Why Some Rapiers are "Too" Flexible... (Are They?)
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- čas přidán 1. 02. 2024
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Some sword blades on the reproduction market seem sort of "floppy" in tests against resistant targets (be it armor or even just ballistic gel). Particularly rapiers with narrow blades. But how fair and reasonable is it really to criticize their flexibility?
The swords in this video:
Saxony German rapier by LK Chen
www.kultofathena.com/product/...
Munich Town Guard sword by LK Chen
www.kultofathena.com/product/...
Tizona - 17th century Spanish cup-hilt rapier by LK Chen
www.kultofathena.com/product/...
Pappenheimer by Darkwood Armory
rapiers.darkwoodarmory.com/pr...
Testing them against riveted mail
• Can a Rapier Defeat Ma...
** Sources and credits **
"How FLEXIBLE are Real Antique RAPIERS? From Renaissance to Industrial Revolution" by @scholagladiatoria
• How FLEXIBLE are Real ...
German Estoc, early 1500s
www.clevelandart.org/art/1916...
French smallsword, ca. 1720
www.metmuseum.org/art/collect...
Music:
Outtakes
"Little People At Work" by Horrorpen
opengameart.org/content/littl...
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license (CC BY 3.0)
“Imminent Threat” by Matthew Pablo
opengameart.org/content/immin...
Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Outro
"Highland Storm" by The Slanted Room Records
theslantedroom.github.io/stev...
Used with artist's permission
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#skallagrim #sword #rapier #history #renaissance #weapons #hema - Zábava
You can definetely tell Skall has been upping his game lately. Your videos are getting better every time, man.
Well, the views are getting fewer and the ad revenue lower, so the only thing I can do is try to make better videos.
@@Skallagrim While we as viewers can't do much about the algorithm and stuff like that, rest assured we'll still be supporting you any way we can. I'll try to comment in most of your future uploads. Might not be much, but it's the way I can help right now.
Anyways, your hard work will pay off. (:
Dunno how it works that some fascinating stuff has like 800 views, while some random crap has 800k.
Despite the popularity of fantasy, GoT, RPGs, and all that stuff, the topic is still relatively niche, I would guess.
@@RockingRavine Thank you.
I sure do love engaging on this video@@RockingRavine
Love the armory wall. Really adds to the atmosphere, and there's just something inherently nice about seeing you just pick up any piece of your collection you want to show from it. Keep up the good work, been here for 10 years and loved every second of your content.
1:09 Shenanigans aside, that ring thrust was amazing 😂
1:01
I wonder how many tries it took him to film.
damn, the ring stab shot looked awesome
Contrary to what you might think, steel's stiffness (ie, how much it flexes with a specific amount of force) is basically unaffected by heat treatment. I think what you're mistaking for stiffness is actually the yield point (ie, how much it can flex before it doesn't spring back to true), which is quite different.
However, you _can_ make rapiers stiffer without adding weight, changing the mass distribution, or even reducing the true edge's cutting capacity. How? By reducing profile taper, increasing distal taper, and making some/all of its length single-edged.
You see, thickness has _way_ more effect on stiffness than width. All other things being equal, a blade that's twice as wide will be roughly twice as stiff, while a blade that's twice as _thick_ will be roughly _eight times_ as stiff. Thus, making the blade narrower and thicker will make it stiffer without increasing the weight (hence, the spike-like "blades" of pure thrusting swords like the estoc).
However, if you make a sword narrower and thicker but keep the same cross-section, you also increase the edge angle, and that kills the blade's ability to cut. However, a single-edged sword can have a more acute edge angle than a double-edged sword of the same width (hence the dominance of single-edged blades on cut-centric swords). Thus, going with a blunt spine will allow a cross-section that's stiffer while being equally sharp and agile.
In other words, you want a rapier that's a bit more like a 19th-century military sword. It's not an accident that when the scientific method and sword combat collided, almost 100% of blades were backswords with little/no profile taper.
Are there any examples of single-edged rapiers? It makes me wonder how Guillaume Marey-Monge would have designed a rapier.
@@benjaminabbott4705 Not sure if there were any single-edged rapiers, but I think the HEMA Misfits article on the Marey saber gives enough information to make a pretty good guess as to what a Marey rapier would've looked like, and is also a really interesting read with a lot of fascinating pictures of the remarkable sword Marey-Monge designed.
