Wilderness Interactive
The company of our clubmate Jake Arthur Traynor, and the reason there is a full set of kit on the rack for everyone who walks in.
Who They Are
An independent creative company in Cornwall.
Wilderness Interactive is an independent creative company. It does marketing and builds websites, and it built this one: every page you are reading is theirs. It also has a game in development called Vagabond, a historical role‑playing game in the vein of Mount and Blade, with actual swordfighting based on HEMA, which is a large part of why its founder walked into a HEMA club in the first place.
You can find them at wildernessinteractive.com.
What It Provides
The armoury. Every piece of kit a member needs to spar, lent free.
In August and September 2026 Wilderness Interactive bought the club the thing every small HEMA club wishes it had and almost none can afford: enough proper protective kit for everyone in the room to fence, and nine steel sabres to fence with. Nine masks, ten pairs of gloves, eleven jackets, nine gorgets, nine chest protectors, nine sets of plated limb protection, nine Krieger sabres, and a pair of sail daggers on their way. The whole armoury is listed here.
The reason is simple. The cost of the basic gear is what stops people. You can come for your free first lesson and love it, and then find that a mask, gloves and a jacket cost more than a month's rent. With loaner kit, a new member can hit and be hit in their first weeks, which is the whole point of the art. As far as we can find, no other club in the UK lends a full sparring kit to every member.
Steve and Andrew have run HEMA Penzance for free since 2014, and they still do. Nobody gets paid here. The sponsorship changes nothing about that; it changes what is on the rack.
Vox Sponsoris · The Sponsor's Word
Let's be the best equipped club in the UK. Make HEMA people come and visit us from far and wide.— Jake Arthur Traynor, to the club, September 2026
Jake Arthur Traynor
A member since February 2026, a month in Warsaw, and a sabre brought home.
Jake joined the club in February 2026 and trains here every Tuesday. In August 2026 he spent a month in Warsaw at Akademia Szermierzy, training under Antek Olbrychski, Mikołaj Kołodziej and Rafał Kalus, and came home with the Polish sabre, which the club has since taken up. Read about the sabre, or about the month.
Sponsoring the club is, in his own words, a work trip. What are we doing? We are going to do sabre. Team building.
Come and use it
Tuesdays, 7pm, Penzance Leisure Centre. Your first lesson is free, and everything you need is on the rack.