Disclaimer: “As an Amazon Associate I may earn from qualifying purchases.” Adsense and Infolinks were no help at all.

If you have enjoyed this article or it has been helpful to you please feel free to show your appreciation. Thank you.

Read The Third Wave by Alvin Toffler!

Author: Phillosoph

Categories
Phillosoph

Striking the Centaur

After seven years of failed attempts, I finally got my girlfriend to visit the British Museum. One particular piece in the Greek section caught my interest.
Of particular note is the posture of the man fighting the centaur. First of all, note how his leg is hooked around the foreleg of the centaur. You will see this particular leg action in many contexts, one of the most familiar perhaps being in Highland dancing. This is one of those examples of a dance move that is also used as training for a combat move. In combat this swift leg raise can be used to avoid a low strike. The leg action is also used in Highland wrestling and other martial arts as a tripping action. This is what the sculptor has portrayed here, although its effectiveness against a quadruped is doubtful! As well as pulling a leg aside this leg position can be used another way. The toe touches the ground for additional stability and the straightening of the leg used to displace the foe’s leg and shift their balance.
The position of the man’s right hand is also notable. His fist is inverted and he appears to be striking the centaur’s temple. Recently I had watched a Hong Kong movie called “Dragon”. A major plot point was that one character made use of a distinctive strike to the temple. He struck with his fist inverted, using the tip of his thumb, the thumb clamped across the top of his fist.
The technique portrayed by the sculptor is also reminiscent of the punch Jack Dempsey calls the “corkscrew hook”. Readers who had read my book will know that the corkscrew is a technique for coming outside and over an opponent’s guard. This use is consistent with the position of the centaur’s left arm. The man has been grabbed by the throat so counters with a punch to the temple from the outside gate. One of Erle Montaigue’s books has effectively the same technique executed from the “White Crane Spreads Wings” posture. Erle describes it as one of the most powerful punches of any martial art since it is entirely circular in its execution. The fist finishes in an inverted position since this is the most energy efficient and relaxed way to make this punch. No muscular tension is created keeping the palm in an orientation that it does not need to be.
Erle’s example of an application was as follows. An attack with the left hand is deflected to the left with the right hand. The left hand takes over control, taking the defender to the outside gate. The right hand drops down and circles up and in to hit over the arm at the temple. My personal recommendation would be to make this as a palm-strike.
Categories
Phillosoph

Real Action, Not Scapegoats

More than 30,000 people will be killed this year in the USA alone. They will be killed by automobiles. When someone is killed by a negligent driver no one asks what make of car was he driving? No one asks what was the model of phone he found more important than paying attention to the road. It is the driver who was guilty, not the automobile.
And yet, if there is a shooting incident such as that recently in Florida the media are fascinated by what model of gun the shooter used. It is not the gun that is the problem! Gun control laws are not the solution! Gun control laws victimize the law-abiding and create an illusion of a solution when nothing has actually been achieved.
The gun did not cause the man to murder. Religious intolerance and institutionalized homophobia did. Poor security let him take these actions with little real opposition. Mass shootings occur because their targets are undefended and irrelevant and unnecessary laws are accepted as action rather than addressing this.
What model of gun he used or whether it had a pistol grip is not relevant. By concentrating on such irrelevancies you are only perpetuating the problem and preventing a real solution.
Categories
Phillosoph

Rubber Saps

 

 Recently I was doing some research on the SOE and the Home Guard Auxiliary Units. The Auxiliary units were a uniformed force that in the event of an invasion were to conceal themselves in occupied territory and conduct a campaign of sabotage. The equipment list of the auxiliary units made for interesting reading. One list I came across included a number of “knobkerries”. This probably refers to World War One vintage trench clubs that have been discussed in another blog. Such weapons would be an obvious compliment to the commando knives and other stealthy combat systems the Auxiliaries were issued with. Another list contained an entry for “rubber truncheons” instead. There are times when an enemy may need to be subdued without excessive bloodspill or fatal results.


“Rubber truncheon” is quite an evocative phrase nowadays. In the first half of the 20thcentury a number of police forces issued hard rubber batons. This was probably the source of the Auxiliary unit weapons. Such batons seem to have fallen from favour and as is often the case the reason may be more political than practical.


Many years back I wrote an article on blackjacks and saps. These can be a useful defensive tool for a police officer but have become controversial. Blackjacks have been used as scapegoats, with the weapon conveniently blamed for the misconduct of some users.