First, I don't think there's any doubt that a "Marey rapier" would be a backsword with a partially sharpened false edge, just as I described, and it's safe to assume that it would share many characteristics with his saber, most notably its fullered spine and asymmetric "fullered" handguard. Also, it would likely have the "Z-shaped point" (ie, offset fullers that run off the end of the sword rather than terminating, creating a cross-section that kind of zig-zags), as that would make for a significantly lighter, nimbler tip.
As someone who trains rapier (Giganti, Cappoferro, and Fabrics) in my experience the floppiness when you land a thrust isn't the issue it's in trying to gain leverage over your opponents sword. These edges aren't sharp so they aren't going to bite, which then allows for your opponent to slide onto the flat of your blade and bend it out of the way. That's just one example of course.
As someone just starting Giganti, would this be why he says to keep the edge toward your opponent's blade? He mentions that a lot in the disengage.
@@Benjanuva yes indeed that's correct, but again without the sharp edge to bite, the swords slide in funny ways. The stiffer the blade the less this lack of bite or excess sliding matters and structure becomes the deciding factor
Ring challenge into ring sponsorship/advertizing: nice combo, 9/10.
9:19 estoc! He mentioned MY FAVORITE
Estoc bestoc
@@twinarcher8123 yes! thrust till they bust
The wall is looking great, Skall! I really liked the "allocate points" analogy here.
stay thrusty folks
"stay thrusty" is an underrated gem.
OK but for real, I did actually jump when you did that pommel-strike at 10:16 . Startled the heck outta me.
I used to have a rapier like this. The people I fenced with it complained about it all the time. They said it was like fighting a rubber sword. Lol 😂
We don't know for sure, but I suspect George Silver's "short sword" was similar to the LK Chen Saxony, but with a basket hilt & somewhat lighter blade. For a tall man, Silver specified a blade length of 39-40 inches, which matches the Saxony. Silver complained that many long rapiers were too heavy & described his short sword as "light" repeatedly. He also wrote to use in a thumb-up sabre-type grip for some action, which gets difficult with heavier swords. There are extant British basket-hilted swords with blades in the range Silver recommended that weigh around 1.2kg.
Funny. I'm a shorter man (5'4") and practice with a 42" rapier. That reach advantage is no joke.
@@Benjanuva That's close to what some rapier masters, such as a Ridolfo Capo Ferro, recommended: that the sword overall should come from the ground to just under the armpit. Girard Thibault criticized this length as excessive & instead wrote that the cross should reach the navel. Rob Childs, one of the best rapier fencers alive, surprisingly recommends almost exactly the same blade length as Silver did: half one's height plus three inches.
Silver advocated a sword length so that you could move your sword point behind an out reached parry dagger. To long and you had to move around your own blade.
Excellent video, good to see you're confident enough to review and change your own ideas and thoughts if necessary.
I love that your content has not changed a bit over the years not matter how big you get and how you keep the right mix of humor to serious discussion. It's nice to get goo info and not feel like I'm just hearing someone read a wiki page.
You can't go wrong with a Monty Python-inspired intro.
*"Dirty Monty" Python
It's Dirty Harry
It's Dirty Harry not Python
What about the sudden ending?
@@st0rmrider,
Haven't you seen _The Holy Grail?_
I wonder if a pipe back design would be an effective solution to this issue you’d sacrifice a back edge but you can always add a false edge to the tip and you’d have a rod running up the back which would certainly add to the stiffness
Loved this video.
also now curious about estocs
I still think for me the sidesword is still what works
I like that well-rounded approach
same, i love the munich town guard sword, it does everything.
I really liked the description of thinking of making swords as like putting points into certain skills based on the amount of weight or metal you have, thrusting, cutting, point of balance/ liveliness, hand protection and idk if there were more but I think there is potential for that being used for crafting in a video game. I certainly would like to try my hand at making a system like that but would appreciate seeing it tried at all
Nice intro, great video, fenomenal background (weapons wall), geniuos ad transition and fun outtakes!
if u put a laser point to the hilt, facing foward? it will be easier to trust in the opponent, in specific points?
better yet you could blind opponent that way
And a scope. And a flashlight. And a tactical handle. And a grenade launcher. And camo paint job.
@@kamchatmonk Don't forget the bipod for extra accuracy.
I tend to watch any video about rapiers you post, Skall. I want to learn all there is to know about this type of blade 👀
The stay thrusty at the end. simply fantastic
Good video skall. It's cool being able to see your whole armory standing guard behind you.
Been loving the videos lately Skall!
Great vid Skall, stay thrusty.
