[Nathan Robinson]

Bacchus-

I appreciate the points you've made. You've expressed some of the things I was trying to mention but failed to convey.

Having said that, some of what you've said is condescending particularly the "Sesame Street" comment. Your points will communicate much better without such extra commentary added to them.

[Matt Easton]

Regarding smallsword vs. sabre/backsword/broadsword, it is discussed in a number of historical treatises, the latest that I can think of being Hutton's Cold Steel in 1889. Several 18thC sources discuss it.

The last 'hurrah' of dueling for blood (rather than sport) in the early-20thC was carried out with the sharp epee in France, the sharp-edged dueling sabre in Italy and parts of Eastern Europe, and the sharp-edged schlager in Germany and Austria. None of these are smallswords exactly, of course.

I don't see how anybody could call a smallsword a pinacle of anything (you could even say that the epee is the pinacle of the smallsword), by any definition. It is just another type of sword.

Matt