Band of Iron Lions

One thing you can often see Wolfgang wielding is his Viking center boss shield. The shield shown here is overbuilt to be used over time, but historically would have been far lighter. It was held in one hand with control being focused on the wrist. It was able to be braced by the body or held above the head to protect from a variety of attacks. In the event it was necessary, it was also an effective offensive weapon. In this particular bout, Wolfgang and Ser Cedric earned a mutual point.

Here at the Band of Iron Lions, we train all of our students on the German Longsword first. The longsword is both offense and defense. We start all of our students off with techniques developed by Johannes Leichtenhauer including his five master strikes and four guards. This video shows two of our Germans Thomas and Micheal, a tournament worthy performance!

The smallsword developed from the rapier as a lighter, smaller, and more decorated and fashionable, but still functional, version of the rapier. This was mainly a dueling weapon. Here we have our Hurenweibel fighting our French crusader knight, Sir Daniel in a quick paced, action packed duel!

A cinquada is a short-lived, unique, Italian dagger that means “five finger’s dagger”. These pieces were more like “savage garden trowels” than usable instruments for fighting, but had a substantial, elaborately decorated blade that a rich man could carry on his hip. They were only in production for about 40 years before the ones made became wall hangers. The one seen here is more of an economy three fingered dagger. It’s shape, however, because of its heft, makes it exceptionally adept at parrying incoming strikes.

War hammers came in many shapes and sizes, but were largely developed as plate armor was developed as a way to destroy it. This specific warhammer is handheld and could be used by an infantryman against a knight to either tear into plate with its beak, or crush it with the hammer side as we can see our German knight Micheal doing in this video against a coconut.