Longsword, Chapter 4: The Cuts

[1] About the cuts

Chapter 4

One now advances to the art and boundless knightly exercise itself, namely the cuts, which are truly a principal part of fencing (as such was mentioned at the beginning): how many of them there are, what each one is, and how it is formed and should be completed.

It is necessary to state something here at the outset, merely as a reminder to the friendly reader: as there is a large difference between fencing with the sword in our times and how it was used by our ancestors and the ancients, I will describe at this point only that which is currently customary, and as much as belongs to the sword and the cuts. However, I want to discuss much that is relevant to the older usage separately in its proper place, as they fenced with both sharp cuts and thrusts.

[2] There are two different types of cuts which are now relevant to the sword, the straight and inverted cuts. I name “the straight cuts” those which are cut against an opponent with the long edge and extended arms, of which there are four: High, Wrath, Middle, and Low Cut. All others originate from these, and there is nothing that can be conceived of or invented in the world that cannot properly be understood as belonging to one of them. They are also deservedly called the Main or Principal Cuts.

[3] The inverted cuts are those in which the fencer inverts the hands with the sword in the cut, so that the fencer does not hit their opponent with the full or long edge but instead with the half edge, flat, or with a corner, as this occurs using the Glancing, Short, Crown, Squinter, Crooked, Crosswise, Rebound, Obscured, Twisting, Wrist, Plummet, and Change Cut.

[4] Because these originate from the four cuts mentioned above, they are called Derivative Cuts.

[5] Five cuts, which originate from and are selected from these two types, are called the Master Cuts, not because whoever can complete these correctly is quickly named a master of this art, but instead because from them originate all correct, skilled techniques which would well befit a master to know. And whoever can correctly fence and use them is considered a skilled fencer, because all Master Sequences are concealed within them and fencers cannot do without them. These are the Wrath, Crooked, Crosswise, Squinter, and Hairline Cut.

[6] I now want to show in an orderly, sequential way how they all should be formed, and I will discuss the straight cuts first, among which the first is the High Cut.

[7] High Cut

The High Cut is a simple cut straight from above toward your counterpart’s head at the part, for which reason it is also called the Hairline Cut.

[8] Wrath Cut

The Wrath Cut is an oblique cut from your right shoulder toward your counterpart’s left ear, or through their face and chest (obliquely, as shown by the two lines which cross through the upright line and cross each other). This is the strongest of all, because within it lies all the force and virility of the fencer who is fighting and fencing against their enemy. For this reason, it was also called the Fighting Cut or the Father Strike by the ancients. (You will find more later about imaginary lines, etc.)

[9] Middle Cut or Crossing Cut

The Middle or Crossing Cut can be formed in almost all ways like the Wrath Cut, except for this difference: that is, while the Wrath Cut is completed obliquely, this one is completed across, as can be seen in the crossing line (designated with the two letters G and C). You will subsequently find these lines in the Dusack [Section].

[10] Low Cut

You form this one like this: use cuts so that you move into the right Ox (which was discussed in the immediately-preceding chapter), and as soon as you can reach the counterfencer, step and cut across (upward from below) at their left arm, so that you arrive with the cross-guard high over your head. Thus, you have completed it. Regarding this, observe the small tenants on the [right] side in the Figure with the B.

[11] Squinter Cut

Squinter Cut is also a High Cut, but it is so named because it is cut together with a small skewed bit, and is formed like this: position yourself into the Guard of the Day or Wrath (regarding this, see the third chapter) with your left foot forward. If an opponent cuts at you, then cut to counter; however, in the strike, turn your short edge against their strike and hit equally with them (with inverted hands). Step with your right foot well to their left side and move your head quickly with [the cut]. Thus, you have executed it correctly, and you stand like the larger scene on the left side in the next Figure indicated with G.

[12] Crooked Cut

This cut is completed like this: stand in the Wrath Guard with the left foot forward. If your opponent cuts at you, then step with your right foot well toward their left side and out of their strike. Cut with the long edge and crossed hands counter to their cut or between their head and blade, across at their hands, and let the blade shoot well past their arms (such as can be seen in the upper tenants on the right in the Figure with the D).

[13] Crosswise [Cut]

Comport yourself like this for the Crosswise Cut: in the Onset, position yourself in the Wrath Guard to the right (regarding this, see the previous chapter). Place your left foot forward and hold your sword at your right shoulder (as if you wanted to execute a Wrath Cut). If your opponent then cuts at you from the Day or from above, then simultaneously cut with the half edge across from below toward their cut. Maintain your crossguard high over your head, so that your head is blocked, and step well to their left side simultaneously with the cut. Thus you counteract [their cut] and you hit the weapons with one another (like the two tenants on the left side indicate in the Figure with the H).

How you would complete this Crosswise Cut on the left: you should direct yourself in the work toward their right side, with the exception that you should hit at their right with the long edge.

[14] Short Cut

This is a secret move through and is executed like this: when your opponent cuts at you from above, position yourself as if you wanted to bind on their sword with a Crooked Cut (that is, with the short edge). Pass under it instead and quickly move through under their sword. Strike with the short edge and crossed arms over their right arm and at their head. Thus, you have caught their sword with the long edge, and completed the Short Cut. At the end of the same, you stand like the small tenant on the right side of the upper left scene indicate (which Figure is designated with the letter B).

