Wooden & plastic training swords, wasters

In martial arts, a waster sword is used as a practice weapon, usually a sword. Wasters are usually made of wood, but there are also variants made of plastic. Plastic is less hard than wood and therefore safer, but the blade is flexible, making it more difficult to control the point of the weapon accurately. Wooden wasters are sturdier and less flexible than steel swords, providing more stability and control during practice.

Using a wooden or nylon training sword instead of a steel one is a cheaper way to spar and has a very long tradition. Training with wooden practice swords, however, removes part of the experience that steel swords offer. Nevertheless, it is an excellent method to start sword fighting and even very suitable for experienced fighters. Even Roman legionaries trained up to eight hours a day with extra weighted wooden practice swords, which they called rudii.

A weighted waster can be used for strength training, making a steel weapon feel lighter later. In theory, handling a real sword becomes easier and faster as a result. A similar effect is achieved with steel training weapons, provided the blade has one or two cutting edges. This means that a sharp sword contains significantly less steel compared to a training sword with a blade thickness of 2-3 mm. For many blunt swords, the blade medium is wider, so that the edges and the tip have this thickness. For this reason, it is not recommended to sharpen the blade of a blunt sword. When purchasing sharp swords, it is therefore advised to choose a sharp or semi-sharp example, where the cross-section of the blade is adjusted to sharp edges.

Practice swords are designed to match the weight and balance of a real sword as closely as possible, making them a desirable alternative to steel weapons. Wooden wasters have been found in many cultures and throughout the ages, including in ancient China, Ireland, Iran, Scotland, Rome, Egypt, medieval and renaissance Europe, Japan, and even in modern times in Europe and the United States. Over time, wasters have taken on different forms, not always in chronological order. They ranged from simple sticks to dowels with beveled points and leather basket hilts, and eventually to careful replicas of real swords.

Wooden practice swords have been used since the late bronze Age. In Scotland, on the island of Mainland (Orkney), an original wooden sword was found, which is still preserved in the National Museum of Edinburgh. A similar find in Ireland supports the historical basic of the Irish myth Táin Bó Cúailnge, in which the use of a wooden practice sword is mentioned.

In Egypt, soldiers also practiced a kind of sport fencing with blunt sticks, an early form of the waster. The Romans used a wooden sword, the rudis, for combat training. Translations of the Roman poets Horace and Juvenal provide evidence for the use of this practice weapon. In a translation of Juvenal's poetry by Barten Holyday from 1661, it is even mentioned that Roman students first learned to fight with wooden rudis, and only later switched to sharp steel weapons – which is logical, as the gladius was a significant investment for the equipment of legionnaires. It can be assumed that training with the rudis continued even after the legionnaire was fully trained. Legionnaires trained for about eight hours a day.

Also Roman gladiators practiced with a heavy wooden sword against a dummy or against a wooden post, called the palus , an early predecessor of the later wooden pell. Wasters are further mentioned in literary works of that time, including The Book of the Courtier. Additionally, several Fechtbücher, German fighting manuals, mention the use of wasters or show models performing techniques with these practice weapons.

During the 16th century, the dussack came into use in German fencing schools. This was a true waster, made almost entirely of wood (with one known exception), and served as a safe and inexpensive practice sword. Due to its unique shape, the dussack did not have traditional cross-shaped sword hilts like the one-handed sword (arming sword), the longsword or the bastard sword. Instead, the dussack resembled more the großes Messer (“great knife”), a weapon more commonly found among the general population, while the longsword was accessible only to relatively wealthy individuals due to its high price.

In the modern historical European martial arts community, the term usually refers to wasters made to resemble Western European weapons, such as the longsword or the one-handed arming sword (arming sword). Historically, the English word waster was also used for clubs or sticks that were used as weapons, in addition to wooden swords. As this martial art has grown and academic interest in other weapons beyond just the longsword and the one-handed sword has increased, other types of wasters have also been produced.

The idea of wooden practice weapons is not limited to historical European martial arts. Some Japanese martial arts also use them. Kenjutsu, iaido, bokken, and shinai are examples of Asian wooden practice swords. Eskrima, a martial art from the Philippines, uses a rattan stick as a practice weapon instead of a knife. The martial art singlestick has almost entirely originated from the use of wasters as practice weapons instead of steel swords.

Historically, students and soldiers used wasters as inexpensive and replaceable practice weapons. The high cost of good quality steel weapons, especially swords, made them unsuitable for training. Constant training would quickly wear out a steel sword, making it less effective and less reliable as a weapon. To avoid the destruction of expensive weapons, while still allowing the necessary practice and sparring that is part of any martial art, wooden practice swords were developed.

Today, particularly within the reconstruction of historical European martial arts and in historical reenactment, there is renewed interest in wasters. They offer modern practitioners several advantages that also applied to historical users. The wooden construction, combined with blunt edges, a dull point, crossguard, and pommel, provides a safer alternative than practicing with a sharp or blunt steel weapon. Wasters do not cut into the flesh but deliver a blunt blow. They are also much cheaper than a steel weapon of the same type, making them affordable and easy to replace. Many modern wasters are also accurately replicated after the example of real swords, with functional parts. As a result, they feel and move more like their steel counterparts.

