More Stick stuff.

My stick got put through its paces last night.

Holy crap did it ever. We spent the night learning a two-man fighting staff form. We learned the whole thing in one night. Lots of fun; but holy crap was it an intimidating activity. The fact of the matter is that with a fighting form; whether it's two-person staff, two-person empty-hand, two person staff vs. bench or crutches vs. bench, or two person weapon vs. empty hand; if you screw up, you get hit. No punches are pulled, so if you get hit, you get hit hard. About two months ago, I got a nasty whack across my right eyebrow. I had a pretty ugly black eye for a while; and my right eyebrow was split; but I definitely learned not to screw up that part of the form again.

I also learned how to suture myself up; which, believe it or not, is actualy pretty hard when you're doing it by looking in a hand mirror. I didn't even get a scar from it (well, I did, but it was super-tiny; my eyebrow hides it).

Anyhow, as those who have been reading previous postings have read; I now have a stick of my own. A nice, white waxwood staff. Light, springy; and, as it turns out, strong.

This thing has a thickness of about an inch at its widest point; and it didn't even twitch at some of the more nasty blows it received. Especially when my buddy was bringing his staff down in a blow which would have made a very nice indentation in my skull. The staff took it. I was positive it was gonna splinter like a toothpick, but it barely even bowed at it.

So, yeah, this is pretty strong stuff.

A lot stronger, it turns out, than my fingers. I took a nasty whack on my left hand. Not hard enough to actually break my fingers; but close. It hurt like a sonuvabitch.

All in all, more successful than a lot of the attempts at staffwork I've done lately.

And it still doesn't have a name. For the moment I'm just calling it "stick." Maybe I'll think of something eventually.