Hi All,

I was at the Chicago Art Institute this afternoon, and had the opportunity to see some of the arms and armor on exhibit in the George F. Harding collection. One piece in particular was a cup-hilted rapier in the Spanish-manner (said the sign beneath the sword), 1650/70, blade Italian, hilt Spanish, steel, iron, wood, collection no. 1982.2147.

What was odd, to me, about this rapier, was the blade shape. It was triangular. From what I could see, it was about 1/2" thick at the cup, and tapered to about 1/8" at the tip. It was about 3/4" wide at the base, and about 1/4" wide at the tip. Best guess, I'd say the blade length was about 36" or so. It appeared to be slightly hollow-ground at the base, but I could not tell if the rest was.

Unfortunately, I didn't think to bring my camera there, so I don't have any pictures.

Has anyone heard of a rapier blade like this one at all? I'm just curious, since I've only ever seen double-edged rapiers.

Thanks!

Many, if not most, later 17th century Spanish rapiers are triangular with very acute points and often exhibit some sort of hollow-ground "edges".

Hey Geoff,

Here is one of my favorite English rapiers. Owned & grip expertly redone by Eljay Erickson :cool: It also has a blade of triangular cross section.

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These may be flawed examples because I'm in a hurry, but I just went through our photo albums and grabbed them out of there. Many have small fullers at the forte, making it difficult to determine if it's truly a triangular cross-section or not by a single photo. (Since the flat side isn't visible)

http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/4386.html
http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/693.html
http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/710.html
http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/716.html
http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/783.html
http://www.myArmoury.com/albums/photo/6123.html