This striking sidesword was built with a focus on both lightness and protection. Our client was a fan of our simple Scapegrace Sidesword, but sought more comprehensive protection for a smaller hand. The challenge was to find the balance between lighter weight and a more complex guard, with a hollow pommel, flat barwork and a pierced port all coming into play.
The combination of the short grip and hollow pommel keeps a nice central balance, allowing the blade to excel in both cutting and thrusting actions. Named after a Middle English word for conjurer, it should lend itself to tricks and feints while returning swiftly to the central line.
Please see our pricing structure for an idea of what a similar sword would cost.
∴ Specs ∴
Total length: 104cm
Blade length: 91.5cm
Blade width at shoulder: 2.5cm
Blade stock: 6mm
Quillon span: 26cm
Grip length: 6.5cm
Grip and pommel: 11.5cm
Grip to guard: 5.5cm
Point of balance: 14cm
Weight: 915g
Right-handed
2mm blunt edges
Swollen tip
Fencing flex
∴ Notes ∴
The hand-forged and heat-treated crossguard and pommel are blackened to a matte finish. The flat barwork guard features three rings, a closed port, vertical S-shaped quillons, and a knucklebow. The close port is pierced with hand-filed patterns of stars, hearts and circles.
The hollow pommel is rectangular and finished with a faceted steel nut. The oak grip is wrapped in twisted brass and steel wire, with Turk's head knots to the top and bottom. The blade features a deep central fuller and two fullers to the ricasso.
∴ Gallery ∴
∴ A Trickster's Accomplice∴
The cheerful tune of a tin pipe rises through the gentle chatter of the morning market crowd, and you find yourself whistling along. There is something about the thrill of the fair that never fails to affect you - the bright-coloured fabrics, the scent of candied fruits and nuts, the mountebanks crying our their miracle cures. It is the city at its bawdiest and best.
Charmed, you pause to watch a performer in harlequin silks atop a crate. You fancy he casts a wink your way as he whisks a stream of silk scarves from his sleeve. The tricks are the same simple fare you’ve seen countless times, but still you find yourself drawn in. There’s something about the conjuror himself, his easy patter, his command of the crowd.
As you watch, you have the nagging feeling that you recognise him: those dark, smiling eyes through the mask. The delicate tilt of his jaw, almost aristocratic. Yes, you know this face - and yet you cannot place it.
A shout from the crowd rouses you, and the performer glances up from his cards and cups. A young woman is pointing at the man on stage with one delicate gloved hand, while the other is clasped around the wrist of a palace guard.
Suddenly you remember where you’ve seen those smiling eyes before: the roughly drawn sketches found posted around the city's taverns and docks. A handsome face, and an equally handsome figure cited underneath it. This is a wanted man.
As the guard pushes through the crowd toward the harlequin, the brightly-dressed figure steps into a low, swooping guard. As if by magic, there is a sword in his hand: slight and light, leaping like a dolphin in the morning sun. A nest of flat black bars encircles the trickster’s hand, and a rectangular pommel sits lightly in his grip.
It looks like he has one more trick up his sleeve.