A Long Winter’s Night — Ascent to Spring Edition: Of Form and Function
Posted By Randy on February 24, 2019
The blade is but the tooth and claw
That Nature never gave,
So Man no longer hides in trees,
Nor cowers in a cave.
Why scrabble for what lives beneath
The rocks and rotting logs?
Take blade, go forth with Comrades bold,
And Trusty Hunting Dogs!
~ Tooth and Claw ~
(Excerpt)
If you’ve ever spent any time watching a butcher converting parts of an animal into meat for consumption, or a fishmonger doing the same with a denizen of the deep, you’ll immediately realize how little effort is being expended in the undertaking. This is because the knife is a True Tool, and for clarity, I’ll give you this as I have previously defined it —
“A real Tool then must be a True force multiplier – thus a True Tool, and to be that it must fit into one or more vital categories including, but not limited to, making a heretofore impossible job possible, a hard job easier, a risky job safer. In addition, it must conform to the following absolutes, each of which is so important that the order of their presentation is of no consequence –
- It must be maintainable.
- Its durability and longevity must not constitute a built-in guarantee of waste.
- Life with it must be superior to life without it.
- Neither its use, nor the job it was devised to perform, shall represent the creation of one problem while solving another.
- It must not represent the lesser of two or more evils.
- For any given task, it must provide a dividend in the form of time expended, materials used, and/or energy required.
- It must exist to do a job that is necessary within the context of sound ecological and ergonomic practice.
“In short, it must serve within the balanced Economy of Nature, and not the wasteful “economy” of dollars and cents in which the soothing buzzword “sustainable” really describes business practices that will permit continued rates of growth and consumption – business as usual – with a smaller discernible impact. For any organism, getting through a day requires expenditure of energy and resources for the purpose of acquiring more energy and resources. Simply living in place requires at least a “break even” on that balance, but a higher return is required if the organism must hunt and catch its prey, for reproduction, the rearing of young, migration, overwintering, or hibernation. Everything in Nature is about efficiency and balance, which is why life is, first and foremost, an exercise in energy management ….” ~ Worldly Wisdom Wednesday – Tools
So, the power of the blade lies, and has always lain, in the keenness of its point and edge, demanding nothing of its wielder beyond the physicality required to grip its handle, and the mentality to guide its point and edge with skill and sensitivity. This is really as simple as simple gets, and I see many similarities to interactions between a skilled Dog Handler and his or her working Dog. Every generation though, seems hell bent on reinventing the basics as though those old ways couldn’t possibly represent any kind of complete and reality tested methodology that shouldn’t be rebuilt from zero in this age of enlightenment, or even tossed out wholesale as irrelevantly unworthy of study.
In considering such conceit, my mind returns first to the words of David Tresemer, in this case on the subject of hand mowing with that most perfect implement, the scythe —
“… for every ‘rule’ or tradition I have for scythe design and technique, somebody someplace else did it a little differently and got the grass cut.”
And secondly, still in consideration of the same implement —
“Besides, even if one knew the exact number of stems per area, real life is often more colourful than an arbitrary classification based on head counts. Are the stems young and juicy, or are they old and tangled? Equally important, how sharp is your blade?” ~ Scythe Connection
How sharp indeed!
It all comes down, you see, to a melding of Tool design with the technique required to employ it in accomplishing a goal, all with an understanding that the curves defining outcome versus energy expenditure have to find that perfect crossing point, and the more work that can be accomplished by savvy melding of implement design with method of application, the better.
In this matter of tool and wielder, in concert by design and technique. In my article To the Point, I wrote of an elderly Swordsman and revealed in part —
“Imagine the scene – here was the wizened ancient draped in an ill fitting fencing jacket and crowned by a battered mask supplied by the hosting club, standing en garde against bemedalled champions in the full flower of their youthful vigour, and soundly defeating them one by one. At first, each could be seen to attribute being so effortlessly bested as coming out of respect for the old fellow, and a desire to avoid doing him harm. Predictably, each escalated his approach only to find he was hit all the sooner by a man who seemed barely to move – indeed barely able to move. After action discussions brought forward theories that this man was somehow blessed with superhuman speed, for not a single attack had succeeded in striking him. Out of this came a valuable lesson …
“What the modern young Turks described in my example were perceiving as speed on the part of their aged antagonist was, in truth, a combination of impeccable technique, long practiced and ingrained, coupled with tested confidence and its resultant sang-froid. The reality born of exactly the right move to exactly the right degree at exactly the right moment to accomplish the result desired. These are the actions of a man schooled in the art of delivering death, so that to him, even in a match to five “hits”, only the first hit counts, and every one must be treated as both the first and last hit. With no grasp of this, as each young athlete felt himself touched in spite of his best efforts, his ego inevitably drove him progressively further from the Truth with each blow received.”
In a beautiful portrayal of Art imitating Life, the television series Game of Thrones expressed this sentiment in the scene wherein young Arya Stark meets her “Dancing Master” —
All this leads me up to a gem of Wisdom put forth a few days ago by my Esteemed Friend, Master at Arms James Keating, and I’ll leave it to him to “dance” us out, as it were.
“The heaviness shown by some styles of knife fighting are a concern. It’s that attempt to display powerful knife fighting methods as better than others. So a gullible public buys into the game and gets lead astray through glamor and glory. The light, wispy & fast ‘let the knife do the work’ methods are reality. Speed is life in a knife fight. Good knife fighting is done at a speed that is difficult to even perceive. The heavy styles look good, they look powerfully dangerous! Looks can deceive. And heavy actions are slower, they surely will get you cut. The other lighter methods are faster, like lightning’s own spirit! SWISH & cut! Done & over! One looks movie-like, wide strokes and deep stances, strength cutting actions. Other one looks dancer-like, light- always moving. Speaking silently w/a steel tongue in the universal language all men and all beast speak.
“Flicky quicky is way more tricky in a real knife fight. It’s attack or counter! A respect getter and a believable distraction from which to exploit the enemy. (O’mighty Bladed magicians of the fight, are you listening?) The knife is the epitome of the one finger death touch (Dim mak) – a good medium sized knife can replace the finger and offer a fast, lethal martial means of realizing a real ‘touch of death’ skill. Dim Mak becomes Dim Whack.
“Back to HEAVY styles of knife work versus the LIGHTER methods of blade play. Heavy motion styles often telegraph too much. To generate the power – they telegraph. It’s a knife for fuck’s sake! When people talk to me of strength and power shit in knife fighting I am like WTF? The KNIFE, that is your ‘POWER’ – a fine, razor edge is your authority. Other than grip strength there is no reason to not let the knife do the work. Like why attempt to FORCE the knife into the target? Just swiftly caress them, a medium energy stroke, a number one angle – what more do you need?
“Oh yeah, I get it. This is the era of the 20 rd. magazine for the pistol. This is the era of the glory-killers, knifemen who see glory instead of jail time and death. Get real! One Bullet. One cut. One thrust! If you can’t do this on demand then you better learn. If you DO get it ~ then get fucking better at it. Speed, deception & the power – that power is the weapon (not you) Weapons ARE power! So now bring it all to an apex of combined skill. Then set the cruise control on your training dashboard and keep it at that level.
“Your timing gets better w/ age, work on timing. Sophisticate your understanding of timing and learn to apply its magic. Develop the live hand, therein lies the secret path to victory. Stop uneconomical movements of all type. Train to develop quick twitch muscle command for blinding speed. Get some footwork into the mix (cardio) and understand targets and the reason behind the knife man’s CUT and THRUST doctrine of reality.” ~ Bug Blog by Master at Arms James A. Keating, 21 February 2019
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