About Nicolaes Petter

[Magnus Hagelberg]

interesting.
Renieer and I had a chat about this. And it seems that it's Oxel. Perhapps it should be interpreted differently, or the picture should be read differently.. But the translation is correct.

Side-note on this : Achsel in german means "armpit" as well, but may also mean the humerus area, or the shoulder, which is more consistent with the picture.
I don't know about dutch, but the ambiguation may be the same, or, as Petter was german, ùaybe he used the word in his german sense.

Nice to see a plausible explanation. I wonder if there could have been changes in the meaning of the words in the region as well?

[Reinier]

In modern Dutch at least, 'oksel' really means armpit and nothing else.

Next time we meet, we should go through this bit of the treatise together! (whenever that may be )

R

[Magnus Hagelberg]

I do believe you on that Renier.. and it seems to have been the same mening at least 80 years ago too (if the old Dutch lady I took care of was a good source)

but why make such an error?

[Reinier]

I remember not agreeing with you that there was an error - I just don't remember the exact discussion we had (to me, that all makes sense) - hence my proposal to work through this together next time we meet.

R

[Bulot]

Apparently, according to XVIIIth century dictionaries "Oksel" could mean both "armpit" and "gusset".

the gusset is a piece of fabric sewn under the arm of a shirt (at the armpit), and it may very well be what is depicted.
To be fair though, this is nit-picking. Having tried this several times with different people and different gripping locations on the arm, it works just the same. I'd be very happy to go through Petter's play with any of you next time we meet

[Jerome Blanes]

Thanks for the warm welcome.
Oksel or oxsel simply means armpit in 17th century language and in modern language.
Sorry I can't answer every question right now, but everyting brought up here is discussed in the forthcoming book, including the glass breaking and all that.
More soon...
Regards,
Jerome
(http://www.jeromeblanes.blogspot.com)

[Phil C]

Just in case anyone doubt's Petter's advice to kick a knife from someone's hand here's it working in the real world!
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/cus ... ore/nPNfq/

[Jerome Blanes]

Just in case anyone doubt's Petter's advice to kick a knife from someone's hand here's it working in the real world!
http://www.wftv.com/news/news/local/cus ... ore/nPNfq/

So funny. I always tell students that slapping a knife out off an attackers hand AND kicking a knife out off an attackers hand is very unlikely to work in real life and should therefore not be focussed on. Then I show them and somehow it always works. Hilarious. Everybody laughs and then I continue telling them that that would probably not happen in a real situation in which the guy is pumped with adrenaline and has a tight grip on the knife. But honestly, I have doubts, haha. I dont want my students train on something unlikely to succeed. But I do know that if it didn't work and he had never done it in real life situations, Nicolaes Petter would have never put it in his book.