The Epoch Sword |

∴ A Golden Dawn∴

You stare listlessly at the rough wooden beams, your eyes so accustomed to the dark after a long, sleepless night that they can pick out every knot, every whorl. And every moment marked by the slow drip, drip, drip of the leak in the roof which denies you rest, occasionally accompanied by a scurrying of small claws.

The room is derelict. The inn is derelict. The city is derelict. This is not the London you dreamed of when you first decided to find your fortune here as a fighter – not this cold, comfortless country with its barking language and sour wine. You rue the day you left the golden fields of Tuscany for this. With a groan you pull yourself from the rough pallet and stumble toward the window, pulling the shutter back for a breath of what passes for fresh air here.

You are greeted not by now-familiar lifeless grey, but an unexpected blush. It takes your eyes a moment to adjust – then you realise that in the quiet of dawn, the rose-hued rays of a somewhere-brilliant sun are reflected, vivid yet gentle, from the leaded windows across the narrow alley. Each pane shimmers tentatively in its casement, like a splendid array of rubies.

You watch for a moment in quiet contemplation – then with a new lilt in your step, you stride toward the bed and reach for your sword, propped beside it in readiness for all manner of imagined intruders. It is a good sword – sturdy and imposing. It has brought you this far, and it will take you further still. The day is young – oh so young – and you feel like fighting. You hold the weapon up to face the reflected dawn, marvelling at how the newborn light plays about the gleaming brass grip.

∴ Specs ∴

Another variant of our celebrated Sauvage sword, this war rapier takes its cues from the Wallace Collection’s A535, yet comes into its own with a custom-sized oak grip with a bright brass and steel wire wrap finished with Turk’s head knots.

A similar bespoke sidesword would come to upward of £1250 plus shipping

Total length: 104cm
Blade length: 90.5cm
Blade width at base: 3.5cm
Grip length: 7cm
Grip and pommel: 12.5cm
Point of Balance: 11.5cm
Quillon span: 24cm
Weight: 1520g
Blunt edges and rounded tip

∴ Notes ∴

The hand-forged, heat-treated guard is oil blackened to a matte finish. The front port is filled, and pierced with a pattern of circles. The central section of the counterguard is likewise filled and pierced. The S-shaped quillons swell into knobs at the terminals – a motif which is repeated at the centre of each ring.

The oval grip is made from oak, then wrapped in brass and steel wire, finished with Turk’s head knots to the top and bottom. The oil blackened pommel takes the form of a large sphere, and is finished with a rounded nut.