The Woodsman's Journal Online: 2025

Sunday, October 12, 2025

And Now for Something Completely Different - The Hands Have It, Part One ©

Author’s Note – I’m in the process of opening a fencing academy and I’m writing a syllabus and text to complement the lessons. Time is, unfortunately, limited and sometimes I don’t have time to get all the writing I want done, to meet deadlines. Hopefully, even though this is not part of my core focus for this blog, you will find it at least amusing, if not interesting.

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

“Nails up” ... “Palms down” ... Quarte or is it Carte? ... First, Second, Third and Fourth Position? ... What does it all mean?!

Fencing masters of the late 18^th through the 19^th centuries often assumed that you knew what they were speaking of, and if you didn’t, it can be hard to decipher their writings and understand the correct position that your hand must take when attacking or defending with a sword. But when I first started exploring historic sword fighting of the late 18^th and early 19^th centuries, pre-internet, some forty some years ago, questions like these were hard to answer. It took me months, and quite a few inter-library loan requests from collections world-wide, to answer these questions.

There are between six and eight hand positions possible in sword fighting, whether you are using a foil, a rapier or a broadsword. These positions are all defined by the positions of your fingernails, palms and forearms.

The early Italian system, taught by Camillo Agrippa, of Milan, and the later system taught by Maestro Luigi Barbasetti, both had four primary hand positions and two intermediate hand positions.

The four hand positions move in a circle from First Position to Fourth Positions as you turn your fingernails, palm and forearm to face upward (supinate), or you turn your palm and forearm to face downward (pronate).

Hand Positions Two, Three and Four

Positions Two, Three and Four are used to make cuts or to form the Outside, Inside or Medium Guard.

In the Second Position your sword hand is pronated and to the outside, with the palm of the sword hand down. In this hand position the blade’s “true edge”, or cutting edge, faces to the outside line.

In the Third Position your sword hand is neutral, neither in a pronated or supinated position and below. The third hand position was called “terza” and is made with a knuckles-down position of the sword hand, the true edge facing downwards. This is a hand position half-way between the Second and the Forth position and is the least tiring of the positions.

In the fourth position or “quarta”, your sword hand is supinated, and to the outside, with the palm of the sword hand up.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read part two where discuss Hand Positions One, Five and Six.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Barbasetti, Luigi; La Scherma di Spada, [Milano, Tipografia Alessandro Gattinoni, 1902], https://drive.google.com/file/d/16bQcbQ1jND0EDbKTS1jSPpaLK0UEth1H/view, accessed October 11, 2025

Barbasetti, Luigi; The Art of the Sabre and Épeé, [Ithaca, New York, The Cayuga Press, 1936], https://medievalswordmanship.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/the-art-of-the-sabre-and-the-epee.pdf, accessed October 11, 2025

Leoni, Tom; “A Brief Glossary of Italian Rapier Concepts”, [©2002], https://www.thearma.org/rapierglossary.htm#:~:text=%E2%80%9Cperspective%E2%80%9D).-,Prima%20(First).,is%20particularly%20effective%20against%20cuts, accessed October 11, 2025

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Hippity Hoppity...Wood Frog!©

Author’s note -- I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource! To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE. Thank you and Happy Trails!

Have you ever seen a Wood frog? They are hard to see among the fallen leaves and ferns of their forest floor homes. I’ve only ever seen them twice in the woods, myself.

But what is cool about these woodland amphibians is not that they are so good at camouflage or that they can vary their color, becoming lighter or darker, but that they can freeze completely solid during the winter, thaw and “wake” up in the spring and hop away, no problem!

Wood Frogs, lithobates sylvaticus also known as Rana sylvatica, are common woodland frogs, found from northern Georgia and northeastern Canada in the east to Alaska and southern British Columbia in the west. They range throughout the boreal forests of Canada and the Appalachian forests of the United States and are the most widely distributed frog in Alaska. But unlike most ranids, or “true frogs”, which spend most of their lives near or in water, wood frogs are dwellers of the forest floor.

And just like other northern frogs that become dormant during the cold season buried in the soil or leaf litter, wood frogs are freeze-tolerant amphibians that can tolerate the freezing of their blood and other tissues. But the wood frog has the most northern distribution of any amphibian on the planet. During the winter, wood frogs may remain frozen solid for over 190 days in northern and interior Alaska where winter temperature routinely fall below -40 °F (-40 °C). Research has shown that the wood frogs in Alaska and northern Canada have a higher freeze tolerance than the wood frogs in more southern regions.

