Instructors

Mike Cherba

Mike dreamed of learning sword fighting since he was a little kid when he discovered his grandfather’s fencing gear forgotten in a closet. He pursued traditional Eastern Martial Arts and sport fencing at first before discovering historical fencing treatises and the historical 

fencing community in the late 1990s while at University. Mike has been fencing in one form or another ever since, and teaching what he’s learned and researched since 2011. These days Mike’s main focus is around the Georgian form of sword and buckler, and broadly the use of shields and bucklers in general. However, he still pursues the weapons and style of Fiore de Liberi with a particular passion for spear among them.

Richard Tillman

From a young age, stories of knights in shining armor and mythological heroes have captivated Richard. Growing up, he embraced his nerdity with a love of history, fantasy, role playing games, and mythology. Richard’s journey into martial arts began as a path for physical fitness, actively practicing mixed martial arts in Oklahoma for several years. Moving to the Pacific Northwest in 2013, Richard joined Northwest Armizare two years later and fell in love with the work of Fiore Di Libre. Since then, he has studied multiple different weapons, fighting styles, and their history, including 19th century Italian saber, late medieval armored combat, and historic african martial arts. Richard took up teaching as of 2021, seeking to impart love of fighting, weapons, and history to his students.

Sam Langley

Inspired by a love of history and far too many swashbuckling movies and fantasy novels growing up, Sam has been fencing off and on for twenty years. He studies and teaches the rapier techniques of Vincenzio Saviolo’s 1595 Treatise. Sam is also a passionate sabreur, with special interest in reconstructions of 17th century Polish Cross Cutting.

Josh MacEachern

Josh has long had an interest in historical weapons, and began his journey in learning their techniques in 2022 after watching Forged in Fire (and subsequently deciding that blacksmithing classes were too rich for his blood). Since then, he has found a passion for Italian Longsword techniques of the 15^th century, with a particular interest in Philipo Di Vadi’s De Arte Gladiatoria Dimicandi. Additionally, he is exploring the viable techniques of maces through the medieval period, a weapon that has no current surviving sources on its manner of use. 

Josh is the lead instructor for our Longsword Beginner’s class.

Noah Olson

It all started with Tolkien. Noah’s interest in fencing and with historical martial arts began with reading The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings in elementary school. Noah spent the Covid 19 pandemic watching HEMA videos on YouTube and eventually decided that once the pandemic was over nothing would stop him from pursuing that interest. Noah primarily teaches sword and buckler with a focus on i.33 and on the Georgian sword and buckler tradition. Noah also studies smallsword and has been known to dabble in longsword, messer, and rapier.