Attn: sword geeks

[anotheranon]

Finally, pictures of my historic repro, plus some discussion from practice this evening:


Full length shot - you can see that the blade is a lot wider than the typical rapier blade and lacks the "furrow" down the length:


This is a closeup of the hilt (actually composed of many parts, not all of which I remember the correct names for. The "crossbar" is the quillons, but I'm unsure whether the loops are properly referred to as a "basket hilt" or as a "ricasso"):


All told, a damned good looking weapon :)

My fellow historic fencers were much impressed by it's looks, but less by it's functionality. It's not tempered (tempered steel makes a bell-like ring when struck. Instead, I got a a dull knock), nor is it well balanced. The blade IS removable but is tightly wedged in. No consensus was made as to what this weapon would be used for, though one person suggested that it is indeed a historic replica of a presentation sword made to winners of battles and other such military achievements - made for looks, but not for use.

An essay from Margo's Patterns suggested that when rapiers came into fashion as a personal protection weapon, the need for heavy swords in battle remained, so there existed for awhile longsword blades with rapier-like hilts. So maybe that's another possiblity.

I'm going to keep working with it, if only to improve the strength of my wrists and grip.

Comments

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Wow. My friend ericmc has a pair of rapiers with nigh identical hilts. I think that the real version of this sword would not be sharp inside of those rings that are above the blade, as this one indeed is not, since people would curl an index finger in there for better ballance. That little open section is a blade-trap, used for catching your opponents blade and pulling it out of line so you could close with a Main Gauche.

You might see about having someone make you a heavier counterweight, to give better ballance.