This cold-blooded amphibian can survive these cruel winter temperatures because it can freeze solid, turning into a “frogsicle”, in an incredible example of cryobiosis -- the metabolic ability to freeze and thaw to survive adverse conditions. Wood frogs exhibit selective freezing and typically have between 35-45%, and sometimes up to 65%, of the water in their body turned into ice, and this includes the water in its skin, body cavity and eyes. The wood frog’s heart and lungs stop, its blood doesn’t flow, and its remaining unfrozen cells enter a dormant state. Water is forced out the frog’s cells into the interstitial spaces between them and out of its organs where it can safely crystallize around mineral and bacterial “seeds” collected in the frog’s body for just this purpose.

Wood frogs can overwinter like this because in preparing for winter it accumulates urea, a component of urine, in its tissues and glycogen is converted to glucose in large quantities in its liver. The glucose is then stored within the muscle and heart cells. This helps prevent intracellular ice formation that would otherwise destroy the cells. Sugary glucose bonds to the remaining water molecules to prevent them from escaping the cells, thereby avoiding desiccation through osmotic shrinkage.

The glucose and urea, act as cryoprotectants and give the frog its ability to freeze almost completely solid during the winter and thaw out in the spring with minimal cellular damage. These agents mix with water and lower the freezing temperature inside the cells, protecting them from damage. And the urea has an extra role in suppressing the frog’s metabolism.

Wood frogs can return to normal body functioning within 24 hours of thawing and can become active as soon as temperatures rise above freezing. This makes them among the first cold blooded creatures to “wake” in the spring, this gives them sole access to vernal or spring pools for breeding. These small ponds or pools of water are collections of melted snow or spring rain that usually drain away or evaporate by summer. The brief nature of these seasonal pools prevents fish or other predators from taking up residence in them, which makes them ideal nurseries for vulnerable wood frog tadpoles, and these early “waking” wood frogs have almost no competition for this critical resource.

So next time you are out in the northern woodlands and forest, look for this amazing amphibian, but good luck finding them hidden in the leaf litter.

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE. Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube. If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site. I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Knight, Jen; “Wood Frogs”, Appalachian Wildlife Refuge, https://thelaurelofasheville.com/outdoors/conservation/wood-frogs/, accessed October 4, 2025

Larson, D. J., Middle, L., Vu, H., Zhang, W., Serianni, A. S., Duman, J., & Barnes, B. M.; “Wood frog adaptations to overwintering in Alaska: New limits to freezing tolerance”, Journal of Experimental Biology, [ 2014, vol. 217, no. 12] pages 2193 to 2200

https://cob.silverchair-cdn.com/cob/content_public/journal/jeb/217/12/10.1242_jeb.101931/6/2193.pdf?Expires=1762641107&Signature=nHZrHXdvVMPnZN4rEOHiwWk7IwOhXjp~7by6oN8x0ePkMTR~9suCYdtUYBH6g7l8ATe8rLwSmNfUn2NPk0n8iVcWf01Yhn7rix~BRnFwvBkiViuMdL~ooQb9085yX6TL7ZgXupDRj9wtpRn2gRMt3Sm2pYLBl61RGhRFlSMvDTWDh9W~NWo93HggDOUvOhwiaqeIr3ZuLiqsa50qWdiFN4uE6h64TSpk9qbhJHrrc6Pcfvk7NTL2IbbKtl3QE8gDaJA3JmETM8qm2KdcWON-eVrlT23SYdemYryr7XqXjxaXQ0TIsMz0qscB227QQKSjvvovsKZa5KBMShnkIWX37w__&Key-Pair-Id=APKAIE5G5CRDK6RD3PGA, accessed October 4, 2025

Petersen, Lee; “Wood Frog – Lithobates sylvaticus”, August 18, 2020, https://www.lwpetersen.com/alaska-wildlife/wood-frog-lithobates-sylvaticus/#:~:text=Classification-,Identification,larger%20and%20more%20brightly%20colored, accessed October 4, 2025

Tabler, Dave; “The frog who freezes solid for the winter”, February 7, 2019, https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2019/02/the-frog-who-freezes-solid-for-the-winter.html, accessed October 4, 2025

Sunday, September 21, 2025

The Practical Swordsman’s Compendium, Getting Started – Part Two©

Moulinets have been recommended by sword masters since the days of Giacomo di Grassi, in 1570. Moulinets, from the French word for ‘little mill’, is an action where your arm is extended straight and the sword point is whirled around in a circle. In France, during the 18^th and 19^th centuries, the term moulinet was normally applied to the left and the right circling of the sword around the head, however English masters of the time, extended the definition to all circling of the point. Moulinets are also sometimes called Schwingung, Molinellos, Compasses, Circles or Figure-of-Eight’s. And they can be divided into three kinds: horizontal, vertical and diagonal moulinets, diagonal moulinets describes a sideways figure-eight, Ꝏ. This provides for six moulinets, two horizontals, right and left, and four vertical or diagonal moulinets, up and down.

