As many of you know, I’m passionate about sharing the incredible fencing system of I.33 with as many people as possible. One thing I’ve learned over the years is that everyone absorbs information differently. Some people thrive in structured classes, others enjoy diving into books or blog posts, and some learn best through hands-on experiences. Finding new and engaging ways to connect people with I.33 has become one of my favorite challenges.
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Today, I’m thrilled to announce Custodia / Obsesseo—an educational card game designed to make learning the core techniques of I.33 fun, approachable, and easy to pick up. Whether you're a seasoned HEMA practitioner or someone discovering the manuscript for the first time, the game encourages players to recognize guards, understand counters, and reinforce the tactical relationships that make I.33 such a fascinating fencing tradition.

You can purchase it on the game crafter now using the button below:

The artwork, created by the incredibly talented Ashley White, reimagines the manuscript's iconic illustrations in a vibrant, cartoon-inspired style that is both charming and instantly recognizable. Every card has been carefully designed not only to look great, but also to teach. By clearly highlighting the techniques each action counters according to the manuscript, Custodia / Obsesseo transforms every game into a learning experience while still delivering fast-paced, competitive fun.
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The game features an engaging solo mode as well as a 1v1 mode, so whether you are killing time between pools at your next tournament or looking for an engaging HEMA-themed game to teach others about historical fencing, be sure to get yourself a copy of Custodia / Obsesseo!

Want to get the most out of your game and own a 3D printer? Be sure to pick up the travel case STL files!

Huge shout out to Jerod Dunn on making this case a reality!

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Have you ever wondered about fencing and martial combat during the Revolutionary War? Are you looking for a way to blend your historical fencing enthusiasm with the celebration of the United States’ two-hundred and fiftieth birthday? Then, do I have the blog post for you!
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Today, we will be traveling back in time and exploring what martial skills a non-commissioned officer of the Continental Army might have learned around the time of the Revolution. This blog post is combined with a fun workshop we did at our fencing club to celebrate the Fourth of July. So, grab your tricorn hats and take a swig of switchel as we explore the history and martial arts around the Revolutionary War!

I want to give a huge shoutout to our photographer, Zane Kupper, and to Purpleheart Armoury for providing the gear for this workshop! Also, This workshop would not have been possible Without the help of Kyle Norris who did the deep-dive on the sabre system we selected for this workshop. Thank you all for helping this workshop come to life!

The day is July 4th, 1779. The Battle of Lexington and Concord was over four years ago, and the newly formed country you find yourself serving is entrenched in a bloody war. The Continental Army has seen its fair share of victories from the Battle of Trenton to the surrender of General Burgoyne at Saratoga. However, the war seems far from over. The British still occupy New York City and have recently captured Savannah. On top of that, a nation that was once an enemy is now seen as an ally and provides pivotal training and supplies to your fledgling nation’s army. After a couple of years of service, you have earned the rank of non-commissioned officer (NCO). With your new commission, you are studying the Valley Forge system in your Blue Book for your roles and responsibilities. You are expected to ensure the officers’ commands were done properly, drills were performed satisfactorily, and that your men maintain order during battle. On top of that, there are new gear requirements:

​While you were expecting a new uniform based on the new standards, the reality is that the new uniforms are delayed, so you don a red sash over your old uniform to signify your new rank. However, the rank does come with the carrying of a sword, a new piece of equipment to you… and even more weight on the battlefield.

While less impactful than the bayonet, swords also still proved to be effective tools on the battlefield. There are many accounts of officers raising their swords to rally troops and to signal their command during combat. Furthermore, the light dragoons, a mounted light cavalry unit fielded by the United States and commanded by Col. Benjamin Tallmadge, participated in several cavalry actions with swords as their primary weapon  (Tallmadge, 1858).

Due to difficulties in production and supply, swords were not as uniform for the Continental Army as later European armies would be in periods more commonly studied in the historical fencing. Based on the catalog presented in Swords and Blades of the American Revolution by George G. Neumann, popular swords of the conflict on both sides were hangers, hunting swords or cuttoes, short sabres, spadroons, small swords, basket-hilted swords, sabers, and naval cutlasses. George Washington famously carried a silver and ivory-hilted cuttoe in the later years of the Revolutionary War (Mount Vernon, 2026). To celebrate the Fourth of July, Purpleheart Armoury has created a synthetic trainer modeled off of one of George Washington's hangers for all those interested in experimenting with this type of sword.

