Sparring with the late transitional rapier - old school fencing with life hand and weapon

We use long musketeer blade (we got those from ) to simulate the late rapiers of the 19th century. We know that famous fencing masters of like Col. Monstery, Régis Sénac, Eugenio Pini and Alfred Hutton fenced with it and are portrayed with some nice rapiers. That is a sword longer then a smallsword or spadroon but not as heavy as a typical rapier from Fabris, Capo Ferro or Giganti. It is a thrusting sword but also able to cut. Yes rapier can cut! We follow the Italian fighting style which fits in our Italian dueling sword fencing more then the Destreza of the Spanish rapier. It is heavier so you could play more from the bind then feinting by cavazione as you would do with the spadino. But if you are here for the sword fight, enjoy ;-) In HEMA there are not many groups using this weapon in a style like that. Mostly they focus on the early heavy rapier, even if they use some liter ones, or they fence with the smallsword or sometimes with the duelling sword. Unlike as in modern olympic fencing we fence more as it were a martial art of their time nothing les the real sword fighting, so you will find some usage of the left hand as well as disarms and other illegal technique in sport fencing.
Back to Top