Horizontal Moulinets are also known as ‘Circles’ and could be
made from either the right or left side of the fencer.

Diagonal Moulinets, can be either ascending or descending and could be made from either the right or left side of the fencer. A moulinet, which delivers a cut with the true-edge from above downwards, is a descending moulinet. A moulinet which delivers a cut with the true-edge from below upwards, is an ascending moulinet.

Vertical Moulinets are simply a modification of either a
horizontal or diagonal moulinet.⁶

In this movement your wrist exactly performs this figure ∞, which I strongly recommend to beginners the frequent practice of, as…all the cuts and disengagements are a part of it; and it will render the wrist pliant and flexible, which is an indispensable requisite in order to become a master of your weapon.

Captain G. Sinclair, Highland Officer, Anti-Pugilism, or the science of defences, Lesson XVI (London; J. Aitkin, 1790)

The purpose of a moulinet is fourfold:

As an exercise to strengthen and accustom the arm and wrist in
the performance of the cuts and in leading the edge.

As a means of disengaging prior to a cut.

To gather momentum and “add strength to the cut”.

And lastly, as a method of recovering to a guard position after an attack, where your cut has not met with sufficient resistance
to stop its forward motion.

From want of habit in the exercise of the wrist in common occupations of life, the weight of the sword will at first be found extremely irksome.

Major John Gaspard Le Marchant, Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry, (London; T. Egerton, 1796) p. 3

AS an EXERCISE

Moulinets will both strengthen and “supple the joints of the arm and wrist”. Le Marchant, in Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry, 1796, wrote that every aspiring swordsman should acquire a “suppleness in the wrist and shoulder, as without this indispensable requisite, no person can become a good swordsman”.

Additionally moulinets will “give dexterity in handling and whirling the blade” and will “afford facility in leading the edge”.

To begin practicing the moulinets, you should stand on the directing line in the second position, nine to ten feet from the wall, with his right foot on the line, pointing towards the target, on guard with a medium guard. You should use a cane, a single stick, or a wooden sword.

For this exercise, the moulinets should be performed with only the wrist and not with the elbow or the shoulder.

The moulinets, should be performed slowly at first, to ensure accuracy of movement and precision in directing the true edge. After the movements have become accurate and precise, the speed of the exercise should be increased and each moulinet should be repeated 10 to 12 times.

After practicing each of the moulinets separately; moulinets one and two and moulinets three and four should be combined into two continuous motions: a descending and an ascending ‘figure-of-eight’. These two figures of eights should be repeated 10 to 12 times each.

After practicing the two figures of eights, the swordsman should combine all six motions into one continuous movement. During this exercise, the point of the sword should continue from the conclusion of one moulinet to the beginning of the next, following the dotted lines, as shown on the target above.

The difference, between executing the six moulinets separately, versus executing them in one continuous motion “consists in not resorting to any particular guard after each moulinet”.^.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Practical Swordsman’s Compendium, Getting Started – Part Three”, where we will continue talking about using moulinets, or ‘windmills’ to practice basic movements, control, and exercise your sword arm.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Alfred Hutton, Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise on the Sabre (London; William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1889), p.29

Barbasetti, Luigi; The Art of the Sabre and Épée, (Ithaca, NY; E. P. Dutton & Co., 1936) p. 170

Burton, Richard F.; A New System of Swordsmanship For Infantry [London; William Clowes and Sons, Ltd., 1876], http://ejmas.com/jnc/jncart_burtonnewsword_0200.htm, accessed September 20, 2025

Gaspard Le Marchant, John; Rules and Regulations for the Sword Exercise of the Cavalry. Illustrated with Twenty-nine Engravings, Volume 1, [Dublin, R. E. Mercier and Co., 1797], p. 14 to 23, https://books.google.com/books?id=l05GddLDJqMC&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false, accessed September 20, 2025

Wayne, H. C.; Exercise For The Broadsword, Sabre, Cut and Thrust, and Stick, (Washington; Gideon and Co., 1849) p. 16

