With the opening of our new Sword Cutlers' shop near the harbor in Melioria, we, the Swordsmiths of the island, are pleased to begin offering our first releases of authentic 18th century edged Weapons for purchase by Gentlemen of Fashionable Tastes and Good Judgement.

"A Sword cutler's shop" from Diderot's Encyclopedia, which served as the inspiration and guide for the swordsmith's shop on Melioria

The pieces offered for sale at present include firstly, an unscripted Fencing Foil of the general pattern developed primarily in Northern Italy and Germany and commonly employed from around 1720 to 1800. When this form of foil is used in the various German principalities, they are sometimes caller "parisers" as they are designed for fighting in the french fashion, stabbing with the point rather than slicing with the edge. The version offered comes with a leather "blossom" attached for safety of your sparring partner, which may be removed as our foil is mod/copy. These are very suitable for use in the fencing game called En Garde ( and if you are not familiar with the means of utilizing non-standard weapons for En Garde, we will be happy to explain the process). The purchase price of this foil is only 50 L.

the Foil, in use

Secondly, we are very pleased to inform the fashionable gentlemen of the various baroque sims that we are offering a beautifully scripted S mallsword of the pattern that was most commonly worn by European gentlemen from about 1750 to 1790. You shall no longer be compelled to wear your grandfather's bulky and out-of-date rapier: instead you may choose from one of our authentic smallswords with different finished hilts, including a sword with blackened mountings suitable for mourning and funerals (currently on sale at the 18th century content makers fair); a silver-mounted version which may function nicely as a court sword or gentleman's town sword; and a bronze hilted sword suitable either as a gentleman's town sword, or for use in the field or on parade by military officers, particularly those in naval service, staff, or infantry. Each sword comes with a scabbard, and is scripted with animations to draw and sheath, and various combat movements. Once drawn, the stance used is taken from actual 18th century fencing instruction manuals.

The silver and bronze swords will be available for purchase in the sword cutler's shop in Melioria starting this saturday, May 19th (other versions shall be forthcoming). The price will be a mere 249 L. A sample of the bronze version may be seen there now, set in the swordsmith's vise:

For those who would like a short history of the smallsword and some illustrations showing actual 18th century examples, we refer you to this article:

http://www.hadesign.co.uk/SSA/html/Smallsword.html

We look forward to providing you with a proper and authentic sword or swords for all occasions. If you so desire, we will be happy to demonstrate the various animations and/or usage in En Garde for you prior to purchase.

Your humble and obedient servants,

Ernst Osterham

Aldo Stern

Miguel Herrero

updated by @aldo-stern: 06 Oct 2016 01:58:51PM

Of course, you can't judge a book by its cover...nor an En Gardefencer by his/her sword, BUT...it fascinates me to see more variety introduced in the SL supply of historically accurate swords, foils, epees, sabres.

Just as 18th century swordcutlerscrafted thousands and thousands masterpieces bothfor fencing efficiency and sartorial elegance,these above-mentioned items seem to be really the produce of a dedicated and serious research, and look astonishingly good. I can't wait to see them inworld, test them on the pistes, and maybe complete my outfits with a sample of each

Buongiorno, Don Myron!

Thank you for the compliments. We have done our best to make these suit the various purposes of rp, competitive fencing, and simply looking good (which is, in and of itself, not an unworthy goal).

By the way, I should also mention that a substantial portion of the proceeds from the sale of these weapons goes directly to help support the continued operation of the Melioria sim.

Yours,

Don Aldo