Rapier

The rapier is a long, slender-bladed sword with a sharp edge and tip. It is a civilian weapon, often worn as much as a badge of rank or costume jewellery, and as a weapon of self-defence. This weapon is one step in an evolutionary series from the medieval war-sword to the foil and epee used in Olympic-style fencing. It was most commonly used in the period from the late sixteenth to the late seventeenth century, though there is evidence of its use up to and including the nineteenth century. One of the most important points about the rapier is that it was primarily a civilian weapon and not one often used in wars. The rapier also happens to mark the period of change from the knight to the gentleman, from the concept of chivalry to that of honour. As a weapon in the period, the rapier was also seen as a badge of rank, worn and used by the gentlemanly in duels to settle matters of honour. Being slender in blade, the rapier's edge was not designed to cut. The point was the most effective offensive part of the weapon. The only way that the rapier could be used to cut would be to draw the edge along its target like a razor, or make scratching blows with the tip in what the Italians referred to as stramazone. The full-bodied cuts and slashes, which are seen in movies, are things of fiction. The slender make of the blade prohibits cuts and slashes, these were more the realm of the rapiers' predecessors, the cut-and-thrust and the medieval war sword, both of which had much broader blades and were designed more for cutting than thrusting.

The thrust of the rapier was extremely lethal, the penetration of a mere couple of inches of blade would render an opponent incapacitated or dead. On the fleshy parts of the body, the stramazone would have been frighteningly effective. With an edge sharpened to a high degree, the drawing of a rapier across a target would have had a similar effect to that of a razor, especially effective against bare skin or fleshy parts of the body.