Mathewson, Thomas; Fencing Familiarized; Or a New Treatise on the Art of the Scotch Broad Sword, [London, W. Cowdroy, 1805], p. 2, https://books.google.com/books?id=8aC1N-nc5ysC&pg=PA25&dq=Thomas+Mathewson,+(Fencing+Familiarized,+1805)&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjI9MGk2-iPAxXdlokEHcyWMkIQ6AF6BAgGEAM#v=onepage&q=Thomas%20Mathewson%2C%20(Fencing%20Familiarized%2C%201805)&f=false, accessed September 20, 2025

Rowlandson, Thomas; “Half Circle Guard, Medium Guard”, [Henry Angelo, Publisher, September 1, 1798], The Metropolitan Museum, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/739522, accessed September 20, 2025

Taylor, John; Art of Defence on Foot, [London, C. Roworth, 1804], p. 22, https://books.googleusercontent.com/books/content?req=AKW5Qacg3Tbtrh1V0R5MPVboTAInEUPys5Sv8Z-fH5NKl6sWk22c8e6ohDy-E5Tl81yE_YOQZhDkazecPqRG1NfSc47Wlbocluo-DVfuwkY4jUPHymodlJwKU4sbxYUd-DwIWHO3qjHFrXw0EIYO6Pr6AlVQBszbaqUk0kzmo_FinUSlfjqrE_fWZPWdyxcLI6QGyJBckg1nNJgYcnAYcSnmQLVY5qDVSyyU7SiLuFJZ5uTWDXi8xekyoQWVB6dFZiTdF7eZsYx9PkRGFu3l1hui8nPyx8MSMQ, accessed September 20, 2025

Thompson, Christopher; Lannaireachd: Gaelic Swordsmanship, [Ceilidh House, 2001] p. 63

Wagner, Paul and Rector, Mark; Highland Broadsword: Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship, [Chivalry Bookshelf, Union City CA. 2004], p 172

Sunday, September 14, 2025

Getting Started

Swordsmanship is simple, but it is not easy. The basics of the ‘art of defence’ are Guards, also known as engaging - guards, stances or wards, Footwork, Attacks and Defenses. By learning and mastering these basics you will be able to develop your skills as a swordsman. This will take practice, discipline and time, as with anything, you won’t become an expert overnight.

“It must, nevertheless, be remembered that, to attain any sort of proficiency with the sword, a long apprenticeship must be served”.

Broad-Sword and Single-Stick, by R. G. Allanson-Winn and C. Phillipps-Wolley, George Bell & Sons , London, 1898 p. 32

To begin your study of the ‘Art of Defence’, you will need to acquire certain aides and training tools, with which to practice and develop your skills.

The Target

The first thing that a student of swordsmanship should do to commence their practice is to construct a practice target. A circular target about 14 inches in diameter, with a vertical line showing the ‘plane of combat’, drawn from top to bottom and another drawn from left to right across the diameter of the target to form a ‘cross’. This ‘cross’ forms a ‘fencing line’ and represents the high, low, inside and outside lines of attack. Draw diagonal lines running from the lower left edge to the upper right edge and from the lower right edge to the upper left edge, to form an ‘X’. The target should be hung on the wall with its center at shoulder level. Directly below the center of the target, a straight line should be drawn on the floor from the wall and at a right angle to it. This line is called the ‘Directing Line’ and should be nine to ten feet long.

The eight lines on the target represent all the possible lines of attack and the cuts associated with those lines. While there are eight lines, perfectly straight downward or upward cuts are seldom made, the cuts almost always being made obliquely, which is why early sword masters referred to the six cuts or, sometimes seven cuts, if a straight downward cut was being taught.

Best Form of Weapon for Ordinary Practice

Sword masters of the 18th and 19th centuries thought that all initial exercises were best practiced with a real sword in hand, to prevent the student from forming bad habits and to accustom them to the full weight of the weapon that they would eventually wielding in a potentially life or death situation. Since practicing sparring and ‘loose-play’, with real weapons or even with bated or blunted swords would be extremely dangerous, sword masters taught that for sparring, a student should use either a single stick or a waster.

However today, most of us do not have a battle ready sword just lying about, so practicing with a cane is the next best alternative to start with. So, to begin your training you will need to equip yourself with either a wooden dowel or a cane, which were historically known as either a ‘single stick’ or ‘cudgel’.

Using a cane or stick as a weapon is as old as humanity, and during the 18th and 19th centuries would have been known as practicing cudgel-play. Practicing with a wooden dowel or cane is invaluable way for the beginner to begin practicing basic movements, control, and is a valuable exercise for your sword arm. According to The Sword Exercise Arranged for Military Instruction, you will want to obtain a cane or simply a stick “of about ¾ to 1 inch in diameter, and 3 ½ or 4 feet long”.

