[Josh Hibbs]

I was wondering if anyone had any information regarding the Sword Cane. I am trying to look into them before i decide which one to buy. If anyone one has information about them please post. preferable rapier style but I am look at others as well.

[Björn Hellqvist]

First off, make sure that they aren't illegal where you live. As it is a type of concealed weapon, there might be local laws against it.

[Jeremy Scott Steimel]

To add to what Björn said, you may want to look at local statutes beyond whether or not sword canes are classified as a concealed weapon.

i.e. for local Illinois state laws, it's legal to carry a larger knife sheathed, such as a hunting bowie, as long as you have no malicious intent. However, reading other laws lets you in to the fact that if you carry a knife (folding or fixed) with a blade of more than 3 inches, you are technically deemed as Armed and Dangerous and can be dealt with as such if any altercation is expected. Disturbance of Peace laws can also come into play, and all sorts of other confusing things.

I've only seen a few actual antique "cane swords", and from the ones I've seen it would seem that full-sized blades were not common, as they all had shorter almost stilletto-esque blades. If you think in terms of lateral stress and how little support structure the blade will have just within the cane handle, that's not surprising.

These types are rare enough that you're probably better off looking at general antique sites to find one, but that's just my opinion.

[Peter Johnsson]

I have not studied these with any specific focus, but over time I have come across a few.

The earliest ones I´ve seen dates from the late 6th C and is rather walking staffs than canes. They can be a set of both dagger and rapier and are usually made very luxurious for the most wealthy. During the second half of the 16th C it became fascionable to walk around town with a nice looking walking staff. A hidden rapier could come in handy some times, I guess...

However, most of these weapons date after the time when the smallsword had went out of fashion and the archetypical sword cane is of a type from the 19th C.

The blades were not usually that long. Like a shortsword or shorter. They were intended for self defence in tight spots, so a longer blade would not have been practical. Also the canes at this time were of slimmer and shorter dimensions, so that put alimitation on the size of the hidden blade.

I have no documented data on these, but my impression is that the blade lenght would typically have been between 60-70 cm or even shorter. Cross section could be square or triangular, sometimes a stout diamond section. Sometimes concave edge bevels, but often flat.
My impressoin is that these blades were more or less completely dedicated to the thrust.
As the blades need to be very narrow to be conveniently concealed in a cane, there is no room for the necessary width of a very efficient cutting blade, so they were instead made as stiff and light as possible.
For different styles of blades think of very long ice picks, or the more narrow and stiff types of small sword blades.
If you want a blade with some cutting potential, I think you need to have a single edged hollow ground blade with stiff spine and perhaps apoint with a false edge for better thrusting. Blade width should not be more than 18-20 mm at the base if the cane is to be of sturdy, but normal dimensions. I would suggest a blade length of some 65-70 cm-
These "swords" were obviously weapons for civilians and need only deal with the heavy cloth of a coat (or fur in the case of rabid dogs...).


...Just some impressions. Perhpas there is someone around that has more exact data on these?
I think the Ryal Armouries in Leeds have one or a few on display? Perhaps a search there will be rewarding...