Great energy, love the passion and the quality it brings
Love the outtakes, let the shenanigans flow!
Loved the outtakes tbh. Very fun (and had me sticking around to the very end!)
I love the wall, great video man!
Excellent video. Loved the outtakes!
"Stay Thrusty" - potential merch idea? XD
Id buy that :D
Gotta say, that transition from intro into the sponsor talk was pretty smooth. Not something one sees too much in ways that work well too terribly often. Great job!
I always love the out takes
Really informative and professional video, thank you!
How about a thin cylinder that gradually gets thinner and pointy? Only the last quarter or so would be sharp but it would be very stiff and still kinda light. Pretty much a metal spear at this point though lol
That will be my motto for work tomorrow ‘stay thrusty’ 😁
Great video Skall ! Keep it up !
Lord algorithm, may you bless this man.
I really enjoyed this video. I would like to learn more about rapiers though. maybe in a more well rounded approach than focusing in a specific attribute.
Love the vids my man and have for a long time now. Commenting to help you out with the algorithm
I love watching you have fun doing what you do
Informative and persuasive. Loved the video. :)
Thanks for the new video !
Really good subject for a video, I always wondered about these bendy rapiers.
Fresh and bendy!
I love when skall is loving a video
I definitely enjoyed the intro and the video thank you skall
Love your creativity man. Love how you put the CZcams algorithm monster at the beginning. Was just gonna leave a like like I usually do but instead wanted to leave a comment after the correlation of likes being like cudgels, spears being comments and axe's being shares. Lol. None of my friends really into this stuff which sucks but if I had people that were I'd def send it and swing an axe at the monster but if I can't do that I might as well take a stab at leaving a comment, yeah? Cudgels are cool too tho at the end of the day... lol... it's just for the level of effort and care you put into your videos, I wanna offer more than just a swing of a cudgel... lol.
Keep it up man. You're doing great. The way you structure your videos and just the way you carry yourself in general is genuinely helpful and inspiring to me as a young man.
Wanted to just let you that.
Thank you for sharing yourself with us...
You're doing more than you realize... and I couldn't be more thankful haha. Keep it up... You're doing great...
You can genuinely tell the passion that someone has for something based on how they speak. Your videos are great, your love for the topics you talk about, the information you give, the entertainment and honesty of your videos, I love it all. Thanks for making theses videos.
You've been doing well with the videos lately.
Thanks. I'm satisfied with the quality, but apparently the algorithm is not.
You've got some good points.
Cheers!
Love these videos!
I'd love for you to do a deeper dive into estocs, they seem super interesting
One thing I found in fencing (decades ago, so could have changed) with the very bendy blades is the ability to stab around the corner. One of my fencing classmates would regularly hit me around my gard and could even stab me in the back from the front. Probably a handy skill in duels with little to no armour
Continuing to be the best channel for information about HEMA weapons and more.
Love to have you in my Repertoire as a reference for world building.
God I love your humor Skall- the outtakes had me rolling! Interesting topic too- I always thought some rapiers looked way too floppy
To develop this topic, you could check difference between damage to flesh between stiff and floppy rapiers. Besides, before your videos about rapiers (this and previous) I kind of... Didn't treat them like a serious weapon. Now I do understand why they are such as they are. Thnx for your videos, besides. I don't know wether I will need all that information, but it is very interesting anyway)
I love how one video guided you to this one. Very fun.
Modern high carbon steel makes them springy. Toledo swordsmiths forge-welded iron strips around a softer steel core and then quenched and tempered the blade to make them stiffer. It would be cool if you could get a hold of a historical blade to compare.
Nice call out at the end.
Loved this video.
I prefer my rapier stiff with some flexibility. There are some rings which might not be as easy to get through, and some which move around erratically. Overall, when collecting rings, I prefer not to be as fast as a certain hedgehog. I prefer a moderately agile thrusting tip to my rapier.
I would stop here even though I have the energy to continue. 😂
wowwwww, it took me this long to realize what's going on with the legendary beast of ahhhhh and the knights in the intro........
Very good video, made me laugh as well as learn a bit (or rather, think about something I hadn't spent too much time on before).
I would remind people that the flex of the rapier in the chainmail test video isn't really representative. In the time rapiers were around, hardly anybody wore chainmail. Moreover, in the context rapiers were used, you wouldn't typically wear any armor (unless very sneakily to get an advantage in a duel).
So, when stabbing unarmored people, the flex would mostly be much less extreme (except when you hit bone point-on, and even so it should be less extreme).
