The Sword Guy Podcast

For transcriptions and more detailed show notes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-221-your-own-personal-necromancer-with-josh-wiest

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Joshua Wiest is an instructor at Forge Fencing in Durham, North Carolina, focusing on the fighting systems of masters Achilles Marozzo, Giovanni dall’Aggochie, Antonio Manciolino, and Camillo Palladini. He’s also a successful tournament fencer, and host of the historical martial arts podcast L’Arte dell’Armi.

You may remember Josh from episode 90 of this podcast, “A Whole Lot of Tasty Bolognese, with Josh Wiest”. We’re delighted to have Josh back on the show to continue the discussion of Bolognese fencing, specifically, was there a Bolognese tradition? How can we be certain, and is this the correct name for it?

In this in-depth conversation we cover the historical context of Bologna in the 15th Century, the important families and their influence on the fencing tradition. This includes the significance of necromancy, chivalric academies, English kings, a pirate Pope, the sack of Rome, political intrigue, feuds and much more besides!

For all the links, photos and further information, click here: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-221-your-own-personal-necromancer-with-josh-wiest

For transcriptions and more detailed show notes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-220-coaching-coaches-with-nathan-weston 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Nathan Weston is a lifelong martial artist and fencer, who discovered HEMA in his thirties and never looked back. He teaches KDF longsword (and assorted other things) at Athena School of Arms in Boston. he’s in charge of instructor training for the HEMA Alliance, where he’s developed a program based on the principles of ecological dynamics. As part of this program, he runs instructor development workshops both online and in person. He also competes regularly in a few different weapons (and occasionally wrestling).

Nathan has ended up running a couple of clubs, so we talk about the personality type required to start and run a club.

We then talk about how the ecological approach to martial arts training gives students a lot more credit for what they’re capable of than traditional approaches. We go on to discuss lots of aspects of fencing training, including whether it’s better to stuff a sock with another sock or a golf ball and hit someone with it.

We also discuss how to teach people to become coaches, and whether online teaching works for this.

Useful links:

HEMA Alliance instructor training: https://www.hemaalliance.com/instructor-certification-general-information

People can also contact Nathan directly at nathan.weston@hemaalliance.com

Rob Gray's books: https://perceptionaction.com/book/ "How We Learn to Move" is probably the one to start with.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-219-forging-swords-in-the-steel-city-with-katie-mccats 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

In this episode of The Sword Guy Podcast, Guy is with Katie McCats, who is a Sword Maker, historical cutler and co-founder of Crucible Armoury in Sheffield, England, possibly England's youngest armoury company.

Katie got into making swords through a traineeship at Lancaster Armoury, after leaving a career in the NHS, and along with fellow trainee Horatio, they set up Crucible Armoury in Sheffield, with Katie doing the blades and Horatio doing the armour.

We talk about making different types of crazy swords, running a profitable business, how blades were made before power tools, and the dream business of creating an armoury within a pub (or a pub within an armoury).

We have lots of pictures for you to accompany this episode! See them here: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-219-forging-swords-in-the-steel-city-with-katie-mccats 

Links to Crucible Armoury here: https://linktr.ee/CrucibleArmoury

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-218-physics-rainbows-and-3d-printing-with-stephan-eickelmann 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr Stephan Eickelmann is the founder, president and head instructor of Schildwache Potsdam and a key organiser behind events such as Swords of the Renaissance (where you'll find Guy every year) and the International Torneo di Spada League. Alongside Stephan’s work in historical martial arts, he is a physicist with a PhD in experimental soft matter and interface physics, and a university researcher and teacher.

Stefan discovered historical martial arts during his PhD, and was drawn to its flat hierarchies, research driven mindset and emphasis on shared inquiry. His approach to teaching focuses on enabling independent thinking rather than transmitting authority. He is also involved in equipment design, open source safety development and building inclusive, responsibility driven club and event cultures.

We chat about how historical fencing is where teaching, making, research, safety and community all come together.

Our conversation also touches on the challenges of balancing traditional martial arts practices with modern safety and inclusivity. We discuss the impact of how small gestures, like painting nails and club t-shirts, create a more relaxed and inclusive environment in class.

For transcriptions and more detailed shownotes, please go to: https://swordschool.shop/blogs/podcast/episode-217-capoferro-ai-and-the-missing-zero-with-dr-marc-heimann 

To support the show, come join the Patrons at  https://www.patreon.com/theswordguy

Dr Marc Heimann is a Philosopher of Technology in Hamburg whose work formalizes the intersection of continental logic and the operational mechanics of large language models. (It’ll all become clear in the episode.)

We discuss the ethical implications of AI in enhancing human capabilities versus diminishing them, particularly for students. We also delve into the relationship between Freudian language theory and modern AI.

Despite its current limitations, there’s also a very interesting potential for AI use in historical martial arts research, where we could use it to provide new insights without modern biases.

Don't worry, there'll be plenty of swordy stuff mixed in with the AI! Marc is also a practicing historical martial artist, and we connected over Capoferro’s theory of tempo.

Books and papers mentioned in the episode:

The History of Zero: The Nothing That Is (Kaplan, 1999).



Kaplan, Robert. 1999. The Nothing That Is: A Natural History of Zero. Oxford University Press.

The Impetus Theory: Maier, Anneliese (1940). Die Impetustheorie Der Scholastik. While this isn't in English, it is widely considered by specialists to be the definitive work on the subject.


Maier, Anneliese. 1940. Die Impetustheorie Der Scholastik. A. Schroll & Co.

Engineering Margins & Philosophy: Research on the "problem of margins" (Eckert et al., 2019) and the broader philosophy of engineering (Aslaksen, 2018; Boon, 2021).


Eckert, Claudia, Ola Isaksson, and Chris Earl. 2019. “Design Margins: A Hidden Issue in Industry.” Design Science https://doi.org/10.1017/dsj.2019.7.

Aslaksen, Eric W. 2018. “An Engineer’s Approach to the Philosophy of Engineering.” In Philosophy of Engineering, East and West, edited by Carl Mitcham, Bocong LI, Byron Newberry, and Baichun ZHANG. Springer International Publishing.

Boon, Mieke. 2021. “Scientific Methodology in the Engineering Sciences.” In The Routledge Handbook of the Philosophy of Engineering, edited by Diane P. Michelfelder and Neelke Doorn. Routledge Handbooks in Philosophy. Taylor & Francis Group.

Freud & AI: Marc’s paper that goes into much greater detail regarding transformer models and what it means for psychoanalysis. 


Heimann, Marc. 2026. “Freudian AI?: Transformer Models as a Proof of Concept for a Central Hypothesis in Freudian Theory.” Lacunae: APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis, no. 29.

The Stillness of the Sword: Tempo as a logic of time: Marc Heimann’s paper explores the concepts of tempo and stillness in the works of 16th- and 17th-century fencing masters Fabris, Capo Ferro, and Agrippa.