Posts: 1,191 Location: Kingston, Washington
Thu 27 Jan, 2005 8:15 pm
Jean;
Actually I had been thinking of that, of taking a hand-and-a-half and re-hilting it to fit later tastes. One of the problems that a lot of the present "War Swords" have is that they are pretty much all designed for use on foot ( which makes sense, since 95%-plus of the buying public is going to only use them on foot) so thus they are usually somewhat short for my wants, and the longer rapiers, while long enough to be serviceable on horseback, are too thin and light for the most part. Therefore something on the order of the hand-and-a-half would be of a decent length and breadth... but probably a tad hefty!
The problem is of course in length... when you are afoot, you really
don't want the point going past your ankle, whereas when using a sword while mounted, you
do want to be able to reach the ground without having to hang off the saddle like a Comanche, riding on the side of your horse. Thus a blade of at least 36" is mandatory, with the more the better, within reason. Plus, it needs to have a certain stiffness to it, i.e. "a good stiff tuck" as many an English cavalryman admonished his followers to carry.
I've actually been looking hard at the A&A Dresden Rapiers like Nathan's but I would really like to see a full review of it first (hint, hint!)
http://www.myArmoury.com/swor_aa_dres.html?1
But it seems to meet a lot of my requirements, as it is decently long (37" blade below the rings) and breadth, but of course it pays for that in weight (3.7 pounds). Not a real problem of course, but something to ponder.
Anyway, lots to dream on! But for the mean time, I'll just have to be content with my ATrim Baskethilt! If only it were a few inches longer...
Cheers!
Gordon