Description
Italian Style Swept-Hilt Rapier
The Italian Style Swept-Hilt Rapier is a masterful blend of elegance and functionality, designed for advanced practitioners of historical European martial arts (HEMA), classical fencing, and those with a deep appreciation for the iconic style of the Italian school of fencing. With its sweept hilt and refined blade geometry, this rapier offers both precision and durability for training, sparring, or display.
Key Specifications:
- Total length: 125 cm
- Blade length: 104 cm (to ricasso)
- Ricasso length: 6 cm
- Blade width: 2 cm at ricasso, tapering to 1 cm at the point
- Blade thickness: 9 mm at the ricasso, distally tapering to 4 mm at the point
- Blade cross-section: Diamond-shaped, providing strength and rigidity while maintaining excellent cutting and thrusting capabilities
- Safe widened point: 4×10 mm for added safety during sparring
- Blade stiffness: Requires 7-8 kg of pressure to bend, making it ideal for controlled, safe thrusts
- Blade hardness: 50 HRC, ensuring a balance between durability and flexibility
- Blade material: Forged from 51CrV4 spring steel (20 mm diameter rod), known for its toughness and ability to flex under pressure without breaking
- Point of Balance (PoB): 12 cm from the ricasso for excellent control and maneuverability
- Weight: 1000 g, giving it a light yet authoritative feel in the hand
Robert –
I bought mine last December from Hemasupplies.com and have been using it since. The design itself is beautiful, but there were some blemishes on the blade itself (mainly black marks) that took away from how great the design was. At first this thing was absolutely great about always returning back into position after landing a thrust. This past 2 months however, it has started to take a twist/set that worries me about how much longer it’s going to last. I did get a good 8 months of sparring out of it however before showing signs of stress. Handling wise, it’s a tad bit on the heavier side but still handles very well and keeps a good blade presence. The hand guard looks beautiful and does a great job of protecting my hand. Very rarely does anything get it on it and if it does it usually hits a piece of the guard on the way in a lessening the impact.