Two Handed Rapiers

[JeremyDillon]

I was recently leafing through one of my favorite books on swords, Swords and Hilt Weapons when I came upon a fascinating image on page 65, in the chapter "From Rapier to Smallsword" by Anthony North. The picture is of a "Rapier for use with two hands". I've never before come across mention of such a thing before, and I was wondering if any of you had come across any mention of such a weapon. The weapon itself has a shallow cup guard and a very slim blade and literally appears to have a smaller, but otherwise identical, grip mounted on the pommel of the larger grip.The caption of the image says that the weapon "has been made more manageable by the addition of an extra grip and pommel." This, however, rings false to me as I don't see how a second hand could ever be more than a hindrance when manipulating such a light blade. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.

[Mark Driggs]

Firstly, there will be an exception to just about anything in the middle ages/Renaissance period. It was a highly experimental time with all sorts of crazy implementations which never got adopted widely. That being said,

supposedly, Per Brahe (the younger) owned one and carried it into battle around the 1630's. I seriously doubt it was the only weapon he brought into battle, but that is what the lore implies.

I know SFI and myarmoury talked about this a while ago. Here is a link: http://www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=5987

[Axel Pettersson]

Peter Johnson mentions in the link that it could have been used on horseback , which seems more likely than my first guess that it could give the user some surprise reach. I saw a straight bladed sabre on myarmoury that had similar charcteristics (very long, long grip) and clearly meant for use on horseback, like a light lance (as it was a part of a cavalrymans equpiment), I will try to look up the link.

[JeremyDillon]

Peter Johnson mentions in the link that it could have been used on horseback , which seems more likely than my first guess that it could give the user some surprise reach. I saw a straight bladed sabre on myarmoury that had similar charcteristics (very long, long grip) and clearly meant for use on horseback, like a light lance (as it was a part of a cavalrymans equpiment), I will try to look up the link.

An interesting hypothesis, however, the weapon in question doesn't appear to have the blade for use from horseback. The blade itself appears very similar to many late rapier blades as it's very thin. I don't imagine that it would stand up very well to hard battlefield use, especially from horseback.

[Axel Pettersson]

fair point!