Gripping the Cane

Henry Constantine Wayne wrote in The Sword Exercise Arranged for Military Instruction, that the gripe should “be held with the fingers clenched round the gripe, sufficiently fast to prevent the blade wavering, the thumb being either placed on the back or toward the left...The chief object is to hold the gripe securely with the forefinger and thumb...relaxing or contracting the other fingers according to its direction”..

The method of holding your cane or stick depends entirely upon its weight. If you are using a light cane weighing about one and a half pounds (about .70 kg), you may easily hold it with your thumb on the back of the hilt, as in Fig. 14. When your thumb is held on the back of the grip, with a light cane, you will have an advantage in speed when guarding and when making short quick cuts and points.

The “sharp” or “true” edge, would be opposite your thumb if you encircled the grip with your fingers and extended your thumb straight along the back of the hilt, bringing your middle knuckles, the second joints of your fingers, and the ‘true-edge’ into the same line. This is the hand position of third in fourth.

However, when gripping your cane in this manner and guarding with a hanging guard (Fig. 15), your thumb is likely to be sprained, especially if the opposing cane meets the lower half of your cane nearest its end, at a right angle.

Similarly, when using a heavier cane or stick, weighing about two and a half pounds (1.15 kg), keeping your thumb on the back of the grip, could again lead to a sprained thumb, so grip your cane as shown in Figure 17.

When you encircle the grip, with your thumb, then the “sharp” or “true” edge, will be in line with your middle knuckles, the second joints of your fingers.

Don’t forget to come back next week and read “The Practical Swordsman’s Compendium, Getting Started – Part Two”, where we will talk about using moulinets, or windmills’ to practice basic movements, control, and exercise your sword arm.

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

Sources

Allanson-Winn, R. G. and Phillipps-Wolley, C.; Broad-Sword and Single-Stick, [George Bell & Sons, London, 18908, page 7, https://books.google.com/books?id=rNYLickaShIC&pg=PA51&dq=%22Broad-Sword+and+Single-Stick%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiZkM2j0NaPAxV_jIkEHd1wCccQ6AF6BAgLEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Broad-Sword%20and%20Single-Stick%22&f=false, accessed September 13, 2025

Hutton, Alfred; Cold Steel: A Practical Treatise On The Sabre, [William Clowes and Sons, Limited, London; 1889], page 12, https://amhebatesta.fr/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/atelier-sabre-hutton-1889-cold-steel.pdf, accessed September 13, 2025

Miklaszewski, Jerzy; “Starzewski treatise ‘On Fencing’ in the eyes of his era”, 2021, https://www.academia.edu/45608547/Starzewski_treatise_On_Fencing_in_the_eyes_of_his_era, accessed September 13, 2025

O‘Rourke, Matthew J.; A New System of Sword Exercise, [J. Gray & Co., New York, 1872] page 48 & 68

United States Army; Provisional Regulations for Saber Exercise, [Government Printing Office, Washington, 1907], page10-11

Wagner, Paul; and Rector, Mark, edited by; Highland Broadsword: Five Manuals of Scottish Regimental Swordsmanship, [Chivalry Bookshelf, 2004], page 66.

Wayne, Henry C.; The Sword Exercise Arranged for Military Instruction, [Gideon and Co, Washington, 1850] page 3 & 7, https://books.google.com/books?id=zS8PAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA12&dq=%22The+Sword+Exercises+Arranged+for+Military+Instruction%22+1850%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj9iJn23daPAxVNk4kEHZKeCjIQ6AF6BAgHEAM#v=onepage&q=%22The%20Sword%20Exercises%20Arranged%20for%20Military%20Instruction%22%201850%22&f=false, accessed September 13, 2025

About Me

I live near Buffalo, New York and have more than 25 years of experience in the outdoors. I enjoy being in the wilderness, paddling a canoe or exploring the woods, when I am not researching survival, woodcraft, camping skills or life on the Old Northwest Frontier of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. I am a published author and I have been a guide for Birchbark Expeditions and an Outdoor Skills trainer for the Boy Scouts since 2014. I am also a martial artist, having studied several different combat arts over the past 30 years. Currently, I am the author of The Woodsman’s Journal Online and BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.

The Woodsman's Journal Online

Pages

Sunday, October 12, 2025

And Now for Something Completely Different - The Hands Have It, Part One ©

Sunday, October 5, 2025

Hippity Hoppity...Wood Frog!©

Sunday, September 21, 2025

The Practical Swordsman’s Compendium, Getting Started – Part Two©

Sunday, September 14, 2025

The Practical Swordsman’s Compendium, Getting Started – Part One©

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