Velstrand Hand Forged 1095 Cup Hilt Rapier with Solid Unpierced Cup & Sharp Acute Point | About 47 Inches Overall | Brass Wire Grip and Seven Day Returns | Collector Gift | RK-3031

The Velstrand is a cup hilt rapier and it is sharp. The blade is ground to an edge along its length and runs to an acute point. This is a cutting and thrusting sword for test cutting, for the wall and for the collector who wants the real geometry, and it is not a sparring tool. Do not take it to a club bout, do not use it in paired drill and do not put it against another blade.

The cup is solid and unpierced. There are no cut outs in the bowl and there is no rompepuntas, the rolled and often pierced rim that later Spanish cups carry to catch an opposing point. What you get instead is a clean sheet of steel, long quillons that end in ball finials, and a knuckle bow running from the cup to the pommel. The grip is bound in brass wire over the core.

If you are weighing a sharp against a trainer, read blunt and sharp training swords compared and rapier and sidesword compared first. The blunt rapiers built for fencing sit in HEMA rapiers.

Specifications

The cup hilt rapier and the Spanish and Italian thrust

The cup hilt is the last and cleanest answer to a problem the swept hilt had been solving with bars for a hundred years. A rapier fight is fought at the point, the hand is the closest target on the whole body, and a bowl of steel covers it completely without the fencer having to thread fingers through rings. By the middle of the seventeenth century the cup was standard across Spain and much of Italy.

Two great traditions used it. The Spanish destreza of Carranza and Pacheco de Narvaez worked from a straight arm and a circle drawn on the floor, moving on the diameters and the chords to take a line without ever squaring up. The Italian schools of Capoferro, Giganti and Fabris worked from lunges, from the stringere and from a body carried low and long. The same hilt served both.

The blade is long because reach decides a great deal in a duel fought with points. It is double edged because although the thrust wins the exchanges, the cut still answers a hand that reaches too far or a leg that stays out too long. Modern fencers reading the sources want a sharp on the wall to understand what the geometry actually means, and that is what this sword is for.

1095 at 54 to 58 HRC and a point ground to cut and thrust

This blade is 1095 high carbon steel hardened to 54 to 58 HRC. That is the normal Ransack Viking treatment and it is the right one for a sharp. It holds an edge through tatami and it takes a fine polish. It is also the reason this sword must never be used for sparring. At that hardness a blade is unforgiving of a hard bind and will chip or break rather than flex and return, which is why our trainers use spring steel instead.

The section is ridged through the middle rather than fullered, which is what a rapier blade of this length needs. A groove would lighten it but the ridge keeps it stiff against the bend that a long thrust puts into a blade. Stiffness is a virtue here for exactly the opposite reason it is a vice in a trainer, because nothing is going to be thrust into a person with this sword.

The point is acute and it is sharp. The edges are ground and sharpened along the length. Handle it as you would handle any cutting sword. It ships to adults aged 18 and over, it wants a high shelf or a locked case rather than a hallway stand if there are children in the house, and it is covered by the same lifetime warranty as everything else we sell.

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.

Engraving is cut in the United States after the sword arrives in North Babylon. Runes and text are $19, a symbol is $39 and a family crest is $49. On a cup hilt the outside of the bowl is the obvious canvas and it takes a crest or a monogram very well, though the ricasso will take a short rune line if you would rather keep it quiet.

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 rapier. Nothing in the photograph gives a scale, each one is finished by hand, and a number made up for a listing is a lie with decimal places. What is fair to describe is the architecture.

A cup hilt rapier carries a real mass of steel right at the hand, and that is the point of it. The bowl, the long quillons and the pommel together pull the balance back toward the fist, so a blade of about 40 inches stays controllable instead of hanging off the wrist. That is what allows the long straight arm guards of destreza to be held for more than a few seconds.

Because the cup is solid rather than pierced, this particular hilt is a little more substantial at the guard than a shell or a swept hilt of similar size. Expect a sword that sits back in the hand and comes to line quickly once it is moving.

Care

High carbon steel rusts faster than you expect and a sharp edge shows it first. Wipe the blade after handling, keep a light oil on it, and be careful of fingerprints, because the salt in a fingerprint will etch a mark into a polished flat within a week in a humid room.

Store it where a child cannot reach it. Do not test the edge with a thumb, do not pass it hilt first to someone who is not expecting a sharp, and never let it touch another blade. Cutting practice belongs on tatami or a water bottle on a stable stand, never on anything that can throw the blade back. Everything else is in our 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.

The only work done on this sword in the United States is the engraving, and that happens after it lands and is inspected.

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.

A hand raised cup will never be perfectly symmetrical under a straight edge, the quillon finials will differ by a fraction, the wire pitch on the grip will vary, and the polish will show the last direction the abrasive travelled. The blade may run a little longer or shorter than the figure quoted.

None of that is a defect. A defect is a blade that bends and stays bent, a cup that splits, a loose peen or a heat treat that leaves the edge soft, and every one of those is covered for as long as you own the sword with no receipt and no end date.

Frequently asked questions

Whether this rapier is sharp

Yes. The edges are ground and sharpened and the point is acute. It is a cutting and thrusting sword and it is sold to adults aged 18 and over.

Whether it can be used for sparring

No. Do not spar with it, do not drill with it against a partner and do not bind it against another blade. It is 1095 at 54 to 58 HRC, which is cutting hardness, not sparring hardness.

Whether the cup has a rompepuntas

No. The cup on this rapier is solid and unpierced with no rolled rompepuntas rim. It is a plain bowl of steel.

What a blunt equivalent would be

A purpose built rapier trainer in spring steel with a rolled tip. Those sit in the HEMA rapiers category and they are the pieces to buy for club work.

Whether a scabbard is included

No. This ships as the sword only and no scabbard is supplied with it.

How to store a sharp safely

High and locked if there are children in the house, oiled, and never in a damp bag. Our care guide covers storage in more detail.

What is in the box

• One Velstrand cup hilt rapier, sharp, about 47 inches overall.
• Care and handling card.
• Lifetime warranty against defects in the forging, the grind, the heat treat and the fittings.
• Your engraving already cut, if you chose it at checkout.

Explore the range

The blunt rapiers built for fencing are in HEMA rapiers, and the earlier cut and thrust hilts are in HEMA sideswords. For the later light hilts see smallswords and spadroons, and for curved blades see HEMA sabres. The whole line sits in the HEMA swords hub and the reading is in the guides hub.

Near neighbours in the shop

Its closest neighbours on the rack are Corvalde rapier, about 48 inches overall, Ceravalt rapier, about 47 inches overall, Fenrholt rapier, about 47 inches overall and Thanmir sidesword, about 42 inches overall.

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