I personally think that some replica chainmail is quite hole-y, too. I know, it's 4-in-1 and many surviving examples and archaeological finds were too. But I'd like to see arrows and pointy sharp things (rapiers, daggers, swords, spears) tested against riveted mail that's 6-in-1 or even 8-in-1, and compare the finds. Usually, when arrows or other narrow things penetrate chainmail, it's because they go through a ring and force it open. But with a more dense weave, it should be much, much harder to get far enough in.
I personally have no equipment to do such a test at the moment, but I intend to make a 6-in-1 mail shirt as soon as I can get the raw material. I know it'll be heavier (although using smaller rings allows for some weight reduction), but I think the additional protection will be well worth it.
An + cross-section reinforcement from base to middle of the blade doesn't seem to sacrifice all that much in terms of cutting performance, it's not like you're going to be chopping through things that low, and It will draw-cut just as well.
To keep the weight down on the Han Dynasty sword, could you add a modern alloy/composite light weight basket/dome for hand protection?
Excellent Ad segue Skall, that gets a like.
Epic backdrop!
also let us not forget that you actually don't need that much stabbing power at all, if the blade is rigid enough to penetrate clothing+flesh it is usualy enough for dueling every day carry weapon like that, you aren't likely to encounter significant armor with that weapon. You don't need to pierce all the way to the other side and having it more rigid when you lounge with the weight of your body can mean dreaking (or getting stuck) on hitting something hard, like the thick bone, piece of metal or hardwood like in buckler or partial armor.
Period manuals and treatises show total penetration of very thick, robust bones though, like the skull. Of course, there's always the question about just how accurate are they Even if author knew a lot about anatomy (obvious from the pictures) and probably a lot about dueling, he might have been, as always, exaggerating, due to rule of cool.
You could make it more rigid.
Use a thick triangular blade.
Merge the triangular Smallsword blade, make it thicker and add the Rapier guard type.
Plus the triangular blade doesn't cut. Its all thrust. Which means its rigidity is as good as it can get.
All you need is a very sharp point.
Sort of like the Cold Steel triangular Smallsword profile. Its much thicker than antiques.
You're on a roll with those videos lately Skall!
You could actually do quite a lot with heat treatment or the right choice of steel (nowadays, anyway). But none of that would really improve things. What you want most is a blade that doesn't break, and springs back to its original shape after bending (like yours all did), because if there's permanent damage, you're out of the fight. By making it stiffer, you would take away from this, either causing it to deform plastically (permanently) more easily, or to break. So, it's best to just accept the floppiness, or choose a different blade type that isn't too bendy.
I guess against an afraid/hesitant opponent I'd pick the longer lighter agile rapier, I can basically keep him in the distance but against a brave and tough opponent, he can basically charge and even take a thrust into the body, but then would slice me up, so I'd need something more deadly per cut.
Skala I love the Monty Python monster in the begining
Hi Skall, I have a question: when the rapier hits the target and it bends, does that bending really take away most of the force you applied in the thrust? I suppose the part of the blade that’s bending then wants to return straight, so the same amount of force the steel applies to return straight would then be applied to the target PLUS the momentum you generated with the thrust. I ask you because in the video of Rapier vs Mail happened something similar. I’m sorry if my english isn’t so good but i’m italian and it’s not that easy to explain hahaha
Great video by the way!
While a more triangle/diamond profile for more stiffness is definitely not going to be as light or able in the slashing cuts if the edge is sharp its still going to be able to cut more than deep enough to matter - you don't have to be able to slice cleanly through a few inch of tatami or a water bottle to win a fight. People are covered in vulnerable spots where you barely have to break the skin to get to the disabling or bleeding out quickly fight ending results. Even if you only deliver that shallower because of the blade profile cut to a thick muscle group the recipient isn't going to be happy about it, will likely impact their agility, distract them with the pain etc.
So when the sword design is rather more about maximum reach and thrusting as most rapier style swords tend towards I think I'd want the thicker more triangle profile of blade, especially if you anticipate fighting folks in armour. Though I'm also rather taller and broader than the average so my reach with a shorter blade may well still be longer and a little bit of extra weight is probably going to be felt less.
When I was a young man, I fenced a bit in college. I was not good, but some of the good foil guys, and maybe saber, could utilize the flexibility of their blades and "flick" the point. Easier to do in saber, certainly, with electronic scoring. Is there any historical treatise that would use this strategy, utilizing flexible blades like the ones mentioned here?