 
Blackjacks and saps effectively divide into two types. One type is circular in section and often has a coil spring in its shank. The other type is a flattened “beavertail-shape”. If there is a spring incorporated in this second type it will be a flat leaf spring.
 
The round-type have a noticeable snap to them since the spring allows the head to accelerate faster than the head of a rigid weapon of similar short length. The spring of the flat-type does not seem to contribute as noticeably to the force as the coil spring model. The beavertail-shape does allow the force to be spread over a wider area, reducing the chance of serious injury. The flat-type also gives you the option of striking with the edge when necessary, which is useful on some bulkier target areas such as large muscle groups.
 
I concluded that the ideal sap/blackjack would have a coil spring combined with a flattened head. As far as I know, no one has attempted to make such a model, or if they have they have not bothered to credit or contact me!
Encountering the idea of truncheons made from rubber or rubber-like materials got me thinking about blackjacks once again. Why not a modified beavertail-shape moulded from hard rubber or a synthetic modern equivalent? Much easier to manufacture than a leather, lead and spring weapon. If the stem was made in a square or circular cross section the weapon would gain the benefits of acceleration whether striking with the edge or the flat.
Police officers need more less-lethal options. The blackjack can be concealed discretely in the hand and brought into action when there is insufficient time to draw a nightstick or handgun. Used correctly it can end aggression with minimal damage.
 
It occurred to me last night that the resulting rubber sap might actually resemble a dog's bone-shaped toy!
 

 

Categories
Phillosoph

Compass bearings as 64 parts.

As is the custom, the Friday blog will be a little more random and off-the wall than usual. Some time back I had some fun creating a system of weights and measures for a fictional environment. I based this system on the human pace and cubit length and derived a related system of mass and volume measurement.

The other night I was lying awake in bed and began to wonder about other alternate systems of measure. Specifically I began to think about directional bearings.

The system most familiar to many of us is that of degrees, there being 360 degrees in a circle. One theory is that there are 360 degrees in a circle because the sun appears to move approximately one degree each day. Another theory is that six equilateral triangles will make up a full circle. Each segment was then further divided into 60 by the Babylonians, who liked to do things in 12s and 60s. Incidentally the Russians also had a system based on six triangles but divided each into 100 to give 600 increments in a circle.

There didn’t seem to be any particular reason why a culture would select a system based on 360, 36, 60 or 12. Generally we think of a circle having four cardinal directions and a circle is easily divided into quarters. Each quarter is one right angle. The quarters are easily bisected to give us eight equal segments of a circle, an eighth being half a right angle. The eighths can be bisected again to give us 16 parts. If we divide the rim of each sixteenth into four equal parts we have divided the circle into 64.
I have not been able to find a good word to denote a sixty-forth part. Closest thing I came across was a “semifusa”, itself a fraction of larger measurement. For want of a better term I will call a 64th of a circle’s circumference a “Rey”.
Breaking the circle up into 64 gives us quite an elegant system. A right angle or quarter circle is 16/64ths or 16 Rey. Half a right angle or an eighth of a circle is 8 Rey. Many other useful increments are also nice whole numbers. Bearings are given in Rey. “Quarter” is a permissible alternate term for right angles, “eighth” for half right angles. Smaller angles such as sixteenths or thirty-seconds are instead given in multiples of Rey. One Rey is 5.625 degrees, a nice sized unit to work with.
 
The Rey or 64th can of course be divided further for more accuracy. Rather than continuing the process of further halving the unit my inclination was to decimalize fractions of the Rey. Bearings could be expressed as 9.3 Rey, for example, each tenth of a Rey being a shade over half a degree.
As I was laying thinking about this system the proverbial penny dropped. 64 parts of a circle…6400 mils on a military compass! Each Rey is equivalent to 100 mils.
For those not familiar with the system, I will explain. Many military forces use a system based on milliradians rather than degrees. A radian is a length of circumference equal to the radius of the circle. There are therefore 2π radians in a circle. More practically this unit is used in milliradians. At 1,000 metres range one “mrad” or “mil” equals one metre of circumference. Looked at more practically, if a man appears to have a width across his shoulders of about one mil he is about 500 metres away. A 0.1 mrad adjustment to gun sights changes the point of impact 1 cm at 100 m or 3 cm at 300. Mils should not be confused with MOA or “minutes of arc”. There 21,600 MOA in a circle.
Since radians fit into a circumference as a multiple of π the actual number of milliradians in a circle is approximately 6,283. A right angle in milliradians is actually π/2 x 1000 mrads, slightly less than 1600 mrads. Military forces actually use a unit derived from the milliradian called the NATO mil, which is 1/6400th of a circle. A Rey is slightly over a deciradian.

