[Dan D'Silva]

Hello again.

I've been plotting a new design. It's a kind of extra-short smallsword/pillow sword, not really historical but I'd like it to be a functional sword anyway, and not flexible like a sport fencing sword. So I'm looking for a blade that's stiff enough and has some profile taper (actually probably a little more than in the draft). The length doesn't matter since I can cut it down, and I prefer a diamond cross section around 1 inch wide at the shoulder but those aren't musts.

[T. Kew]

The only real difference between a fencing epee blade and a duelling epee blade (and some of the later triangular smallsword blades, for that matter) is the presence of the blunt point. The stiffness is approximately the same. So the simplest option is probably to buy a carbon steel unwired epee blade, cut it down to your preferred length and adjust the taper/pointiness from there. You should be fairly easily able to get something more than stiff enough.

[Dan D'Silva]

Thanks.

Right now I'm looking at Rogue Steel's steel diamond schlager and steel epee. I wrote in and one of the proprietors said that their blades are already less flexible than sport fencing blades and that cutting a blade shorter will also make it stiffer. Of course, I'd prefer a slightly wider blade, but it's not a deal-breaker.

Ed.: Here's an edited draft with a 3/4" blade.

There is also the Hanwei practical rapier blade for quite a bit cheaper, but I don't know about its flexibility.

[Dan D'Silva]

All the brass hardware and some lovely white oak for the grips. Luckily The Rifle Shoppe sells a counterguard that's not exorbitantly expensive and Zen Warrior Armory sells a decent-sized pommel that matches the M6x1 threads on most fencing and stage blades. The rest is stuff I already had on hand.

I should probably replace the barrelled compression rings with fabricated straight-sided ferrules, but those are annoying to make.

[Dan D'Silva]

The Rogue Steel blade is in! It's... a little surprising to see how narrow it is in person. It also has thick rebated edges.

I have a custom blade for another project on order from Darkwood, which should have the same dimensions as I originally pictured for this one. Since the price difference is only $50, I'm thinking of holding off on modifying the Rogue Steel and seeing whether I like the Darkwood better for this project when it comes in (luckily Darkwood, Rogue Steel and Zen Warrior Armory all use M6x1 threading on their products). If so, I might order a second, identical one from Darkwood and sell off the Rogue Steel blade unmodified.

[Dan D'Silva]

Smoothed the recurved guard's edges, made a false ricasso from brass bar and fabricated a new shell guard that's not oversized. I've also decided the dagger will be a small whinger; now it's just a question of finding a small dirk-style blade for it (the double-edged one in the photo is a placeholder unless I can't find a single-edged one).

[Dan D'Silva]

Grip and lighter alternate pommel from Zen Warrior Armory. In its semi-complete state it looks dainty, but its current weight is 1 pound 6 ounces (a bit too much for a true smallsword if I understand correctly) and POB is 5-3/4" from the counterguard (way too far out).

Now I just need to wait for the Darkwood blade to get here so I can decide whether I want to keep the Rogue Steel one and just shorten it. I really would prefer a broader, more tapered blade.

Edit: Also, because I can, here's a preview of what it would look like if I shortened it. It actually looks rather stout for a smallsword, but that's just proportional, and it probably wouldn't be able to cut to any significant degree.

[Dan D'Silva]

The first Darkwood blade is in. It's definitely better-balanced and stiffer than the rapier and will be much less work to sharpen. So I've put the rapier blade up for sale and placed an order for another Darkwood blade that has no ricasso to use in this project.

[Glen A Cleeton]

Pretty cool stuff Dan. Almost an epee du cmbat

Cheers
GC (we're back!)

[Dan D'Silva]

Thanks, Glen.

WIP spare parts sword with the Rogue Steel blade. Being honest, I don't think it was going to sell, so since the listing went inactive, I've gone ahead and used it for a little U.S. militia sword loosely based on an 1840 Ames model.

[Dan D'Silva]

The grip's rough-shaped and fitted. I went with American walnut; I wanted to use white oak, but almost all the blanks I ordered have serious splits and one of the two that didn't have them developed them when I hammered on the plum blossom bit for the lathe.

Anyways, as is it handles very nicely for someone of my arm strength, and I think it'll be even better after I flatten the grip a bit and add spiral groves and varnish. Darkwood really knows what they're doing. I wish I had deeper pockets so I could use them for a bunch more projects. The grip looks quite long, but that's partly because the blade is quite short. There's just enough space behind the counterguard to hook my finger over the crossguard, though the lack of finger rings would make me reluctant to do so in an actual fight.

In the past month, I came across and ordered the much cheaper Hanwei replacement sharp rapier blade, but it seems too flexible for my tastes and probably would be even if I shortened it.