Can someone explain to me what the heck a Swiss Saber is? I know generally what it's characteristics are, but I am looking for sources on how to wield one. Manuals, videos, treatises, anything!

The closest I think you can find is on messer. A Swiss Saber is basically a longer messer or 'war messer' with a complex hilt.

Fortunately there is some material for those weapons.Unfortunately most of the more accessible manuscripts which cover it's use (Lekuchner for example which has been conveniently translated) deal with the smaller type of messers for the most part.

[ Linked Image ]

That said if you consider the corpus of German fencing manuals in particular you'll find quite a bit of material on how to fence with a messer and it's both effective and fairly entertaining.

I would recommend starting on the Wiktenauer and look for Lekuchner, also Talhoffer and the Durer manuscript.

Jean