So my new measuring system had come full circle (pun intended) and differed from the NATO mil system only by the magnitude of its units.

One right angle = Quarter of a circle = 90° = 8 compass points = 16 Rey = 1600 Nato mils = π/2 (approx. 1.6) radians or approx. 16 deciradians.

1 Rey = 1/64th of a circle = 5.625° = 100 NATO mils = approx. 0.1 radians.

The interesting thing about this little thought experiment is this. Beforehand I had not paid much attention to NATO mils. A 6400th of a circle was very difficult to visualize and a bearing such as “5760 mils” would need a pause for thought to just determine if I should be looking east or west. Thinking of the compass as being in 64 parts, with each 64th having a hundred subdivisions actually makes it much easier for me to get a handle on. I know that 5760 is 57.6/64. Since 48 is three quarters of a circle and 8 is an eighth I can easily visualize that 5760 is a shade north of north-west.
Not only have I gained a better grasp of NATO mils I begin to prefer them over degrees, multiples and factors of 64 being much easier to handle than those of 360.

Try this for yourself and see how it works for you.

Categories
Phillosoph

Attack, Avoid, Survive: Global Edition released.

As some of you already know, the rewrite of Attack, Avoid, Survive has just been released. This is a shade over five years since the original was first printed. What has changed and why is the new “Global edition” better?
One of the main changes is that I have reformatted the text so that the font is slightly larger but I can get twice as much text on a page. Since the new copy has nearly eighty extra pages you are effectively getting 50% more book than in the previous edition. The new edition contains considerable additional content. This includes new techniques, new applications for the “old” techniques and nearly twenty extra illustrations. Various sections have been rewritten or expanded. There are even brand new sections on topics such as handcuffing and the use of flashlights. This edition also includes more cross references so you can more easily find illustrations or passages referred to elsewhere in the text.
It has been a couple of months since Crash Combat when on sale and a number of copies have been sold. The two books have been written to be complimentary. Many of the topics that I could only briefly touch on in Crash Combat are dealt with in more depth in the global edition of Attack, Avoid, Survive. Crash Combat is not, however, a slimmed down version of Attack, Avoid, Survive. It contains content and techniques not covered in the larger book.
I hope you enjoy the books.
Categories
Phillosoph

Tinderboxes

Nowadays when we use the word “tinderbox” we are usually speaking metaphorically.
To many of our ancestors this meant something more sophisticated than a simple container of tinder. I suspect some of our ancestors would have had a good chuckle at the performance some outdoorsman make of using a ferro-rod and steel! 

During my recent researches I came across a number of tinderboxes of the following pattern:


Essentially the box has two compartments. One compartment contains a flint and steel and a number of sulphur matches. The other compartment contains a pad of charcloth. A wooden damper fits into the second compartment. In some example the tinderbox only holds the charcloth and damper, the other components being kept separately.

When fire was needed, the flint and steel was struck so that sparks landed on the charcloth. Charcloth has a very low ignition temperature so is well suited to use with flint and steel. Once the charcloth is burning it is used to light one of the sulphur matches. The match is used to transfer the flame to you kindling, clay pipe or wherever else you need it. The damper is used to snuff out the burning charcloth until it is needed again. In some examples replacing the tight lid may have been enough to extinguish the flame.

An interesting component of this system were the sulphur matches. If you look at the boxes of some brands of modern matches you may still find the statement that they are “self-igniting” or similar. This is because matches as we know them are a relatively new invention. For centuries the word match meant something like the burning cord of a matchlock or the sulphur matches in a tinderbox.
Sulphur matches were also known as brimstone matches or spunks. They are simply strips of wood with each end dipped in molten sulphur and allowed to dry. Commonly they were made and sold by street vendors. Below is a nice video on making sulphur matches.
Categories
Phillosoph

Charcloth and Charpaper

I am not sure where or when was the first time I encountered the idea of charcloth.
Over the decades I have lived in a variety of locations, none of which had a garden, so certain experiments could not be conducted. The making and testing of charcloth was one of these.
Today’s blog will mainly pass on some links and impressions.
To make charcloth, you need some form of vessel. This needs to be nearly airtight, only requiring a small hole for pressure equalization and to allow the escape of smoke.
The internet shows a number of different vessels used. One of the most practical uses a soda can. Sadly, these can often be found in wilderness areas. The vessel is made by cutting the can in half and slitting the walls of the lower part so the upper can fit snuggly over it. The tab is pushed back up so only a small vent hole remains.