Rapier blades were probably found on non European swords as well since in the early modern era Germany manufactured a lot of sword blades which were often exported and sold overseas then hilted locally
Germans (and not only Germans, though they had by far most potent industry), were exporting blades to their customers expectations, though, to be hilted in local fashion, as you mentioned.
So mostly XIIIa - like (even into 18th century) or similar, blades for claymores (both greatsword and backsword types) for Scottish, sabre blades to Poland, Balkans and entire Eastern Europe and Western Asia, tulwar blades to India, and so on.
They mostly wouldn't export rapier blades to someone who had never used or hilted a rapier.
@@lsciborThere's quite a few surviving rapier blades in india, hilted as pata (gauntlet sword) sometimes long katar or on tulwar hilts.
Loving your rapier era, I've been planning to make synthetic training rapier's and the insight is great
Love the dirty intro outtake...
Estoc has a special place in my heart. It's basically a pointy metal stick, chunky and stiff. But it never bends, and since bendable blades seemed "weak" in my eyes, it's almost always my weapon of choice when creating OCs for worldbuilding and stuff. Rapiers are good, of course, but it's not really for me.
Skall, thank you.
Stay thrusty my friends.
@9:57 is there a video on the club you have hanging below your messers?
If some certain forging shows are to be a good standard for judgment... would say it's not a a how bendy those sorta rapiers are BUT how durable they are an can they easily bend back to the original meant shape while still being effective weapons.
Think kinda prefer the Rapier that both cuts and stabs. Problem with the very highly bendable an stabby one is if you can block an/or parry something that basically ONLY is effective One way, especially, if it's really hard tmfor them to recover any an you negated any further means to fight you you've basically won.
I mean, I personally think that if you're going all in on the thrust with such a disregard for the cut, might as well go with non flat blade. In one of the museums of Napoleonic era I saw almost exclusively blades for thrusting with sort of T shaped blade
This is my favorite channel for sword and melee weapon education. It even surpasses Metatron and Shadiversity, no easy feat by far.
Personally, I've always been a fan of the idea of a diamond or triangular cross sectioned blade on a rapier, for more stiffness, and it seems there are examples of blades like this.
I can absolutely see where the trade off to get an extra 2" of reach with a sword that is still stiff enough to pierce a person's heart was worth the trade off in fencing/deuling even if it's not something you'd want for a battle weapon.
Nice shirt. 🤘🏻
i dont have a training rapier yet so i have to use one of my instructor's rapiers. this week i was using one that was way too heavy for me. felt like i was holding up a brick. my forearm was killing me xD personally i prefer the lighter rapiers to the heavier ones
Cruciform or Trefoil - doesn't mean making it thicker; in fact, for a given amount of metal, it could be thinner and sharper for equal or greater stiffness. Harder to make, of course, but most changes are tradeoffs.
I am an engineer. I know not to limit myself from crazy ideas when someone ELSE has to do it.
How to make the rapier blade stiffer without dramatically increasing weight. You heard of pipe-backed blades. Howzabout a pipe-spined blade. Add a half-round raised beam running along each apex of a diamond cross section blade from the ricasso almost to the point. How would you make such a blade> I dunno. Remember, I don't have to do it.
"Stay thrusty, San Diego. I'm Skal Burgundy"
As always, worth watching to the very end :))
Not a swordsman, so I can't comment with authority, but I'm somewhat curious about the "stickiness" of floppy thrusting swords as opposed to stiffer ones.
Given one of the main flaws of thrust-focused swords is the risk of the blade getting stuck, I wonder if floppier blades would be less difficult to extract, given the potential to jiggle them in ways you couldn't with a stiffer blade. Though I could also see stiffer blades being better in this regard, given the reduced likelihood of penetrating at a wonky angle like a floppier blade might. Now that I think about it, the "sticky" factor might be a point in favor of edged thrusting weapons over "pure" thrusters: they'd have less friction, and as such might theoretically be easier to extract.
I'm probably talking out of my ass on all these points, but I'd assume they'd be things to consider.
Wow, never seen youtube upload 10 seconds ago. haha best to you Skall!
I am curious, since a certain amount of force gets absorbed into basically a spring, how does the force against your hand/wrist feel when hitting these targets?
The weapon was designed and used under certain conditions where it was otimal.
Apples and oranges, sure a broadsword would be better but so would a Glock 17... but they were not commonly carried at the the time
Meteoric Iron ring.hmmm...A sponsorship I like.
wow i LOVE pointy metal bars