Gripping a sword seems like the simplest aspect of fencing. You put the sword in your hand, wrap your fingers around the hilt and then you’re done, right? This is mostly true in many cases, but for some weapons this is not the case. Kenjutsu practitioners rotate the palms over the hilt, Meyer uses a dynamic and relaxed grip when wielding his longsword, and saber fencers familiar with the work of Alfred Hutton will be accustomed to placing their thumb up the back of the grip when holding the sword. When gripping the dussack in Joachim Meyer’s system this is also true. Though I often see people sparring with the dussack using a simple “hammer grip” on the hilt, I believe this is incorrect. Looking at the various images of fencing with the dussack in Joachim Meyer’s work (as well as others), I think it is worth noting that many of us are doing it incorrectly.

Look at this image here:

Look at the fencer on the left in the position of Eber (the Boar). Notice that the grip is pretty simple, but that the thumb is placed on the back of the hilt. The fencer in Zornhut doesn’t seem to have this grip, so maybe it’s a one-off.

Or not… Notice that all of these fencers have their thumbs on the backs of their hilts. In fact, of Meyer’s nine dussack guards, only the Watch and Zornhut do not have this quality (Bastey is debatable, as there is no image of Bastey present in the manuscript, unless of course we assume that image A is depicting it). Perhaps this is a style-specific detail that is unique to Joachim Meyer’s method of using the dussack.

This one is from Andre Paurnfeyndt.

From the famous Paulus Hector Mair.

This image comes from Franz Isaac Brun.

And this image is taken from Heinrich von Gunterrodt’s treatise.

Notice that in these images we have guards, cuts and parries all well represented, and nearly all of them use the thumb-grip. While this might seem like a small detail to make such a big deal about, I would argue that it is actually something worth looking in to. Each detail of an image used in a fencing treatise can tell us something about how the art is done. Many of these works bankrupted the people who created them, and so it seems to me that every detail is worth considering. The way the blade is gripped or the way a fencer stands can tell us something about how we should grip the blade or stand in a guard when fencing with some fighting principles, and something as simple as the grip can be drastically important.

But what does this grip change? For one, moving from a “hammer grip” to a thumb-grip immediately brings the point of the sword more in line with the forearm. This achieves essentially the same result as putting the index finger over the guard when using an arming sword or a sidesword/rapier. This allows for finer point control, but also allows the fencer using this grip to put pressure forward when cutting, rather than the blade being pushed back against the inside of the palm when making contact. Given that many of the secondary cuts with the dussack (Blendthauw, Brummerhauw, Krumphauw, etc.) are done with the short edge (crooked edge), this makes sense. The fine control of the tip of the blade leaves less of a gap when turning the dussack to make those cuts. See here:

Admittedly this video is a piece of crap, as I filmed it just as I wrote this, but notice the difference? Later I will be doing a better video with a partner to test this hypothesis, but I think I will at least leave it as a decent possibility.

What about weapons similar to the dussack? What about the messer and falchion; do fechtmeisters use that grip for those weapons.

Not so much in Codex Wallerstein, it seems. Although it is important to point out that the art leaves something to be desired in the way of detail, so maybe not the best example.

Looking at Talhoffer, we find something interesting:

See the thumb? Interesting…

What about Leckuchner?

There it is. Originally I thought it might have something to do with the passing of time; maybe older treatises like Wallerstein used a different grip, while later masters changed their style. This doesn’t seem to be borne out, though, as the section of Wallerstein that makes use of the falchion/messer dates to around the same time as Leckuchner’s treatise. it could be possible that this gripping detail is unique to the Liechtenauer tradition, as Wallerstein seems to sit outside of that group of teachings, and that may explain why that grip is not used. It is also entirely possible that the artist(s) for that work were just awful. More research to be done, I suppose.

Based on what I’ve seen, it seems like the thumb grip was just something that German fencers did with larger, tip heavy curved blades. It’s a small detail, sure…and maybe I rambled a bit there, but this sort of thing interests me. I think there’s always something to be learned by looking over even the smallest details of any treatise, and this is the detail that stuck with me.

Cheers.