The bottom of the can is packed with torn-up pieces of old cloth. These can be cotton, linen or any other vegetable derived cloth. You can use some of the cotton wool you got for the fire kit!
No synthetics or mixes of synthetic and vegetable.
The upper half of the can is fitted and the can placed on a heat source. The heat source can be a campfire, barbeque or camp stove but it should be outside since the charring cloth will produce a lot of smoke.


Continue to heat your vessel while the smoke is produced.
Once the smoke production begins to die off, carefully remove the can from the heat and put it to one side to cool.
Give this plenty of time.
If you try to open the can while the contents are still hot you will probably burn your fingers and the inrush of oxygen will cause the charcloth to catch fire.
Once cool, you should have some charcloth, suitable for tinder.
Charcloth is sometimes called charpaper.
Charcloth is made from vegetable materials, so an obvious question is can you make charpaper from paper? We seem to spend much of our lives surrounded by excess paper, so why not turn them into something more useful?
This video shows an interesting method for making charpaper from a paper tissue. It might work with other layered pages too.
Can you char paper in a vessel in the same way you process cloth?
From what research that I have been able to do, the result resembles burnt newspaper. It may take a spark but has little structural strength, making it less than practical. Waste cardboard, on the other hand, may be more practical.
I have encountered suggestions that newspaper should first be mixed with water to form a sort of papier-mâché, allowed to dry into a solid mass and then charred in a vessel. This seems a bit involved, and I wonder if the lengthy drying phase can be done away with given that you will be heating the mass anyway.
Both cardboard and wet paper are materials worth experimenting with for charpaper production. Alas, I will have to leave that to those who have better access to the open air than myself.
Categories
Phillosoph

The Tale of the Stove and the Shoe

A couple of recent blog posts have been about fire and cooking and I intend to make a few more on this subject in the near future. Continuing the tradition that Friday posts are a little more “off-topic” I will relate the following story from my past.
I had recently brought a couple of those alcohol gel stoves that resemble a paint tin with a pot stand. These were a relatively new innovation back then. Hence, when visiting the family home for the weekend I took one with me to show my younger brother.
As many readers will know, these are fairly simple to use. You light the gel. You place the pot stand in place and heat your cooking vessel over the flame. Once you are done you replace the lid, which cuts off the oxygen and extinguishes the flame. The one I had was more like a paint tin than the screw-capped example above.
Pretty foolproof, you’d think?
I show the stove to my brother, who is in his bedroom. He removes the lid and regards the clear gel inside.
“Lighter!” he demands from his friend.
The gel lights immediately and a tall flame rapidly grows. After a few seconds of admiring this, my brother asks:
“How do you put it out?”
“You just put the lid back on.”
For some reason my brother decides that this does not mean to replace the tight-fitting lid exactly as it was. What passes for logic in his mind tells him the concave upper side of the lid will be better at snuffing out a flame.
He throws the lid upside down onto the flame. Naturally enough the flame licks around the edges and ignites a large blob of alcohol gel that had adhered to the bottom of the lid, which is now uppermost. The flame notably increases in size as the lid is now on fire!
I wasn’t doing much at this point, stunned and amused by the stupidity of what he had done. The primary means for extinguishing the flame is itself now on fire.
My brother snatches up a shoe from the floor and uses it to swat at the flame. As he raises his hand for a second blow there is a burning circle of fire on the sole of the shoe.
I don’t recall how he actually extinguished the stove. All I can remember decades later was how hard I was laughing at him setting his shoe on fire.
The moral is, never assume something is foolproof. Fools are always greater than you think.
Categories
Phillosoph

Did Flails Exist?

