Question About SEA Armor

[fearn]

Hi Kriss,

There's one other thing about double-weapon fighting: the length of the weapons. Chinese double jians are typically shorter than single-jians, and that's also apparently the case with the "case of rapiers" (two rapiers instead of rapier and main gauche).

There are a couple (well, three) problems with using two long weapons. One is that they can snag each other--your opponent can force one blade to foul the other, for instance. A bigger problem is that you're horribly exposed on the inside. If someone slips inside your guard, what are you going to hit him with? If you have a dagger in your off hand, this isn't a problem, but with two long swords, you're in trouble. That's apparently why the double rapier technique never took off the way rapier and main gauche, or buckler, or cloak did.

A third problem, when dealing with armor, is that one hand may simply not be enough to power the weapon through the armor. In that case (for instance, with a katana), you're sacrificing power for complexity, but if none of your attacks cause damage, you're in trouble.

I'd point out that double short swords (or knives) are quite a bit more common, from wing chun to escrima and kali. I'd also point out that double-wakizashi techniques still exist, and they didn't come from Musashi's lineage.

F