The Renaissance is when the sword stopped being a battlefield tool and became civilian dress. Blades got longer and narrower, hilts grew rings, bars and cages to protect a hand that was no longer in a gauntlet, and the point started to matter more than the edge. That is the family gathered here: side swords, rapiers, an espada ropera and the fencing and dueling shapes that came out of the same century.
Blades and hilts
Overall lengths run 38 to 46 inches with blades from 31 to 38.5 inches, which is a very different set of proportions from a medieval arming sword. The side swords sit at 38, 38.5, 39, 40 and 41 inches, two of them in forge welded 1095 and 15N20 Damascus at 58 to 60 HRC, one with a black leather scabbard, a brass throat and hanger rings, one with a swept brass toned hilt, an olive pommel and a wire wrapped grip. The rapiers are the longest: one at 46 inches overall with a 38.5 inch blade, and a rune etched piece at 42 inches with a swept steel hilt and a wire wrapped grip. The espada ropera sits at 38 inches, the dueling sword at 40.5 inches with a 33.5 inch blade, and the fencing sword at 39.5 inches. Two flame bladed pieces belong here as well, one at about 42 inches with an S curved crossguard and an engraved pommel, and a Damascus one at about 40 inches with a blackened swept hilt and a knuckle bow. Plain blades are 1095 high carbon at 54 to 58 HRC. Prices run from 385 dollars to 669 dollars.
What the hilt is telling you
Rings, bars and cages are not decoration. They are the answer to fighting without armour on the hand, and the more elaborate the hilt the later and more civilian the sword usually is. The swept and caged hilts are in basket and shell hilt swords, the long thrusting blades are in rapiers, and the wave bladed pieces are in flamberges. For everything else in one place, start at swords.
Ransack Viking is a US company based in Chicago, Illinois. These pieces are handmade in the Czech Republic, then imported, inspected and shipped from Chicago. Engraving is done in the US after arrival: text 19 dollars, symbol 39 dollars, family crest 49 dollars.
Free US shipping
On most pieces. Heavier and oversized ones carry a flat charge.
Hand Forged
Heated, hammered and ground by hand.
Engraving available
Names, dates or Norse runes on most pieces.
