In order to look the part of a Renaissance duelist, you should study the clothing worn during the period of the rapier's heyday, 1550-1600, approximately the Elizabethan period. A man's outfit will consist of a long sleeved shirt, a doublet of fine material or leather, a pair of trunkhose, slops or venetians (pants), stockings and boots or flat. Developed in the 1500s from Spanish dress swords, the historical rapier gained popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries as a slender, sharply pointed thrusting sword used in unarmored combat. Ideal for self-defense, civilian rapiers became lighter and shorter over time, whereas military rapiers evolved into colichemarde swords and small swords. Finally, after logging in 87 hours plus, the rapier is finally finished. The maple handle has a spiral braided silver wire wrap and the pommel nut was shaped from a scrap piece of railroad spike left over from the basket work.

The rapier is a single-handed European sword commonly carried as a sidearm during the Late Renaissance era. It is characterised by its long tapering blade and complex hilt, which protects the hand of its wielder with a series of sweeping metal bars, rings or shells. The blade is optimised for thrusting, but is usually capable of cutting as well. Beyond these common features rapiers vary widely in design and dimensions, and the term is perhaps best understood as referring to a family of similar swords rather than one specific design of weapon.

The most common weapons used during this time period were the rapier, battle axe, mace, dagger, basilard, lance, arbalest, bill, billhook, bow and arrow, caltrop. Elizabethan Sumptuary Statutes - Regulations governing colors, fabrics, furs, and trims to be worn by various ranks of society in the reign of Elizabeth I. And whereas a usage is crept in, contrary to former orders, of wearing of long swords and rapiers, sharpened in such sort as may appear to the usage of them can not tend to defense, which.

The rapier was first developed in southern Europe, most likely in Italy, in the mid-1500's. By the late 16th century it had spread across much of Europe along with other aspects of Italian Renaissance culture. Rapiers were initially multi-purpose sidearms, being carried by civilians for self-defence and honour duelling, and also by soldiers for battlefield use (though in the latter case usually as a back-up weapon rather than a primary armament, the main military weapons being pikes and guns by this period).

It was reasonably common to use the rapier in combination with a secondary weapon held in the off-hand. Such auxiliary armaments aided defence in combat. The most common off-hand weapon was the dagger, a versatile choice with both defensive and offensive capabilities. However, other off-hand weapons in use included bucklers (small parrying shields), shields (the typical Renaissance-era design was a medium-sized round metal shield called a 'target' in English or 'rotella' in Italian), cloaks (for parrying, deceiving and entangling) or even a second rapier (a rare combination sometimes referred to as a 'case of rapiers'). Most fencing masters advised learning the basic principles of swordsmanship with the rapier alone first before learning to coordinate with a paired weapon later.

Rapiers continued to be used throughout the 17th century and even into the 18th in some parts of Europe. However during this later period there was a gradual trend towards lighter swords. From the late 1600's the rapier began to be superseded by the smallsword, essentially a stripped-down, shorter and much lighter duelling sword pioneered in France, which was entirely specialised for thrusting and lacked any cutting ability at all. Smallswords and rapiers are often confused in popular culture, but the two weapons handle rather differently in practice and are quite distinct to fencers.

The term 'rapier' entered common usage amongst northern European languages sometime around the mid-1500's. Its origin is unclear, though a favourite theory of historians is that it is a linguistic corruption of the earlier Spanish term 'espada ropera', which roughly translates to 'dress sword'. As the rapier was ubiquitous in southern Europe those nations in general simply referred to it as a sword (e.g. 'spada' in Italian).

Antique Rapiers

Below are some measurements taken from original antique rapiers held in various museum collections around Europe and North America (some info is missing due to variations on how the data was collected or noted). All the swords are of Italian or partially-Italian origin and date from the mid-late 16th century.

NMS: National Museum of Scotland (Edinburgh), GMRC: Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (Glasgow),

Met: Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Wallace: Wallace Collection (London), Stibbert: Stibbert Museum (Florence)

The sample shows a typical spread of data for the late 16th century period. Similar information can be found in other museum collections. It gives a good idea of the specifications of swords used in late Renaissance Italy and elsewhere. The photos below give a small indication of common variations of rapier hilt (all are from the NMS collection in Edinburgh).