​Admittedly, the days of swordsmanship ruling the battlefield were long in the past by the Revolutionary War. However, officers and aristocrats still found themselves dueling to defend their honor, though, admittedly, more often with pistols in the United States than with swords (Neumann, 1973). Furthermore, like their European counterparts, the American colonies also had their own fair share of fencing guilds. The techniques of the various colonial fencing schools varied, and it is difficult to say which sources were being used. Boston featured a fencing school that printed advice on the backsword that appears to overlap with the techniques of William Hope and Donald McBane, but it is not stated definitively enough to suggest those were the systems being taught (Miller, 2009).

So perhaps as a newly commissioned NCO, you have been provided with a sabre and seek ways to learn how to use it. Swordsmanship is not part of the regular exercise and drills of the Continental Army, so you have to seek other avenues for learning fencing. You could learn from the other officers in the camp or potentially attend a fencing school in a city you are near.

For the workshop, we chose to focus on Thomas Page’s The Use of the Broad Sword, published in 1746. This system was relatively new and may have been taught around the time of the Revolutionary War, and it may have been based on Scottish swordsmanship observed during the Jacobite Rebellion. That war led to many British military lessons and tactics, which were then applied in the French and Indian War, during which many colonists learned the art of war before the Revolutionary War.

​What was most interesting to us about Thomas Page’s sabre was the differences between it and the systems we primarily study, Henry Angelo. The main differences come from Page’s under-utilization of the lunge compared to Henry Angelo. This results in more passing steps being used, which come with guards designed for left or right leg forward, as opposed to Angelo’s dominant leg forward guards.

While the sword was more of a symbol of status, the bayonet was a critical battlefield tool during the Revolutionary War, and as an NCO picked from the ranks of soldiers, you would be very familiar with the musket and bayonet. At the Battle of Bunker Hill, the British army successfully took the Massachusetts militia’s position using bayonet charges (National Park Services, 2026). This engagement highlighted the colonists’ lack of bayonets, which led to the Continental Congress in February of 1776, forming a committee to contract the creation of muskets and bayonets for the United Colonies (Continental Congress, 1776).

One of the major changes Steuben and the Valley Forge system brought was the professional use of bayonet for combat. Steuben believed that “The American soldier, never having used this arm, had no faith in it, and never used it but to roast his beefsteak, and indeed often left it at home” (Landrigan, 2026). Bayonet drilling became a major feature in the Continental Army after 1778. This was a major shift and began to give them the tools needed to meet the British Army on the field.

​Joseph Plumb Martin’s memoirs from the Revolutionary War give us a rather unique perspective on the bayonet. Martin was a soldier, as opposed to an officer, in the Continental Army, so his primary melee weapon was the bayonet, as opposed to the sword, like Col. Benjamin Tallmadge discussed previously. He participated in the battle of Stony Point, one of the most decisive U.S victories in the war, which critically relied on bayonet for key action (Maloy, 2026). Martin describes how light infantry entered Stony Point with fixed bayonets and their muskets unloaded, as to not have an incident that would alert the enemy army of their raid (Martin, 1830). His memoirs also features less exciting jobs as a soldier with bayonet such as standing guard at camp.

​Interestingly, Bayonet techniques were not formally viewed from the individual perspective until the 19th century, such as the techniques taught in the Bayonet Exercise Manual for the U.S Army in 1852. That manual includes specific guards and parries that an individual could use in a bayonet fight (United States War Department, 1852). Instead, bayonet combat was looked at as a psychological tool for breaking armies. This led to most bayonet exercises at the time of the Revolutionary War to focus on maintaining formation while marching with a bayonet, as well as how to strike from the line with the bayonet. Some drills developed by the British prior to the war, such as the Culloden Drill, included instructions on how to attack when in an infantry line and in charge. In that instance, the drill was to attack to the right rather than the left, striking an opponent’s side not covered by a shield, a tactic commonly seen during the Jacobite Rebellion (Ritchie, 2023). These types of drills also sometimes included advice to not lunge with the bayonet because a lunge would put the attacker out of formation, resulting in them being uncovered or defended by the soldiers on their left or right.

