@@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.
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.
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.
@@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.
@@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
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.
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.
@@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.
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
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!
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.
Love your creativity man. Love how you put the UA-cam 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...
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)
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
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.
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
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. 😂
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.
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.
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.
I'd like to have a sword from a long blank that fillet knives are punched out of. Flex is an "issue" with blades cut from crosscut saws. I keep the original spring temper (I can't improve it) and grind them out. Another issue is that without a bolster, it can work the first pin loose from that much flex. I could probably make a sword if I found some saw blades not pitted. Have you guys ever seen the giant 1foot by 20 or 30 foot steel bandsaw blades? I can get them in whatever lengths I want for ten bucks a foot and they'll cut to order if I call ahead. I nearly had forgotten about them, I have a one foot chunk and they had 4 foot on a pallet in back. People use them for clock faces, paint them or whatever. I make blades, that's why I have it. My crazy barber had a belt sword. It was flexible enough to go into a sheath that went through his belt loops.
My barber suddenly whipping that out and yelling mfkr at me was quite a surprise. He pulled it out so fast (I wasn't paying attention initially) it was like it magically appeared between us. It was 💩 tho, way too thin and flexible to be a useful blade.
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?
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.
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.
9:34 It may not about forgetting, but about it has turned into an active action lately. i.a. when the video ends, UA-cam is now displaying so much crap, that i sometimes have to return to the video from the watch-history, because i clicked on some of that crap. #thespiffingbrit ones figured out, that the best time to suggest to like ones video, is shortly after the half way point😉
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
Dunno if anyone reads this, but I guess it would be an interesting idea to compare the weight of those rapiers to some originals they're supposed to portrait. To see if originals have more "meat' in them. Of course comparing thickness, width etc. along the whole blade would tell us more, but most museum do not provide this elaborate data.
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.
i wonder if anyone tried to add multiple very shallow fullers to a rapier & how much extra stiffness it would create, although you would have to start with a slightly thicker blade and each fuller still would have to be more akin to ½ - 1mm in depth, don't think such a thing would be possible in medieval times but modern tech with a rig might be able to do it. anyone know of a historical rapier-like weapon that had fullers on it???
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!
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
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.
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
The rapier seems like a very unique and interesting sword. Almost the equivalent of maxing out one stat in a video game so that you can have a very specialised role.
What are your thoughts on the "heavy thrusting swords" from Elden Ring, especially the Great Epee? I like them because it feels ridiculous and awesome to use a sword as long as you are essentially the same as you would use a rapier.
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.
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
1:09 Shenanigans aside, that ring thrust was amazing 😂
1:01
I wonder how many tries it took him to film.
@@jaxirraywhisper741 The more skilled you are, the fewer tries it would take
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.
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
OK but for real, I did actually jump when you did that pommel-strike at 10:16 . Startled the heck outta me.
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.
"stay thrusty" is an underrated gem.
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.
You can't go wrong with a Monty Python-inspired intro.
*"Dirty Monty" Python
It's Dirty Harry
It's Dirty Harry not Python
@@st0rmrider,
Haven't you seen _The Holy Grail?_
@@fuferito if you're talking about the anti-youtube thing, he puts that at the start of every video, not just this one.
stay thrusty folks
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
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 😂
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!
Thanks!
Nice intro, great video, fenomenal background (weapons wall), geniuos ad transition and fun outtakes!
The stay thrusty at the end. simply fantastic
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.
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.
Good video skall. It's cool being able to see your whole armory standing guard behind you.
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 👀
Love your creativity man. Love how you put the UA-cam 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...
Great vid Skall, stay thrusty.
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)
Been loving the videos lately Skall!
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.
Loved the outtakes tbh. Very fun (and had me sticking around to the very end!)
I love when skall is loving a video
Love the outtakes, let the shenanigans flow!
Love the vids my man and have for a long time now. Commenting to help you out with the algorithm
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.
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
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. 😂
Loved this video.
also now curious about estocs
They are among the stiff-est of ALL Swords I know. The ridge/Square/triangular section is awesome
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 love the wall, great video man!
God I love your humor Skall- the outtakes had me rolling! Interesting topic too- I always thought some rapiers looked way too floppy
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.
Really informative and professional video, thank you!
That will be my motto for work tomorrow ‘stay thrusty’ 😁
Great energy, love the passion and the quality it brings
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.
This is my favorite channel for sword and melee weapon education. It even surpasses Metatron and Shadiversity, no easy feat by far.
I love how one video guided you to this one. Very fun.
I always love the out takes
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.
To keep the weight down on the Han Dynasty sword, could you add a modern alloy/composite light weight basket/dome for hand protection?