The market for Renaissance swords was once quite a vital one.

Many good quality, decent functional replicas (cheap stainless Zorro' and 'Three Musketeer' swords aside) made primarily by two sword companies - the Hanwei forge and Windlass Steelcrafts, appeared on the market, and price competition was cut-throat. That was until sometime in 2010, when the entire sword industry was in crisis mode due to the economic situation of this time..

Considering that Renaissance swords are a niche within a niche, and no-where near as popular as the 'staples' of the production sword industry (medieval and Japanese swords respectively) these companies did their best to keep them in production, but over the years nearly all disappeared..

As such, there are a lot of discontinued product reviews in this section - but thankfully in recent years there has been a minor recovery for affordable renaissance sword replicas. And the high end replicas have always been around - and probably always will be - so note that there are quite a few more high end replicas mixed in here to provide the best selection possible..

Anyway, with this caveat out of the way, our journey through the gentlemanly era is in roughly chronological order, starting with the transitional side sword and ending with the ultimate gentleman's sword, the sword cane.

Side/Cut and Thrust side swords marked a kind of halfway point between the medieval long sword and the smaller, lighter rapier.

Tapered to a fine point, these swords still possessed the weight to make a savage cut, and were deadly even in the hands of an inexperienced fighter. However, they failed to gain the popularity of other weapons on the battlefield, as its design could not withstand the rigors of prolonged heavy combat. They became commonplace in Spain before moving elsewhere in the early to mid 16th century, and then disappearing entirely.

Sadly, there are few modern reproductions of these swords. But there is at least one that is still doing the rounds..

Side Sword Reviews

Hanwei Side Sword

Solidly built and fairly historically accurate. $265

By the year 1600, the ultra-thin Rapier came available. It's unique geometry was especially suited to fast-paced thrusting-central combat, and a number of non-combat versions became popular with various fencing schools. The blade is typically a meter or more long, and about 2.5cm or smaller in width.

As mentioned, their primary purpose is to thrust, but many were capable of giving cuts as well (though to a lesser extent than the Side Sword). While effective in combat, many were made with ornate handles and guards, and it was often seen as a piece of jewellery or accessory. These swords are made popular by movies like The Three Musketeers and The Count of Monte Cristo, although their use in these movies is obviously played up for entertainment value.

Out of all the various Renaissance era swords on the market, it should come as no surprise that the Rapier is the most commonly replicated - and at one point there were quite a few sub $300 replicas available - but not so many affordable ones now..

Most are as you might expect, rather specialized swords and reserved for the conoussier - and we review them here too..

So let's take a look at what is currently available for functional rapier replicas - some that are spot on and some that almost got it right..

Rapier Reviews

A&A 3 Ring Italian Rapier

Excellent handling, and the biggest surprise, can cut tatami mats when sharpened right up. As you might expect, a very nice piece. $1200

Windlass Pilsen Rapier

So much potential, with great stats and a nice blade. But if you have normal sized hands, its almost unusable out of the box. $220

Windlass Christus Imperat

Our reviewer said: For those having little time and/or who are averse to reading long texts: Go out and buy the thing! $265

DISCONTINUED REVIEWS - REVIEW ARCHIVE

Click on the image for the archived review

Hanwei Torino Rapier. Quite ornate and attractive in its own right, but not all that historically accurate. A lot of fun though (4 star rating) and a shame that it was discontinued (was my own first experience with a rapier).

Hanwei Taza Cup Rapier. Was very ornate and attractibe, but far too expensive for what it was (lowest price was over $400, which for a Hanwei rapier, was really just too much). Otherwise not a bad replica.

Hanwei Solingen Rapier. Nice enough on the outside and looked like a real winner at first, but was let down by what is 'under the hood'. Worth reading if only to know what to look out for..