I hope you enjoyed this little deep dive into the history surrounding the arms of NCO’s for the Continental Army of the Revolutionary War. What fascinated me about the sources surrounding this manuscript was the contrasts with later-period sources on the same weapons. It highlights the shifting of warfare that was experienced after the Napoleonic Wars and also the shifts the United States had to make to achieve victory in its independence.

Most importantly, the club had fun!

Thus concludes the memoirs of Col. Benjamin Tallmadge. What a beautiful and interesting look into the mind of someone not interested in dueling, a rare perspective than generally seen in the sources that inform historical fencing.

Happy Fourth of July, everyone! Have a fun and safe weekend, and I’ll see you for my next blog post.

The day has finally come. My Interpretation of I.33 has been published and is available at Purpleheart Armoury (USA), Fallen Rook Publishing (UK), and Zwaard en Volk (NL). 

So today, as a bonus treat for all the Funky Buckler readers, I wanted to give you all a behind-the-scenes look at the book. This was a project I started back in 2021, and it was quite the journey to get here.

But before we get started, I want to give a huge thank you to this community for the love and support I have received for the book. From reviewers who helped refine my communication on techniques to people who have gone out of their way to promote the book, I am so grateful to have all of you in my life, and I could not have done this without you!

​There are over three hundred pictures in my book. Some of the original manuscript, some of my students, and I are replicating the images. In the early drafts of the book, I wanted to really capture the essence of the manuscript, so we took our pictures in costume.

​However, like any good book, it was saved by the publisher. Keith Farrell was quick to point out that large tunics hide the body and the technique, so he highly recommended we pivot to wearing modern HEMA clothing. Also fun fact, I could not find medieval shoes in my size so in this picture, my shoes are stuffed with newspaper. You would not know it but I am on the balls of my feet with my feet up in those shoes!

The costumes did not go to waste, though! My costume became the basis for my historical castle shows for I.33 and has since become a regular staple for me in exploring how the system feels in period-authentic clothing. That research, while not as explicit in the book, helped fuel much of my interpretation.

Through the years, I have been fortunate to discuss I.33 with people from all over the globe. What I always found fascinating was how we would read the same text and see the same images, but come to different conclusions about the actions. It led me to think about how a small difference could bleed into other techniques throughout our interpretations.

So, in the book, I had editor feedback to include my thoughts on others’ interpretations and how their differences could affect my book's interpretation. I was hesitant at first, but I do feel it gave the project a more academic feel.

However, I never wanted it to read like a callout. To me, it is just two individuals passionate about the sources who want to teach others. So, I reached out to a few of them and gave them a heads-up that I was writing a book and was referencing their content. This led to great discussions and really highlighted the scholarly nature of our community.

So I started to use the term “The I.33 Scholars” in the book. The idea being that all of us trying to teach from I.33 are not the priest, but rather the scholar. Always learning. There are so many names I could list regarding this . 33 Scholars I have traded notes with, but I want to give a special shout-out to David Rawlings, Anthony Buonomo, Roland Warzecha, Herbert Schmidt, Federico Malagutti, Stephen Hand, Bettina Miriam Sehner, and Michael Lammer, who all have gone out of their way to interpret this beautiful source and publicly state their opinions on it. To me, this is a team effort, and while we may disagree on interpretation, we are all joined by a common goal.
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Any reference to other interpretations in my book is not a call-out but a shout-out, and I am happy to spotlight your names in my book to give you the flowers you deserve for the work you have put in as well.

Our interpretation of I.33 will continue to grow as more people define their interpretations. However, there is still room to explore teaching aids and tools to help students learn the techniques and counters of the system. Another well-known HEMA researcher who has also published books dipped their toes into other paper-based media to teach the sources they were passionate about.
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Maybe I will do the same, and maybe more news on that will be coming in July of this year. Stay tuned!