About a week ago I came across some discussion of the following article:
In brief, the author (Dr. Sturtevant) offers a hypothesis that the military flail never existed and that all (not just some) examples in museums are fakes. A friend has made the criticism that his main argument is that “flails were too difficult to use”.
“An interesting idea” was my first reaction. The second was “what about Japan?” The Japanese are known to have used a variety of chain weapons. Best known, perhaps, is the kusarigama, literally a chain (kusari) and sickle (kama). Voiced and voiceless consonants often swap in translated Japanese so kama can become gama and kusari gusari. Some kusarigama have the chain attached to the butt end of the kama, others have it attached at the head. Some have two chains attached to the head and there are variants that have one chain attached to the head and another at the butt. Some examples have the chain attached by a long hook or clip so the chain can be easily detached. The term “kusarigama” is also used for two kama joined together by a length of chain but that variant does not really concern us here.
If anything, you would expect a kama with a weighted chain to be harder to use than a simpler ball and chain without the blade. Yet, there are a number of ryu that include the kusarigama as a weapon and have a variety of techniques for using it. Kusarigama with the chain at the butt were typically used with the kama in one hand and the chain in the other. Those with a head-mounted chain were used single-handed and therefore give us some indication of how a short-handled ball flail might be used. Notably many ryu consider the kusarigama to be a “secret” weapon. More on that point later.
In another post I have talked about the chigiriki. This is similar to the familiar European medieval ball and chain flail but a two-handed weapon. Serge Mol’s “Classical Weapons of Japan” shows a variety of other chain weapons. Simplest is a chain with a weight at one end and a loop of chain at the other. The text mentions variations of this that had handles. The manrikigusari is a short chain with a weight at each end. This weapon has become relatively familiar in the west due to the popularity of the book “Spike and Chain”/ “Ninja Spike and Chain” by Charles V Grusanski. Another Japanese weapon has a weight, chain and iron truncheon. It looks like the stereotypical medieval ball and chain other than being all metal. A version with a wooden truncheon also existed.


Another weapon common in the east are the numchukas, derived from the Asian rice flail.


I had a quick glance at Cameron Stone’s book (A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times). He lists China and India as also being users of the flail.


If all flails are fakes, it was certainly widespread and comprehensive!


Dr. Sturtevant does state that he does not contest the existence of the long-handled flails derived from peasant tools and made with rope or leather. His stance is that it is short-handled ball flails that are fallacies  The illustrations in the article only show ball flails, although at least one appears to be long-handled.
Contemporary illustrations of the use of the ball and chain are relatively hard to find on the internet. Relatively hard, that is, unless you start on Wikipedia. Dr. Sturtevant actually uses some of these illustrations in his article. One of his arguments is that the figures using flails in some of these paintings are fantasy figures. For example, in one case they are meant to represent middle-eastern horsemen but are dressed as European knights. Many medieval painters depicted ancient events such as the Siege of Troy or Biblical scenes using contemporary weapons and armour. Lacking the body of archaeological knowledge we now have they assumed fashions had not changed much. Such paintings give us considerable information about what was in use at the time that the painting was painted. I expect many medieval painters had the same approach to the depiction of events in far-off lands that they had never visited. A middle-eastern warrior would be painted as European knight and the artist would base this on the contemporary equipment he was familiar with. It was easier to copy these than to invent.
From 1025

Whilst illustrations of the ball and chain are relatively rare, this is not the case for the long-handled bar-flail, aka the “peasant flail”. For completeness I will include some.
 

Asian horseman with long-handled flail.
This page has information on a pre-1579 manual that includes techniques for using the peasant flail. The two-handed bar-flail was an implement used to thresh grain. There can be little argument that it existed. There are numerous contemporary depictions of peasants and soldiers carrying and using them. In many illustrations these flails have been “weaponized” with the addition of spikes or iron banding. Some even have a catch so the swingle (head) does not swing around during prolonged marches.
Franz Kottenkamp’s “The History of Chivalry and Armour” (p.77) provided some useful information:
“The Morgenstern, or spike-covered club varied in its dimensions. according to Meyrick (Sir Samuel R Meyrick, Armour I, p.19), its staff was from two to five feet long, and the chain on which the ball was suspended, even exceeded the length of five feet. The balls, spiked or in the form of a channelled melon, weighed eight pounds in some specimens. Single or triple chains connected the balls with the handles. This weapon did not constitute a part of knightly armour. It was employed by German citizens and the Switzers (Swiss), and surpassed in size and weight the corresponding weapons of other nations. The French probably became acquainted with it, during the sieges of the cities in Flanders.”
Earlier in the same paragraph Kottenkamp talks about the plebeian bodyguards of princes armed with clubs. It is unclear if these clubs were flails.
Very clearly the weapon described by Meyrick  is not a description of a farm implement that has been pressed into service. It is a  ball and chain weapon that existed in both short-handled and long-handed forms.
The statement that the flail was not one of the prescribed knightly weapons is informative. In other words a knight was not obligated to learn how to use this weapon. There was no restriction on using the weapon, however. Knights who favoured the flail for any reason would use it. It was an unusual weapon for a knight. Understandably, depictions or descriptions of knights using flails are therefore relatively rare.
One of the objections to articulated weapons is that they are difficult to use. Using them effectively needs more training and familiarisation than some other weapons.

