∴ A Swift Turnaround ∴

You can’t say what it is about the young woman that sets your teeth on edge as she brushes past you. The marketplace is as busy as can be expected for a feast day – children and livestock darting between carts, hawkers crying their wares, giggling handmaids spending spare silver on ribbons and lace.

Dozens of rough youths must have elbowed past you on their way to greet friends or unload wares – but this one felt different. Something had drawn your eye to the woman since you’d first glimpsed her sliding, ghostlike, between the shoppers and the charlatans. It was the way she moved, you realise – direct yet dynamic, slipping this way and that to avoid obstruction yet never slowing. She moved like a dancer. No, you realise suddenly – she moved like a fighter.

She moved with enough grace and purpose that there’s no way she should have knocked into you so carelessly. Unless…

Your hand flies to your hip to find your fear confirmed: gone. Your weapon is gone. The nimble little sidesword you’d picked up in Verona. God’s wounds, you had loved that sword. It was lightweight and lethal, as gracefully ruthless as the rogue who, sword in hand, was already lost in the crowd.

∴ Specs ∴

Weighing in at a dainty 760g, this nimble sidesword moves effortlessly through both cutting and thrusting actions. With a short grip for added control, a lightweight hollow pommel, and a protective closed port, she’s an ideal weapon for a fencer with smaller hands or who favours historically proportioned hilts.

This sword was made from a spare blade, which had turned out a hair too light for a custom order. The blade itself is based on the Wallace Collection’s A533, with a broad fuller in the ricasso.

A similar sidesword would be available for £850 plus shipping

• Weight: 760g
• Total length: 105cm
• Blade length: 36″
• Blade width at base: 2.5cm
• Grip length: 7cm
• Grip and pommel: 12cm
• Quillon span: 24cm
• Point of Balance: 16cm
• Blunt edges, rounded tip and sparring-safe flex

∴ Notes ∴

The hot-forged, heat-treated guard and pommel are oil-blackened to a matte finish. The hardwood grip is entwined in braided copper and steel wire. The closed port features a piercework design of circles and stars.

∴ Gallery ∴

Looking for a lighter training weapon? Get in touch to discuss your ideas.