[15] Glancing Cut

The Glancing Cut is completed in this way: if a fencer cuts toward you from above, then hit with reversed or inverted hands against their strike at the upper left opening. Allow your sword blade to glance off with the inverted flat down their blade so that the short edge hits the head in the sweeping motion over the hands.

[16] Rebound Cut

This one has two forms: the first is called the single, the second the double. The single is executed like this: if your counterpart cuts at you from above, then oppose their strike with a Crosswise Cut. As soon as it glances off, pull your sword around your head and hit at their ear from your left with the outward, inverted flat—but [do it] so that the sword rebounds back again (as the large scene shows on the right side in Figure K). Pull the rebounded sweeping movement back around your head, cut with the Crosswise Cut at the left, then it is complete.

[17] Execute the double like this: as soon as your counterpart brings their sword into the air to work in the Onset, position yourself in the right Ox (regarding this, see the immediately-preceding chapter), pull the sword around your head and cut strongly at their blade from your right with the inward flat (so that in the hit, your pommel touches [you] low on the forearm bone), as can be seen in the larger portrait on the left in the Figure designated as I. In the strike, step with your right foot well around their left and as soon as it glances off or touches, jerk it upward and Indesly rip it outward and toward the left side. Quickly strike back around at the same opening from the outside and with inverted hands (namely, with the reversed or inverted flat). If it strongly rebounds around in another rebounding hit, then you have executed it correctly.

[18] Obscured Cut

Bind to your opponent on their sword from your right. In the bind, twist through below toward their left side using the hilt or grip. If your counterpart now wants to swipe to follow this twisting, then quickly flick the Weak (that is, the front end) from your right toward their left at their head with crossed hands. Quickly twist back through, or rip out toward your left side with the half edge. Thus, you have completed the Obscured Cut. This Obscured Cut is executed in many ways; more about this in later sequences.

[19] Twisting Cut

The Twisting Cut is carried out in the following configuration: if your counterpart cuts at you from above, cut at their sword from below, from your left with crossed hands (so that your pommel peeks out from under your right arm). As soon as it glances off, immediately step out with your left foot away from them (well on your left side). Pull your sword’s pommel back up into a circle toward your left side, so that your long edge touches their head in a sweeping movement over their right arm (and behind their blade) or [you] hit over their right arm. (Regarding this, view the large portrait on the right in the following Figure designated with the H.) And, following this, immediately let your sword fly out next to your side and quickly cut back counter to this through the cross. This is how it is executed.

[20] Crown Cut

This is conducted like this: when you stand in Plow (or otherwise fence up through a stance from below—this was discussed in the preceding chapter) and your counterpart cuts at you from above, then lift the crossguard horizontally, catch their strike in the air on your ricasso or crossguard, and, as soon as it glances off, quickly thrust the pommel upward and hit them behind their blade on the head using the half edge. Thus, you have completed the Crown Cut correctly.

[21] Wrist Cut

This one is named after the body part towards which it is directed. Complete it like this: after the first attack, when you have arrived under your counterfencer’s sword with both hands high over your head and they hold their head between both arms, cut with the Crosswise Cut under their sword pommel, upward at their wrists or at the joint between their hand and arm. If they hold their hands too high, then cut from below upward at the knot [of bone] by the elbow (using the abovementioned Crosswise Cut). This is how it is carried out.

[22] Plummet Cut

Attention should be granted to the fact that there is a small difference between the [Plummet Cut] and the [Hairline Cut]. Although this cut is a High Cut, it is named the Plummet Cut because, in the cut through, it always Plummets headlong from above so that the point moves toward the counterpart’s face in Ox. It is mostly used in the approach or in the Onset.

[23] Change Cut

The Change Cut is nothing more than changing, with cuts, from one side to the other, from above to below and back again, in front of your opponent in order to mislead them.

[24] Flick or Tagging Contact

A flick or a tagging contact is almost a concept, one in which the cuts are not cut but instead are flicked. They are completed in the middle of the work or when the work is complete, whenever you have a suitable opportunity. Namely, you allow the weapon to snap from above, from both sides, or from below at your counterpart with the flat or outermost part of the blade, or you flick over or under their blade in a fluid motion.

[25] This is a brief summary of the actual description of the cuts, as they usually occur in sword fencing. Though the same are described here with such strikes, steps, and cuts that they can only be easily used on one side and manner, yet they can be fenced on both sides, so I wanted to remind the gracious reader about this here. That is: with the same configuration, each of the preceding cuts, as is established and is executed from one side, can also be completed from the other neatly and suitably. I have then only skipped this in good faith because the extensive repetition and repeated description of the same is excessive.

[26] Because there may be questions about many of the cuts and their usage—why they occur, when everything is sufficiently understood in the four Main Cuts as well as the Squinter (in which the other inverted cuts are contained)—I wanted to admonish the kind reader of this art that such cuts (as described previously) are all apprehended in the five Master Cuts since they originate from the same. However, they were actually invented as another division of the art, and named with their different names, by those learned in this art for more diligent and useful examination so that the art, which is hidden and wrapped in another, can be more readily and more easily understood, grasped, and considered in different ways.