For the long-handled bar flail this argument is easily countered. A peasant would spend a big chunk of the harvesting season wielding a flail. Using one in battle would not be that different. From this page on the Chinese “big sweeper” we have this informative quote:
 
“The flail was used as though it were threshing, with the women striking the men outside the walls.”
The weapon is being used by women, who were presumably not trained warriors and may even have been unused to threshing as farm work. The peasant flail and big sweeper have long handles and relatively shorter head sections. The probability of the head section hitting the user is very remote.
It is potentially possible to block the head of a bar-flail. The more compact head of the ball-flail addresses this. The length of a chain was selected so that the weight would not swing down and strike the hand holding the handle. The chain was either at least a hand-width shorter than the shaft or was the same length or longer. In all cases the weight would not hang at the same level at which the handle was gripped.
Articulated weapons can behave differently to rigid ones, which is why the user needs to have achieved a greater level of proficiency and familiarity. A swinging chain has a considerable reach and can threaten a large area. Nearby obstacles or obstructions can affect its behaviour. A flailman could hit a nearby comrade or entangle his weapon in an overhead branch. Learning to be aware of your surroundings and those of your intended target was a component of mastering the weapon.
If a weight on a chain encounters an object it can sometimes rebound toward the user. This is known as “snapback”. Snapback is not really a problem if the head and chain is shorter than the handle. At worst, the head will slap against the shaft well above the hand. Some flails use a longer chain, however. In these cases the potential problem of snapback is countered by correct technique. Flail strikes are made with a follow through as though the hit was being pulled through the target. Any snapbacks are overcome by the overall momentum in another direction. The physicists among you will hopefully forgive me if I have termed that wrong. See the video below for a better explanation from an actual short-handled flail user.
 

 
Another “quirk” of articulated weapons might be termed a “deadstop”. The head puts all of its energy into a target and just stops and drops. Correct follow through partially addresses this. The user also learns to recognise when this happens and how to restore momentum to the head by techniques such as a quick wrist rotation.
The Japanese ryu can give us some useful insight into how the European weapons may have been used. The chapter on chain weapons in Serge Mol’s “Classical Weapons of Japan” proved very useful here. The chigiriki chapter in Sid Cambell’s “Exotic Weapons of the Ninja” was also quite insightful.
A static chain is very little threat. To attack a ball and chain must either be moving or in a position from which it can easily begin moving. Some chain-fighting ryu recommend that a chain be spun at about 80 rpm. Obviously the idea that you can step in to attack after a chain has passed is not practical against such techniques.
Strikes with a chain are made with a follow through, which naturally leads to the use of circling and figure-eight movements to keep the weapon in motion and make successive strike attempts.
I have some familiarity with the manrikigusari. Spinning and figure-eight movements are complimented by halting the chain and quickly returning it to a position from which a new strike can be made. This is done by catching the chain and sliding the hand towards the head to bring the weapon back under control. Potentially this could have been done with the short-handled European ball flail. Possibly a spinning chain could be slowed by impacting the head with the ground or intercepting the chain with your own shield edge. Since the flail was not really a knightly weapon it seems to be neglected by most of the contemporary manuals so we do not know if this was actually done.
The flail was not a weapon for use in a packed infantry formation. The flail was of little use in slowing down massed cavalry. Flail-armed troops probably only formed a small proportion of an infantry formation. Flails were probably used to compliment more commonplace weapons. If cavalry were stalled by spears or pikes flails were useful in the following melee. A flail could take a heavily armoured man from the saddle or bring down his horse. In later periods pike squares included halberdiers who sallied forth once an enemy was locked in combat with a square. Flail equipped troops were probably used in the same way. The reach and power of a flail made it a useful weapon for fighting across obstacles. The quotation above describes the flail used to defend a city wall. The two-handed flail is often associated with the Hussites and regarded as the national weapon. It would be a useful weapon for use from a Wagenburg. For the horseman who had learnt to use it the flail offered both reach and power.
I suspect that the “tail” position from sword fighting was often used with flails. This has the weapon held pointed to the rear at a low or medium level. This is a deceptive and menacing position from which powerful attacks can be thrown from a variety of angles. If a shield is used it obscures the enemy's view of what the weapon is doing. You often see the tail position used in the movie “House of Flying Daggers”. The only photo I could find shows the swords held higher than is usual.