However, wasters also have disadvantages. Since they are entirely made of wood, they are usually lighter and differently balanced than steel weapons. The difference in material properties between wood and steel results in different behavior during training and sparring. Wooden wasters are static, and this affects the impact after a strike with the sword. This phenomenon is known as waster bounce. Steel weapons exhibit this much less because they are flexible; they tend to catch and slide with little recoil, making the fight more dynamic overall. 

Although wooden wasters are safer because they have no edges, they are not necessarily safer than steel practice swords. The rounded wood prevents cuts, but because wooden weapons are often thicker than flat steel practice swords and yet have a similar weight, they hit harder upon impact. They are therefore absolutely not a ‘toys’ for thoughtlessly engaging in a bout of sword fighting. Another advantage of steel practice swords is that they have their weight in their hilt and can therefore deliver more precise strikes. Therefore, hard blows or thrusts on unprotected body parts with a wooden waster can lead to severe bruising or other blunt force trauma, with the wooden weapon resembling more of a club. It is therefore crucial that appropriate safety measures are taken when using wooden wasters, such as wearing the right body protection. 

Modern organizations for historical martial arts often use wasters as the main training weapon for beginners. Wasters are used to learn techniques, practice, and later spar with, including striking, cutting, thrusting, and parrying. During exercises, a waster can also be used instead of a blunt sword, especially when experience is still lacking. Additionally, practitioners use wasters against a ‘pell,’ a practice post that simulates a human target. As someone gains more skill, they transition to blunt steel weapons, which better mimic the properties of a real sharpened sword.

The shape of modern wasters is derived from their function as replica practice swords. The blades usually have a lenticular or diamond-shaped profile with distinct edges. This shape continues into the hilt, which has a grip with an oval cross-section in the same direction as the blade. This is an essential feature of historical swords: the oval shape allows the user to feel in the hand how the blade is aligned, making the rotation angle of the blade intuitively clear.

The pommel serves as a suitable counterweight for the blade and as a stable support point for the grip. This ensures the balance of the sword and gives the user a weighted leverage point to manipulate the weapon more powerfully. The crossguard functions as with a steel sword: it protects the hands and aids in performing various defensive techniques. During half-sword techniques, both the grip and the pommel can also be used as striking parts of the weapon, for example in techniques such as the mordhau (strike with hilt or pommel).

Training wasters were also historically made from daggers. These practice weapons often lack distinct cutting edges and instead take on a more cylindrical shape, as the rondel dagger was historically primarily used as a thrusting and stabbing weapon.

Singlestick is a martial art where a wooden stick is used as a weapon. It originated as a way to train soldiers in the use of backswords (such as the sabre or the short sword). The French form of stick fighting, canne de combat, is similar to singlestick, including a variant for self-defense with a walking stick. The singlestick itself is a slender, round wooden stick, traditionally made of ash wood, with a basket-shaped grip. Singlesticks are usually about 86 cm long and 2.5 cm in diameter, with one end thicker than the other. This thicker end is inserted through a bowl-shaped basket-grip to protect the hand. 

The singlestick has a similar relationship to the backsword as the foil to the small sword: a sportive version of the weapon for safe practice. The original form of the singlestick was the waster, which appeared in the 16th century. This was simply a wooden sword for practicing the use of the backsword, with a similar shape. Around the first quarter of the 17th century, wasters had changed into simple clubs. When about twenty-five years later the basket handle came into general use, a woven version was added to the singlestick, replacing the heavy metal handle of the backsword. The fighting technique was identical to that of sharp backswords, thrusts were not allowed because they were hardly used in practice. Around this time, swords were mainly used during cavalry charges. 

In 16th-century England, strikes below the belt were considered unfair in the martial art. In the 18th century, all parts of the body became a valid target. By the early 19th century, the target area was restricted to the upper body (excluding the back of the head) and the upper part of the front leg. These rules are still used today by the Association for Historical Fencing.

Under King George I and George II, the use of sticks for backsword exercises was extremely popular, under the names cudgel-play and singlesticking, both in cities and in the countryside. Wrestling was the only competitor. By the end of the 18th century, the game became increasingly restricted: players stood close together, feet still, and all strikes were executed with a whip-like wrist motion from a high held grip, with the hand above the head. Strikes on any part of the body above the waist were allowed, but only those on the head counted as decisive, by a bleeding wound. Initially, the left hand was used to ward off strikes not parried with the stick, but by the end of the 18th century, a scarf loosely worn around the left arm was used for this purpose. 

Thomas Hughes vividly described cudgel-play in the first half of the 19th century in Tom Brown's School Days. This type of single-sticking fights almost died out in the third quarter of that century but was revived as training for the sabre within some military and civilian academies.