Waster - Use

Use

Historically, students and soldiers used wasters as inexpensive and expendable training tools. The cost of high quality steel weapons, especially swords, would have made them a poor choice for practice weapons. Constant training would fatigue the blade, rendering it far less effective and reliable as a weapon. To prevent the destruction of an expensive weapon and to permit the necessary training and sparring intrinsic to any martial art, wooden practice weapons were created.

Today, especially in the reconstruction of historical European martial arts, wasters have experienced renewed interest. Wasters provide a number of benefits to the modern practitioner, many of which would have applied to historic trainees as well. The wood construction coupled with unsharpened edges and blunted tip, crossguard, and pommel of wooden swords provides a safer alternative to practicing with a sharpened or unsharpened steel weapon. Wasters do not cut flesh, but provide a decidedly blunt impact. The lower cost of ownership in comparison to a steel weapon of the same variety makes the waster a much more affordable and expendable tool. Many modern wasters are fashioned to replicate the original weapon with accuracy, including functional integral sword parts. This functionality allows the wooden weapon to be handled more like its steel counterpart.

Wasters are not without their faults. The all wooden construction usually makes wasters somewhat lighter and less balanced than steel weapons. The difference of material properties between wood and steel creates a difference in performance when training and sparring. The wood wasters tend to recoil from strong contact with other wasters as may occur in a strong parry or absetzen, a phenomenon colloquially referred to as "waster bounce". Steel weapons do not display this attribute to the same extent, usually binding and sliding with minimal rebound instead. The use of wood with rounded edges makes wasters considerably safer for practice than a steel weapon, but does not make them totally safe. Strong cuts or thrusts to vulnerable body parts during sparring may lead to significant injury to the individual. Wasters provide a safer training experience than steel weapons at the cost of authenticity.

Modern historical martial arts reconstruction organizations, including the Association for Renaissance Martial Arts and the Chicago Swordplay Guild use wasters as the primary training tool of new practitioners. Wasters are used to learn, practice, and later spar with a variety of techniques including cuts, slices, thrusts and wards. During flourishes, a waster may be substituted for a blunt sword, especially if a lack of experience is a concern. Participants may also use wasters against a pell, a training pole roughly simulating a human target. As the individual becomes more skilled, they will begin to use blunt steel weapons which offer a more realistic set of properties in comparison with a sharpened metal blade.

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