Valdris Hand Forged 51CrV4 Spring Steel Sidesword Trainer with Ball Finial Cross & Single Side Ring | About 41 Inches Overall | Steel Wire Grip and Rolled Tip | HEMA Gift | RK-3015

The sidesword is the sword an Italian fencer of the sixteenth century actually wore on his belt, and the Valdris trainer is built to be fenced with rather than hung over a fireplace. It is a single handed cut and thrust sword, straight in the blade, heavy enough at the middle to throw a mandritto that means something, and fitted with the hand protection that the Bolognese plays quietly assume you already have.

This hilt is the plain end of the family and it is all the better for it. A straight cross with turned ball finials, one ring standing proud on the outside to cover the finger you hook over the cross, and a knuckle bow running from the cross up to the pommel so your hand is not exposed on the inside line. Nothing swept and nothing decorative. The grip is wound in steel wire over a shaped core, which does not turn in a sweaty glove halfway through a bout.

The blade is blunt. It is forged from 51CrV4 spring steel and hardened to 49 to 52 HRC, the edges left as a flat land and the point rolled and flared instead of finished to a spike. If you are still deciding which sword to train with, read how to choose your first HEMA sword and rapier versus sidesword before you commit, then look across the rest of the HEMA sideswords to see where this one sits in the range.

Specifications

The sidesword in the Bolognese tradition

The Bolognese masters are the reason this sword looks the way it does. Antonio Manciolino in 1531, Achille Marozzo in his Opera Nova of 1536 and Giovanni dall Agocchie in 1572 all describe a single handed sword used with the point and the edge in the same breath, alone or paired with a buckler, a rotella, a cloak or a dagger. The guards they name are the vocabulary you will hear in any sidesword class: coda lunga e stretta with the point forward on the outside, porta di ferro low and closed, guardia di testa covering overhead, guardia alta cocked back for a descending blow. The blows are as plainly named: mandritto from your right, riverso back across from your left, fendente down, sottano up from below, and the thrusts, imbroccata and stoccata.

What that asks of the sword is a real balance between cutting and thrusting rather than a compromise that does neither. You need a blade that will land a fendente with authority and still be recovered into a closed guard before the return blow arrives, and a point that can be put into a line and held there while you gain the bind. At mezza spada, where the blades are crossed near the middle and you are close enough to feel what the other fencer intends through the steel, the sidesword earns its keep. The hand is already protected, so you can stay in the bind and work rather than being forced to break measure the moment the cross closes.

Spring steel, the single ring and what the hilt actually protects

The blade is 51CrV4 spring steel hardened to 49 to 52 HRC and that choice is deliberate. A cutting sword at 54 to 58 HRC is hard enough to hold a keen edge, which is exactly what you want in a sharp and exactly what you do not want in a sparring blade. Hard steel under a heavy bind does one of two things, it takes a set and stays bent, or it lets go and breaks. Spring steel at this hardness bends and returns. It is the reason nothing in the HEMA line carries the high carbon story we use on our cutting swords.

The ring is not decoration. The moment you put your index finger over the cross to gain point control, and every Bolognese source assumes you will, that finger sits outside the guard with nothing above it. The ring covers it. The knuckle bow does the same job on the inside line, catching a riverso that would otherwise run down the blade into your knuckles. The edges are left as a flat land rather than ground to a line, and the point is rolled and flared to about 15 mm across so it spreads the load of a thrust instead of concentrating it. Tournament bodies vary on tip rules, the Berlin HEMA Cup for example asks for spatulated or rolled tips of at least 1.5 cm, so check your event rules against the piece rather than assuming. More on that in HEMA sword flex explained.

Engraving, runes and your own design

Use the rune converter on this page to turn a name, a date or a short phrase into Elder Futhark and we will cut it into the steel or the grip. Club names, a founding year, a line from the source you train out of, all of it works.

Engraving is done in the United States after the piece lands in North Babylon, so nothing is cut until you have told us what you want. Text and runes are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49. If you would rather have your own design than a rune line, choose your own design in the engraving option above the add to cart button and tell us where it goes. Where a piece already carries an engraved design, your chosen engraving replaces it rather than sitting alongside it. More on the engraving page.