 

A blow from a competently wielded flail could reach over, under or around an enemy shield. This could compliment the attacks of more conventional weapons. For example, as a spearman caused a foe to raise his shield a comrade with a flail could strike beneath.
Earlier I mentioned that many Japanese ryu regarded their chain weapons as “secret” weapons. In many cases they were not weapons for the battlefield or duelling but for more personal defensive encounters and self-defence. The kusarigama is considered to be one of the weapons suited for use by women. It was probably a weapon that many sword-armed aggressors would have been unfamiliar with. Like the naginata, the kusarigama offered superior reach and power compared to a sword. Ninja are also associated with a variety of chain weapons. Chain weapons offered reach and power in an easily concealed package. During night combat the chain would be even harder to see and avoid.
If Kottenkamp is describing bodyguards armed with flails then one can see some logic in the choice. The plebeian bodyguard was a professional fighter rather than a levy so could be expected to put time into mastering a difficult weapon if it offered an advantage.
Categories
Phillosoph

Simple Survival Fire Kit

My recent article on the simplicity of the Soviet soldier’s kit made me think about some of the items that are not included in the equipment list.
Specifically, I thought about fire kits.
An idle moment on the internet turned up commercial fire kits with nearly a dozen different types of tinder. They also came with a big price tag!
We all know fire is important for survival, but what do you actually need in your fire kit?
One of the most useful items you can carry are disposable lighters.
Zippo lighters are touted as “the professional’s choice” but in my experience they seem to need frequent refilling.
Interestingly, “Detachment B-52 (Project Delta) Reconnaissance Tips of the Trade” has the advice: “Do not take cigarette lighters as they make too much noise when opening and closing.” This is clearly in reference to zippo-type lighters.
For the same price as a Zippo, you can have dozens of disposable lighters that keep their fuel until it is used.
Take a look around your local pound store and you’ll see them being sold in multiple packs. Invest in a few of these.
Bright colours reduce the chance of losing them in the woods.
Place at least one lighter in each emergency kit that you have.
Put one in each outdoor coat that you own.
Throw a couple in the glove compartment of your car.
A disposable lighter will give your many more ignitions than the equivalent weight of matches. Some disposable-type lighters may be refilled.
Optional: wrap the outside of your lighter with a few inches of duct-tape. Duct-tape is flammable and a small piece may be lit with the lighter and used to get a fire going. It may be used like a candle, as described later. The duct tape is also handy for repairs and other duties.

The only real objection to disposable lighters is that there can be a fairly broad quality margin. Some disposable lighters seem to last for ages, others do not.
Allow for this by having a pair in your main fire kit.
A butane lighter that has run out of fuel can still provide a useful spark, and can be operated one-handed, unlike a traditional flint and steel. For this reason, the disposable lighters that have a striking wheel are preferable to other ignition systems.
Even when the lighter “flint” is exhausted, the wheel may still be used to strike sparks from a ferro-rod. This saves your knife blade, and is handy if your knife blade is of a steel that does not readily throw sparks..
Twice I have managed to run a butane lighter through the washing machine.
The first lighter changed colour from green to turquoise, but continues to work fine.
The second, a flint and wheel type, I found on the floor while unloading the laundry. I picked it up and tried it, and it lit immediately!
Disposable lighters seem to be more tolerant of water than you might think!
Water resistant cases for disposable lighters are now available. These are worth considering for your EDC lighter. Add a few inches of duct-tape to the outside.
I have come across claims that butane gas lighters will leak in low pressure environments. This may or may not be an actual problem if you are a mountaineer. For the rest of us, lighters are a very practical source of fire.
Butane lighters may be difficult to light when the temperature drops to zero or below. In such situations, carry at least one in your trouser hip pocket or an inner pocket where your body heat will keep it warm.

