Welcome to my world!
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to fight with swords, ride horses and joust, blacksmith, make armor, swords and knives? I did, and now I do.
My interests in these things began at a young age. By the time I was 13 I had read all the King Arthur stories I could find. I was playing Dungeons and Dragons and reading all the fantasy that was available. What I really wanted to do was fight with swords. Oh I bruised my knuckles with wooden swords, PVC pipe swords, got stabbed a few times with the old cheap cavalry sabers we got at the Army surplus store. (we weren’t not smart enough to even grind off the points) I wanted to learn more about armor and swords. Rural Mississippi, surprisingly, didn’t have a large stock of books on swords, armor, and Knights.
We did have a good Karate class, lots of woods and trees, ERB’s John Carter- Warlord of Mars, an active imagination and big dreams.
NEW CLASS —Starting January
Introduction to Medieval Swordsmanship
I joined the SCA as soon as I got to college and found it. (I had known about it for years, but didn’t know how to find them) I started learning to make armor, the hard way. I had a new set of armor for every event, it kind of looked liked the pictures even. I joined the fencing club as well. I read my first fencing manuals (Silver’s Paradoxes and Brief Instructions) my second year in college and tried to apply them to SCA combat. The ideas worked even if the techniques didn’t. I was skinny and quick and “fly out quickly” seemed like a good idea most of the time. And so it went from there. Learning more, trying more, doing more. The advent of the Internet allowed me to meet people who were interested in a deeper understanding of the martial art of swordfighting. I started jousting a few years ago, and have made the commitment to become a very good rider. I like to teach what I have spent the last 30 years learning.
My name is Brian Scott Wilson, and I must be addicted to all of this. I have made it my life. I have met people from all over the world with similar interests and shared my knowledge with them and learned from them. I suspect that I will continue to do so for a long time.
If you are also interested, and you’d like to learn, then maybe I can help.
Scott Wilson, a materials engineer by trade, is the proprietor of Darkwood Armory, a company specializing in high quality swords and armor for practitioners of medieval and renaissance martial arts, theater, and re-enactment since 1996. He is the director of the Southern Academy of Swordsmanship and Western Martial Arts, and a long standing martial artist and re-enactor. Scott’s primary interest is in the practical application of these historical techniques in fighting situations.