Hey Billy,

I own Tobler's book and found it very useful when I was starting out with the longsword. It has lots of good pictures and the accompanying text is usually pretty good. The flowcharts at the end of each chapter are AWESOME. The book is well worth the money, and I would recommend it to any beginner. We actually have a "house" copy somewhere at the Ordo site if you wanted to flip through it.

Another book I'd highly recommend for after you get through Tobler's is Jeffrey Forgeng's The Art of Combat: A German Martial Arts Treatise of 1570. This is an English translation of Joachim Meyer's German manual of fighting from 1570. It covers all kinds of weapons, including longsword, and really is a medieval "how-to" manual of fighting in the style of the time.

Tobler's book is a modern interpretation of various surviving books from the 14th-17th centuries. The vast majority of these books are available for free online, but are written in archaic forms of German and Italian and occasionally in Latin. The HEMA Alliance website is a great resource for studying Historical European Martial Arts. The site has a listing of online manuals and also has a forum full of people from around the world who are actively trying to recreate The Art.

I'm a hardcore sword nerd who is really into the historical side of what we do in the Ordo, whether it's weapons or armor. I've spent a lot of the last year studying modern and period books on fighting, particularly longsword. I also love to teach people who are willing to listen and put in some of their own personal time practicing. Feel free to PM me or email me or call me or whatever, and I'll be happy to give you some pointers and study guides and answer whatever questions you may have.