Hanwei Bone Handed Rapier. Looks good, fairly historically accurate and handles well too. But quite a few annoying little issues add up to a less than stellar sword and pretty average overall considering the $324 price point..

The Rapier was very popular, but smaller swords began to become the norm for use in the crowded city streets. These were the aptly-named Smallsword (also sometimes called a court sword), which was in widespread use from the mid 17th century up until the late 18th century. Much lighter and faster than the rapier, these saw very limited military use and were considered to be civilian weapons. Blades were about 60-80cm in length, and were rarely sharpened with a cutting edge. The use of such nimble weapons increased the value of footwork to duels, and helped lay the foundations for what would eventually become the modern sport of fencing.

Most of the Smallswords available (not that there are that many) have fencing blades. But one notable exception is the Cold Steel Smallsword, which we will take a closer look at below.

Smallsword Reviews

Cold Steel Smallsword

A little on the heavy side, but overall nicely done. Very durable and tough. $249

Made popular by movies like Rob Roy, the Scottish Basket-Hilted sword seems to belong more comfortably with Medieval swords than with Renaissance swords, as it has a thick blade designed primarily for chopping. However, these swords came into widespread use during the 18th century, as the Scots were loath to start using lighter, thrusting-focused weapons like the Rapier.

Basket hilted swords were not purely a Scottish sword however, and included the uniquely English Mortuary Hilt Swords and the Italian 16th and 17th century Schiavona.

Windlass Basket Hilt Sword

In production for nearly 3 decades, a solid time tested replica, though a but too heavy.. $256

Battlecry Culloden Basket-Hilt

The Battlecry version of the Windlass Basket Hilt Sword, great handling, sharpened and overall, good value. $292

Hanwei Cromwell Sword

Ornate, and a fairly faithful replica of the original with a decently made blade and eye catching fittings. $299

Del Tin Schiavona

Beautifully detailed and well constructed, a piece of sword art. $692

DISCONTINUED SWORDS - REVIEW ARCHIVE

Click on the image for the Archived Review

Cold Steel Basket Hilt Broad Sword: Cold Steels Basket Hilt Broadsword often looked like a spaceman's sword on promotional pics. Up close, it looked somewhat different - but when the crisis hit in 2010 I would dare say that the promo pic helped seal it's fate..

Hanwei Mortuary Hilt Sword:My first exposure to a Mortuary Hilt sword was a lot of fun and helped me to really appreciate Renaissance swords in general. A shame to see this one go.

Sword Canes

Of course, no discussion of Renaissance swords would be complete without reference to cane sword, a twilight weapon of the late Renaissance gentleman who still wanted to carry a sword when open carrying of a side sword or rapier was being relegated to the annals of history...

While sword canes (and umbrella swords with concealed blades) are actually illegal in several US states (including California and Arkansas) and very rare to find countries outside of the USA - there are still a fair number of these swords on the market - from those that recreate the gentleman's walking cane to very modern and utilitarian designs for the Renaissance man wandering the urban jungles...

Cold Steel Sword Cane

Great value for money, tough and quite functional. But be sure to check its local legality.. $89

Further Resources

While there are not a huge amount of online resources for fans of Renaissance swords, below you will find three that demonstrate that quality is often better than quantity.

Rapier Swords

The first is the photo album at MyArmoury.com which has literally HUNDREDS (if not a few thousand pictures) of antique basket hilt swords, Rapiers, Schiavona, small swords etc (as well as other weapons and medieval swords). Definitely worth a look to see some genuine renaissance swords.

Another excellent online resource for Renaissance swords is the Catalogue of European Court Swords and Hunting Swords, which is the full extract of the 1929 publication by Bashford Dean, originally published in Paris by the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

And finally, who could fail to mention the ARMA (Association for Renaissance Martial Arts) website which has some excellent articles on historical Renaissance swords, period manuals and enough information to keep you reading, and learning more, for a very long time indeed...

I hope this information on Renaissance swords has been helpful. To return to Sword-Buyers-Guide.com's Homepage from Renaissance Swords - Rapiers, Smallswords and other later era European blades, click here

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