The second thing your fire kit should contain is tinder and something to carry tinder in. Ideally your tinder container should be waterproof.
A 35 mm film container is close to ideal. Ideally the lid should be attached to the container body so it cannot be lost. A strip of cord or plastic and some superglue solves this.
While film containers are not as common (or cheap) as they once were, they can still be found from on-line sources. They are sometimes marketed as “geocache” containers.
While researching this I was stunned by a site asking £123 for 15 35 mm containers!

Alternate Containers: One reader of this blog informs me he can scrounge pill bottles from local pharmacies. Another suggests that the little tins that the glucose test strips for diabetics come in can be used.
I have access to 50 ml screw-capped centrifuge tubes but to my mind these are a little too big.
At least one brand of storm matches comes with a container that might be suitable. Buying the container alone is nearly twice the cost of buying it filled with storm matches! Not sure if the cheaper examples have a screw-thread cap, however.

Pack your container with cotton wool.
Melt some Vaseline in an old spoon over a gentle heat. You will probably find Vaseline in the same store you brought the cotton wool from.
Pour the Vaseline on the cotton wool.
Pack that down, put fresh cotton wool on top and melt more Vaseline.
Keep repeating until your container is full of Vaseline-impregnated cotton wool.
Cotton wool is an excellent tinder. The Vaseline helps repel water and extends the burning time. You will only need a little, which can be teased out before ignition.
Wrap a little piece of Vaselined cotton wool around a stick before igniting, and then use this like a match/candle. You may also split the end of a stick to hold the cotton wool, or handle it with twig “chopsticks”.
As you use up the Vaselined cotton wool, you replace it in the container with “found tinder”.
“Found tinder” is anything that you find in the field that can be used as tinder.
It includes thistle or dandelion down, clothing fibres, scrap paper, woodworm dust, sawdust, shredded spent matchsticks, bird down, belly button fluff and many other materials.
Some outdoorsmen prefer to have a second container for found tinder.
You want to keep your found tinder dry. Dry it near a campfire or in the sunlight when opportunity presents itself.

Candles are a useful addition to a fire kit.
A small bundle of birthday cake candles is nicely compact.
Whenever you strike a match, use it to light a candle. If your fire won’t light with the first attempt with a lighter, use the lighter to light a candle, and use the candle for a sustained source of ignition.
If your tinder will not light after five seconds of exposure to a lighter flame, try something else.
Candles therefore conserve your supplies of matches or lighter fuel.

The final item I would include in the fire kit is a magnifying lens.
This can be used for fire-starting on sunny days. “The only fire-starter on Earth that isn’t!”
Your compass probably has a magnifying lens on its baseplate but it is worth including an additional one in the fire kit.
I recently picked up five Fresnel lenses for £1.99, less than the price some companies charge for one, so shop around.
I confess I have not started any fires with these yet since as soon as they arrived the sun disappeared!
The suggestions below is a fairly basic but capable fire kit:
•A pair of lighters.
• One or two tinder containers.
• Vaseline-soaked cotton wool.
• Bundle of birthday candles.
• Fresnel lens.
Store your fire kit in a sealable waterproof plastic bag. Double-bagging is a good precaution.
Some of you will note that this kit does not contain some of the more traditional survival fire-starting items.
There are no matches or storm matches because I believe the lighters are more space efficient. A single disposable lighter is estimated to be equivalent to a hundred books of matches, so it is obvious which is preferable. If you have matches, however, by all means use them!
Conventional matches may be made more water-resistant by pouring molten candle wax over them. You may dip them individually but it is easier create a block of wax with the matches encased. The alternative idea of painting the matchheads in clear nail varnish may also be encountered, but will be more time consuming than the wax method. You will need to scrape the wax or varnish from the head before attempting to light them.
Matches may be packed into any wide-mouthed, suitably sized plastic bottle, so long as it is watertight. Do not forget to include the striking surface!
There is no ferro-rod and steel in this kit because the lighters can do the same job and are more effective.
Lighting fires with a ferro-rod is fun, and you should know how to do it. But when things get serious, have a couple of lighters handy.
If you already have a ferro-rod, carry it. Always prudent to have a backup.
I have a waterproof match container that came with a ferro-rod glued to the side. Unfortunately the container is a little too narrow to make a good tinder carrier.
If you do not have a ferro-rod and striker, invest in some lighters and the other items first.
Shop around for a ferro-rod and steel if you want one. Prices vary considerably and some will cost you the same as a score of lighters!