're a cop, it's okay." Well, not really. The state lets me carry a gun for professional purposes but that doesn't really cover swinging a sword around on school property. I also know the mentality of school administrators, if one child had simply poked themselves on something and engendered a lawsuit, those bottom feeders would have immediately plead ignorance and would have hung me out to dry. No thank you.

Since I've returned to doing this kind of activity I've only run into problems with one school. I was asked to give a presentation at a grammar school. After a lot of communication back and forth about what was expected and what would be presented, the principal decided that displaying the armor would be fine but the kids didn't need to be exposed to any "weapons". Given this administrators bean counting lawyeresque mentality I wasn't surprised at all and wound up cancelling the program rather than deal with her attitude. Other than that they've all been comfortable with the idea and the programs have been well received.

In the end I think it's really about perception. If I was asked to give a presentation on modern warfare there might be a problem with bringing firearms onto school property, or if I intended to give a lecture on the switchblade, etc. People with no interest in the subject seem to have forgotten that things like swords are real weapons, not Hollywood props.

[Martin Wilkinson]

Looks good, shame schools over here rarely do that kind of thing, they'd rather take us to a museum that makes mistakes (like calling a bill a pike... ) that bring in someone who knows what they are talking about.

My only comment is: get those shields hit... they're too perfect and clean...

[Patrick Kelly]

[Richard Fay]

Hello all!

[Bryce Felperin]

When me and my Ren faire guild do demos at faires and other venues we use only blunt swords like Lutels or Del Tins for the fighting demos (we do it real but at half speed). However sometimes we bring sharps as well. One of the better crowd draws is when we set up a cutting stand and start cutting mats down to size.

Usually if you get "weapon" problems, you can just bring blunts instead and still get the same level of realism. If someone has a problem with blunts I usually pick up a chair and say "it has the same level as lethality as this chair". That usually gets the point across that it's the person and their motivations that is the "weapon" and not the tools used.

[Jean Thibodeau]

With the " sharps " I guess you can sort of view the maille, helm and shield as safety equipment and take a few controlled swings at each other without loosing body parts.

Any concern about getting an occasional edge on edge contact: NICKS ! ............ The horror.

That would be one good reason to get a semi - blunt like squire line swords: Much closer to the real thing than true sparring blunts in look and less likely to nick with light parrying. Just a thought.

Looks great though even if a couple in the audience look as if they need their sleep. ( Too much partying the night before or playing X - Box ??? )

[Greg Griggs]

Thanks for the comments on the kits - a lot of time and effort spent on them of course, and it's always nice to have positive feedback on something you're trying to portray in a historical manner. There are incorrect things yet with the Hospitaller kit which I am going to rectify as the opportunity allows, but all in all I am a very happy camper with the way it has turned out so far. "Lived-in" look ehhh? Ummmmm.....Linda just finished the sewing on the outer tunic and the hooded cloak around 9:00 pm Monday, so it's had very little time to get worn and threadbare, plus I figure with the amount of money and time I have invested it can look nice & new for a little while.

As to the use of sharps vs. blunts - Linda and Dorathea are English teachers and they are in the process of teaching Beowulf, Chaucer's Tales, and Arthur. What we presented (well, what Patrick presented and I merely acted on as a helper and represented a 150 year difference in dress) was a visual and aural representation of what the weapons, armor, and dress really did look like in the middle ages. Not to mention what a knight of the middle ages really was....and wasn't. There was no true re-enactment, no fighting; only slow-motion visual aids showing the fiction of Hollywood and the way we believe it was actually done, especially on how the shield is used. Fully controlled, with little to no chance of injury to either of us. We brought several sharp blades with us to show a bit of the evolution of the sword during the middle ages to follow along with the changing armor and shield types, and though all the blades were shown close-up to the audience, I have to say that when they were told of how sharp and dangerous these blades were, every youth there was respectful and careful. We had talked about doing a cutting demonstration, but decided the liability factor was not worth the effort, plus we were on a limited time schedule.

