A Sidesword Trainer
by Balefire Blades
A few days ago, while I was considering purchasing this or that antique, getting another sharp or a more nimble trainer, my friend told me that he saved me from purchasing a nice £750 sidesword. How did he do that? Well, he bought it instead. He bought the Double Shell Sidesword listed by Balefire Blades.
David Biggs has a nice product review of Balefire Blades where he goes over what makes these trainers exceptional, so I only want to share here my experience playing with one such piece. Since my friend only received it yesterday morning, and we got to spar with it in the evening, these are just some first impressions that stuck with me.
Double Shell Sidesword
Going quickly over some details, while one can place a commission with Balefire Blades, Chris Adams makes a series of creations as part of his Black Ribbon Suite. On overage, these are half the price, but they are sold as seen, without the ability for further customisations. The specifications for this piece are listed as:
Total length: 107cm
Blade length: 94cm
Blade width: 2.5cm
Quillon span: 22.5cm
Grip length: 8.5cm
Grip and pommel: 12.5cm
Weight: 820g
Point of Balance: 15.5cm
Right-handed
[see the website page or Facebook post for more photos]
My Impressions
First, while I am not a big fan of shells on swept hilts, as I posted last week, this is not the case here. The larger outer-shell and the smaller inner-shell do not compete with any side-rings and offer good protection on their own. The only side-sweep that joins with the knuckle-bow complements beautifully the overall design, which keeps the inner side clear. The wire grip is exceptional, offering good control in or out of gloves.
For some reason, I get a feeling of a pleasant mix of Italian and German hilts. While its use for Italian systems is obvious (i.e. finger the cross-guard), the flat triple-fullered ricasso allows one to use it in the German style of placing the thumb on the blade. So this works well for Meyer rapier as well as Bolognese sidesword.
During sparring, we both used impact-resistant heavy gloves, and we found the small pommel to rest comfortably at the base of the hand. A larger fig pommel, for example, is quite uncomfortable to use in a heavy glove, even if it works beautifully for an ungloved hand. For a light glove, this is not a problem.
In case it’s not clear, I really like the look of the blade. But what pleasantly surprised me was the presence of the blade on this 820g sidesword. I tried to beat the blade offline and struck the middle of the blade. It felt like hitting an immovable wall. Some people refer to a sword as having a strong blade presence to excuse a heavy blade, but this is not the case here. The blade's presence is just that, an authoritative blade that will not give ground, mounted on a very light sword. At 820g this is the lightest sidesword I have ever used.
The thrust was safe, but it also felt rigid. I got git by it a few times (ok, a lot of times) and I can say that you feel it. The sword makes you aware of a hit, without it feeling heavy on the less padded body parts. I like this quite a lot. It’s better at making you aware of a hit while being more forgiving of one.
I used against it a Kvetun Sidesword No.1 and a Malleus Martialis’s Marozzo. While I like both of them in their own right, both are heavier sideswords. Yet, they feel less authoritative in the blade as their PoB is only 10cm compared to the over 15cm on the Balefire Blades piece. I am now wondering why are we even using trainers over 1000g. I get the same feeling when fencing, yet I come out of a bout with fewer bruises, and with my arm feeling less tired.
In the aftermath of the bout, we notice a series of scuffs to the blackened finish. I tried my best not to snipe the hands, honestly, I did! Yet, it’s hard to avoid hits to the hilt. My friend did not care and considered these scuffs to be normal. However, while we both agreed that we don’t care to see these on a good £750 trainer, if we were to double the price, seeing these scuffs would sting.
To Conclude: I want one!
Honesty, I thought for a while to get a Balefire Blades rapier. But my lack of experience made me cautious. It’s one thing to spend £200 on a whim, and it’s another matter to spend ten times the cost without knowing what you want.
I know that I want my own design, one that boroughs from existing antiques. At this point, I think I want to create my ideal streak-sidesword. I will probably make a post going over what elements I would choose and why for such a trainer. At least it will make for a good topic of exploration.
Last, would I want a blackened hilt? The silver and black look is gorgeous, but if I paid double the price and more, I would be annoyed seeing scuffs after a single evening of fencing. Then again, the solution to cold blue carbon steel is not that expensive or problematic to apply. So I would be able to do touch-ups from time to time. I honestly don’t know that I would choose, but that’s a problem for the future me.