Handling and balance

We do not publish a weight or a point of balance for this sword. The photograph carries no scale and hand forged pieces vary, so a published number would be a guess dressed up as a measurement. What we will say is how it behaves. The mass sits low enough down the blade to give a fendente real presence, and the pommel brings the point back up without a wrestle. With a finger over the cross the pivot moves back towards your hand and the point becomes noticeably easier to hold in line during a long exchange. Close the fist behind the cross instead and it swings harder for cutting at the cost of that precision.

Care

Spring steel rusts like any other carbon steel. Wipe the blade down after every session, especially where hands have been on it, and put a thin film of oil over it before it goes back in the bag. A wire grip traps sweat between the turns, so dry it properly rather than leaving it damp under a lid. Check the pommel and the cross for movement every few sessions, because a peened hilt that has started to loosen only gets worse under load and is a simple fix caught early. Dress any burrs raised on the edge land with a fine file and keep the flat, never let anyone put a cutting edge on a trainer. Full detail is in the blade care guide.

Made in the Czech Republic

Made by hand in the Czech Republic and imported by Ransack Viking. Nothing here is drop shipped out of an importer catalogue straight to a customer. Every one is checked for hilt tightness, pommel seating and blade straightness at our North Babylon, New York warehouse, and ships from there. Shipping in the United States is free, returns run for seven days, and the lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings has no end date and needs no receipt.

A note on handmade variation

This is hand forged. It is not machine made, not cast and not bulk produced, so what arrives will not be a pixel for pixel copy of the photograph on this page. The wire wrap, the exact reach of the ring and the finish on the cross are worked by hand and settle a little differently on each piece. The steel, the heat treat, the blunt edge land and the rolled tip are the same every time, and those are the parts that decide whether a trainer is safe and honest to fence with.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this sidesword is sharp

It is not. The edges are left as a flat land of about 3 mm and the point is rolled and flared, so it is built for controlled sparring and drill against a kitted partner. We never sharpen one on request.

What flex tier this blade sits in

Medium, which is the band clubs usually issue for sidesword work. We give flex as a named tier rather than a number in pounds because this blade has not been measured on a rig.

Whether it can be used in a tournament

That depends entirely on the ruleset you are fencing under, and every event writes its own. The tip is rolled and flared to about 15 mm, which meets the Berlin HEMA Cup minimum of 1.5 cm, but you must read your own event gear rules before you turn up. We never claim a piece is tournament legal without naming the ruleset.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. Nothing in this range ships with a scabbard. The sword travels best in a padded bag with the blade wiped and lightly oiled.

How the hilt is put together

The tang runs the full length of the grip and the pommel is peened over it, which holds the cross, the ring, the bow and the grip in compression. There is no threaded button under the pommel and no epoxy doing structural work.

Who this sidesword suits

Anyone starting Bolognese sidesword, longsword fencers moving to a single handed system, and clubs buying loan swords that get handed to a new beginner every week.

What is in the box

• The Valdris sidesword trainer, blunt, blade about 34 inches
• A warranty card covering the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings, with no end date
• Care notes for the spring steel blade and the wire wound grip
• Your engraving already cut into the piece, if you chose one at checkout

Explore the range

There is more of this family to look at. The rest of the HEMA sideswords run from plain ringed hilts like this one up to full swept guards, the HEMA rapiers carry the same idea further towards the point, the arming swords show what the single handed sword looked like before the hilt grew, and everything blunt we make sits together in the HEMA swords hub. If you want the reading first, start at the guides hub.

Near neighbours in the shop

Its closest neighbours on the rack are Brekavik schiavona, about 41 inches overall, Orveldt sidesword, about 42 inches overall, Thanmir sidesword, about 42 inches overall and Ceravalt rapier, about 47 inches overall.

The HEMA sidesword category and the HEMA sword hub hold the remainder, and you can order a one off on the custom sword builder.