2007 Event Schedule
12:30 – 1:00 Arrival and greeting
1:00 – 1:10 Formal Welcome
1:15 – 2:00 Custom Design Today by OlliN Sword Design
2:15 – 2:45 Infantry combat weapons/medical demo by Guild of Saint Michael
3:00 – 3:30 Swords in Medieval Culture by Bob Charron
3:45 – 5:00 Cuttings (mats and noodles)
5:15 – 6:00 Light Dinner & Closing Ongoing Events

Ongoing Events
Guilde of Saint Michael Original Arms Cache
OlliN Sword Design product line
Attendee Show & Tell

Summary of the Day by Matthew Grzybowski
We arrived at the location around 10:45 to start setting up. We meet Chris Last and Richard Kakouris as we pulled in and got a quick tour of the grounds which apart from being a full time residence is a full operational herb farm. They were nice enough to let us use the grounds and one of the green houses for the event. Mark, Shane Allee, and his wife Julie helped to load in out display pieces as Chris, Richard, and I went over the details for the day. Right around 12:30 the guests started to arrive. It was fantastic to see so many people show up and mill around the green house looking at the different pieces that people had brought as well as the weapon cache from GSM and OlliN's product line. We started pretty much right on time with intros and a quick rundown of the day's events. We then all headed down to the presentation area which was a concrete foundation of an old barn we had set up chairs and some tables.

We then launch into our presentation, Custom Design Today. Our presentation talked about factors that influence sword design today, market trends, and the design process at OlliN. We has examples of renderings (thanks Tom!), sword blanks, sample waxes, etc. I was surprised by the number of questions we had after the presentation which was wonderful to see.

Next we moved on to the Infantry combat weapons/medical demo by Chris Last and Richard Kakouris. A fascinating demonstration of how wounds where treated on the battlefield during medieval combat. As you can see from the pictures below, even with the cantaloupe it is still a pretty graphic and shocking presentation. What I took from this was, don't let the enemy hit you...seriously.

Lastly was a sword demonstration/lecture on Swords in Medieval Culture by Bob Charron. This was a wonderful and provocative lecture on medieval education and thought and how it relates to martial arts. His discussion about centered around his research on Fiore dei Liberi and his demonstration, with Chris as his assistant was amazing. Truly a treat.

We finished up the day with hotdog and cutting tameshigiri mats. It was a lot of fun to see everyone out there with a variety of different swords and weapons taking a crack at the mats. I think the mats we a little on the damp side as some of the thinner mats we a challenge to cut. But fun seemed to be had by all.

I was a very rewarding day with lots of good conversation and informative lectures. I think we held very true to our mission for holding this event. I want to send out a big THANK YOU for everyone who attended and participated in the summit. Thanks to Chris and Richard for the space and ideas about the event. Thanks to Bob for his wonderful lecture. Thank you, thank you, thank you! Chris and I have starting rolling around ideas for next year. There seems to be a real interest in this style of event. We'll see where our planning takes us. If you have ideas and/or comments for next years meeting please feel free to send me an email and we'll talk.