I have to applaud Patrick on the excellent presentation he made 7 times throughout the day, and I believe that many of those kids came away with a new-found respect for history. At least I hope they did, and if they didn't it was because there is nothing capable of getting through to them. I'm glad I was allowed to help in my small way, and have to admit it was a lot of fun having those teenagers staring up at us on stage wide-eyed and a bit awestruck at times.:} Of course there WERE the one's who slept throughout the whole thing.....sheesh!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA......

[Patrick Kelly]

Thank you all for the kind words.

A couple of points of perspective here.

Regarding the "lived in" look: My own personal kit has been worn enough now that it no longer looks pristine. All of the leather is getting that nice broken in look and there are a few nicks and such on the painted items. None of this is readily apparent in those photos though. On the other hand, I'm not about to take a hammer to my helmet or an axe to my shield simply to satisfy the desires of those who seem to feel that medieval kit needs to look bashed and smashed to look "authentic". I'm a military veteran and a current law enforcement professional. As such I've spent the majority of my adult life in professions where your life may very well depend upon the state of your equipment. There is a huge difference between equipment that looks used but well-maintained and equipment that has been abused and neglected. 21st century warriors maintain their equipment and there's no reason to believe 11th century warriors possessed a different outlook. After wearing my armor I check it for rust and clean off the same if it occurs. Last night I oiled the leather bits of my kit before putting them away, etc. These are routine maintenance items that would have been done then just as they are done today to weapons and ancillary equipment. The view that everything should look tattered and worn out is simply wrong, in my opinion. As Greg pointed out, his clothing had only been completed the night before so the really wasn't an opportunity to give it that lived-in look.

Regarding the use of blunt weapons: This is something I feel very strongly about. Yes, if any serious contact exercises were going to be performed, then of course, blunt weapons would be used. In fact, in the only instance where specific sword techniques were demonstrated two wooden wasters were used. However, if you're in a venue where items are being displayed and explained in an attempt to educate, then you need to recreate those items as closely as possible. If you're going to show a sword to an audience with the explanation, "this is what a medieval sword was like" you'd better be displaying a recreation that's as close to true as you can make it, anything else is a disservice. That means using a properly sharp sword as an illustration. A blunt prop will simply not give the same lasting impression as a sharp sword within the context of illustrating the point. As for safety, well, in my opinion this is something we've taken to extremes in our society. The world is a dangerous place and putting a band-aid over the whole thing won't change that. Part of growing up is learning how to responsibly handle lifes challenges. In turn, part of that is learning not to touch a sharp sword when someone says, "don't touch the blade it's sharp." Also, I've never believed in approaching life to the lowest common denominator. I prefer to treat the students as intelligent human beings until they prove otherwise.

[Martin Wilkinson]

Patrick, i'm not saying your kit shouldn't look in bad condition, what i'm trying to say is that it should look as if it's seen a few scraps, and been cared for, so a little bit of damage, a tear in the cloak here, a stain there.

I know the difficulty of making kit looked lived in and still useable, being an ECW re-enactor... to me my kit still looks too new.

To my mind, shiny bits like shield bosses, should be slightly subdued, my buckler looks this way because after a wet weekend, it got a little rusty and cleaning it didn't remove all the rust, but to me that makes it look that little bit better.

Still the kit looks good.

Random question: Why is the spear blue and white?

[Patrick Kelly]

[Martin Wilkinson]

[Patrick Kelly]

[Addison C. de Lisle]

[Douglas G.]

Patrick,
I would be surprized if a sword was allowed in a school here (Portland Oregon) given the post Columbine
climate here, even if only in the hands of someone like yourself and seperated from the kids by the stage. It's
a sad thing when something as enjoyable for kids as seeing and hearing about all the gear would be
thought to encourage violence. The times I guess.
It wasn't always so, in ' 72 a kid named Steve brought in one of those Spanish "El Cid" looking wall hangers
for a visual aid in a report for our Shakespeare class. Steve must have subjected the sword to extracarricular
use for which it was not meant or designed as when he drew it from it's tooled leather sheath the blade fell
out of the hilt and clattered to the floor leaving poor Steve to face the predictable chuckles red faced and empty
handed.
I hope this wasn't the basis for a zero sword policy!

I think the green leggings are a nice touch,

Doug Gentner

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Patrick Kelly]