I'd like to have a sword from a long blank that fillet knives are punched out of.
Flex is an "issue" with blades cut from crosscut saws. I keep the original spring temper (I can't improve it) and grind them out. Another issue is that without a bolster, it can work the first pin loose from that much flex.
I could probably make a sword if I found some saw blades not pitted.
Have you guys ever seen the giant 1foot by 20 or 30 foot steel bandsaw blades? I can get them in whatever lengths I want for ten bucks a foot and they'll cut to order if I call ahead. I nearly had forgotten about them, I have a one foot chunk and they had 4 foot on a pallet in back. People use them for clock faces, paint them or whatever. I make blades, that's why I have it.
My crazy barber had a belt sword. It was flexible enough to go into a sheath that went through his belt loops.
My barber suddenly whipping that out and yelling mfkr at me was quite a surprise. He pulled it out so fast (I wasn't paying attention initially) it was like it magically appeared between us. It was 💩 tho, way too thin and flexible to be a useful blade.
Excellent video. Loved the outtakes!
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?
I'd love for you to do a deeper dive into estocs, they seem super interesting
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.
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.
Loving your rapier era, I've been planning to make synthetic training rapier's and the insight is great
1:03 It would be great testament to quality of Thorum if you used one of their rings for that practice :)
I mean, I did. That's the black and gold ring you see on my left finger.
@@SkallagrimWow, that's awesome!
Sorry I doubted, but you said "don't try it with these", and I thought you used some ring of lesser quality.
@@LuxisAlukard No, it was more like "don't do the stupid shit I do". ;)
@@Skallagrim Totally unrelated - you stoped the stream mid sentence. I hope you beat the sysytem =) Cheers!
"Stay Thrusty" - potential merch idea? XD
Id buy that :D
@9:57 is there a video on the club you have hanging below your messers?
"It's a sharpened piece of rebar. I don't know what else you want me to say, you seem proficient enough with it already."
Lord algorithm, may you bless this man.
9:34 It may not about forgetting, but about it has turned into an active action lately. i.a. when the video ends, UA-cam is now displaying so much crap, that i sometimes have to return to the video from the watch-history, because i clicked on some of that crap.
#thespiffingbrit ones figured out, that the best time to suggest to like ones video, is shortly after the half way point😉
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.
"Stay thrusty, San Diego. I'm Skal Burgundy"
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.
wowwwww, it took me this long to realize what's going on with the legendary beast of ahhhhh and the knights in the intro........
Would a youtube short derived from this video be a "thrust trap"?
You've been doing well with the videos lately.
Thanks. I'm satisfied with the quality, but apparently the algorithm is not.
Really good subject for a video, I always wondered about these bendy rapiers.
Fresh and bendy!
@6:52
It ways the same as the heavier rapier???
I love watching you have fun doing what you do
Great video Skall ! Keep it up !
Excellent Ad segue Skall, that gets a like.
The animation at 0:16 with Like, Comment, Share vs. the Algorithm is awesome. Did you make that?
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.
I like the bladeish thing at min. 7:40 cause it reminds me of Blade.
I definitely enjoyed the intro and the video thank you skall
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.
Thanks for the new video !
"Well in all of the tavern drinking ibe forgotten myself so you have to ask yourself one question, do you feel lucky???"
I wonder how many takes that "ring challenge" scene took before you hit the mark.
It was the 4th. :)
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?
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.
Dunno if anyone reads this, but I guess it would be an interesting idea to compare the weight of those rapiers to some originals they're supposed to portrait. To see if originals have more "meat' in them.
Of course comparing thickness, width etc. along the whole blade would tell us more, but most museum do not provide this elaborate data.
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.
Informative and persuasive. Loved the video. :)
i wonder if anyone tried to add multiple very shallow fullers to a rapier & how much extra stiffness it would create,
although you would have to start with a slightly thicker blade and each fuller still would have to be more akin to ½ - 1mm in depth,
don't think such a thing would be possible in medieval times but modern tech with a rig might be able to do it.
anyone know of a historical rapier-like weapon that had fullers on it???
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!
You've got some good points.
Cheers!
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
The quality of your collection is insane now. Wouldn't mind if almost all your videos are made in this room.
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.
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
The rapier seems like a very unique and interesting sword. Almost the equivalent of maxing out one stat in a video game so that you can have a very specialised role.
"Yeah, we're a serious channel here" Also Skall: "stiffness and thrusting ghe ghe ghe..." 😆🤣😂 Nice vid, man. Actually very informative!
What are your thoughts on the "heavy thrusting swords" from Elden Ring, especially the Great Epee? I like them because it feels ridiculous and awesome to use a sword as long as you are essentially the same as you would use a rapier.
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.