incredibly deceptive and agile attacks and the dangerous capacity to renew
continued attacks at unpredictable angles, even after parrying slashes of
wider cutting swords. Its sturdy blade was not easily broken or cut and was
capable of blocking heavier cutting blades with either its own blade or its
particularly strong hilt. Metallurgy in Europe at the time had improved to
allow for slender, more flexible, yet superbly tempered high-carbon steel
blades.
As a sword that emphasized agile stabbing attacks, most rapiers had
little to no edge, although some were capable of limited slashes, harassing
tip cuts, and lacerating scratches. The rapier’s blade was usually a narrow
hexagonal or flattened diamond shape, incapable of the angle necessary for
holding a particularly sharp or deep cutting edge. A rapier was virtually al-
ways used in conjunction with, in the free hand, a parrying dagger, buck-
ler, or cloak. The parrying dagger was made with an elaborate guard spe-
cially designed for trapping and parrying, and was held sideways in order
to parry or catch the opponent’s blades. A formidable method of dueling
with two rapiers also developed.
The nature of rapier fencing did not leave the user vulnerable to on-
coming cuts. Instead, many cuts were outmaneuvered or outtimed. As with
cut-and-thrust swords, a rapier duel was fought “in the round” and not lin-
early as in modern sport fencing. In back alleys, taverns, and street brawls,
anything was acceptable—kicking, punching, grappling. The rapier pro-
duced a lethal method of personal swordsmanship that emphasized agility
and finesse over strength and ferocity. The rapier represents one of the most
innovative and original aspects of European martial culture. As a weapon
for personal single combat, it was unequaled for almost 200 years until the
advent of the dueling pistol.
With the ascendancy of rapiers over older swords in personal duel and
private quarrel, there were many attempts to combine the slashing and
cleaving potential of traditional military swords with the quick, agile thrust
of a dueling sword. This led to a great number of experimental blade
forms, many of which were dismal failures, with neither the cutting power
of wider swords nor the speed and lightness of true rapiers. These are
sometimes mistakenly called cutting rapiers and sword-rapiers or assumed
to be some form of transition blade.
Eventually, the long rapier lost favor and declined, as times grew more
civilized and orderly. By the late 1600s and early 1700s, it was slowly su-
perseded and replaced by the shorter small-sword, more suited to urban
wear. The small-sword was a vicious tool in its own right. The elegant man-
ner of swordplay developed for it led directly to today’s Collegiate and
Olympic sport fencing. Sometimes known as a “court-sword,” “walking-
sword,” or “town-sword,” the small-sword developed from the rapier in584 Swordsmanship, European Renaissance