Who invented the fencing sword

Fencers generally develop a preference for the kind of guard that they prefer, based on weight, feel, protection, hand size, etc. Foils, epees, and sabres all have blades made from low-carbon steel. This composite metal bends when the opponent is struck in order to minimize the physical impact. Injuries in fencing are uncommon compared to other sports, even non-combat sports, and even then almost all the injuries are from twisted ankles or pulled muscles, and never from the blade itself.

Protective gear is obviously plays a major part of keeping fencers safe as well. That same low-carbon steel also makes fencing swords lightweight, which helps to prevent fencers from getting too tired too quickly. Not only that, fencing blades that are lightweight move quickly and allow for fast touches! Metallurgy played a huge role in developing a safe, light and durable blades and a modern fencing enjoys from these advances in the science. The blade is arguably the most important part of the sword — after all, this is with what we hit with and defend against.

This is their most important tool and nobody takes choosing the right one lightly. Blades themselves differ in two major aspects in addition to being electric or practice :.

Fencing swords have a maximum blade length, depending on the weapon. In sport fencing the youngest fencers are required to compete with shorter blades.

FIE blades have been developed to an international standard of what blades should be from the perspective of manufacturing and quality in order to satisfy the strictest international safety standards. The pommel is the bottom end of the fencing sword, holding the whole thing together. A pommel is generally made of metal and is screwed to the blade. As with handle itself, there are a lot of different types of pommels.

This part of the sword is especially important to those epee fencers who fence with a french grip, and the pommel oftentimes matches the handle itself. Pommels mainly differ from the perspective of size, material, form, and weight. In the hands of professional epee fencer, the pommel balances the shape of the handle and the weight of the entire weapon, thus it is an incredibly important piece.

The pad is simply a lining inside the guard. It exists only for the comfort of the fencer, to prevent knuckles and fingers from getting hurt on the metal bell guard during a match. Pads can be made of cloth felt , leather, or plastic. When the pad is made of plastic it can can also be made transparent so that referees and fencers can see thru when they are examining the weapon.

Back when these weapons were used primarily for dueling lethally intended weapons had points that were sharpened as much as possible. Indeed, a common confusion around fencing on a horse is that it is to be applied, or at least can be adapted, to fencing on foot.

While by the mid 19th century certain authors do try to create systems that can be used in both contexts with minimal alterations, Napoleonic era fencing draws a rather strong line between the two. Cavalry sabre generally uses much wider cuts and parries while fencing on foot tends to use much more minimalist movements, for the simple reason that a man on horse can afford to use such motions against an opponent that does not move as he would on foot, or one who is literally fighting on a different level.

The presence of the horse changes the nature of the fighting very deeply. Although the latter served under the English flag, it seems that the two authors have simply come together on several points and the lawsuit was therefore dismissed. But what is the place of the fencing master in the Grand Army?

To fully understand the context of teaching fencing under Napoleon, we must once again look back in time. While it would be easy to see this fencing through a modern lens, we have to put aside Hollywood images of soldiers trained in sword handling under the command of a vociferous commanding officer.

Indeed, in France fencing was first and foremost an individual activity. The regimental masters or provosts gave private lessons to one or a handful of students at a time, most of the time for a fee. Unless the commanding officer decided to pay lessons to all his men, this training was at the discretion of the soldier.

I would argue that this state of affairs was probably the norm across pre industrial armies for quite a long time, if not for most of history.

The position of fencing master allows the master to earn an additional salary in the first place by offering his lessons to officers and soldiers. The sword is by then carried of course by cavaliers, but also officers, sergeants, grenadiers, musicians, artillerymen, light infantrymen as well as by certain elite corps and… by fencing masters. Although the rifleman is now only equipped with his rifle and bayonet, he too is a potential client of the master at arms.

Indeed, the use of fencing is not only found on the battlefield. Hand-to-hand combat has, since the 17th century and the popularization of firearms, become increasingly rare. It happens that bayonet fights take place, and that officers or soldiers have to defend their lives with their sabre or their sword, but beyond this consideration, no doubt important for some soldiers, what seems perhaps still to be more common is the duel.

In some soldiers memoirs we do find detailed accounts of duels. As mentioned above, even without their swords, which had been removed from their equipment in , the fusiliers managed to settle their disputes with cold steel. The soldier and future general Jean Antoine Rossignol is thus twice forced to fight in a duel with the bayonet held not with the gun, but with the hand [22]. Rossignol being himself a provost, then later fencing master, he teaches us some interesting facts about the culture of regimental fencing.

Rossignol, unable to afford a fencing master, began his apprenticeship with a comrade in his regiment using baguettes , or wooden sticks used to teach espadon. After this four-month apprenticeship, Rossignol began to fight regularly in duels and also began to teach.

This shows us a certain lack of boundaries between the world of civilian and military fencing which were not quite as different as one would expect.

The different companies within a regiment, such as chasseurs or grenadiers, each had their own dedicated masters, themselves represented by their First Fencing Master. Rossignol also tells us about the receptions and assaults given by masters and students when a master from another regiment was passing through.

We can see how a whole culture is therefore developing around the teaching of fencing amongst the military, with its rituals and its hierarchy. You might think of the masters of the day as fairly well-regarded figures in society and of soldiers in general, yet there is some literature that suggests that their reputation was actually rather mixed.

The master at arms is then strongly associated with the culture of dueling, which the French government has tried to suppress since the 16th century with little success. The French Republic had removed duelling as a criminal offense, and though there is a popular story going around that Napoleon had outlawed duelling, no such law can be found, outside of a temporary general order to the army stationed in Boulogne, enacted to repress a duelling craze which grew out of control among idle soldiers waiting to invade England, and which probably was misinterpreted by some as a law.

There are also no indications that Napoleon himself disapproved of duelling. If anything, he seemed to have held the same feeling towards it as most French officers; that it was a necessary practice in the military. Rossignol shows clearly in his many duels how the fencing masters were involved in the process. We also notice in some memoirs that the duel was an initiatory step for the soldier, and that it was therefore more tolerated in this environment than it would be in society in general.

To prove his bravery to his comrades, they manage to push him to fight, sometimes with the complicity of the master. One comes to suspect the fencing masters of fueling this culture of dueling for their own ends. As soon as this short apprenticeship is over, Bataille tries to provoke a duel between Moutonnet and another soldier named Lavalleur Swallower.

The duel is interrupted by the arrival of anonymous enemies, Moutonnet and Lavalleur forgetting their quarrel in a burst of patriotism to go together to face them. This piece fits perfectly with certain testimonies left by various soldiers, in particular the famous Captain Coignet. In his memoirs, Coignet also tells us about his apprenticeship in fencing with the masters of his regiment, the 96th of the line, who pushed him to four hours of exercise per day followed by two hours of fencing in the salle, and this for three whole months.

Interestingly, this training regimen of six hours for several months seems to come back fairly often in historical accounts. Coignet very quickly finds himself in a duel which he describes to us as follows:.

I became very strong in arms; I was flexible, I had two good fencing masters who pushed me. I paid them the drop these two drunkards needed that. I had no reason to complain, for after two months they put a great strain on me; they made me look for a quarrel, even without a cause. That I draw you a drop of blood! Come on, mister scoundrel. And off we go, the four of us: we were not far in the Luxembourg Gardens, there were some old hovels there, and they were leading me between old walls.

There, coats off, I put myself on guard. Attack first. On guard! Here is my master standing in the way, sword in hand. And we went for a drink. Does he not want it anymore? I was recognized as a good grenadier. I saw where they were going with it, it was a test to make me pay my share. This is probably the best description of the duel as a test of the young recruit. This institution was so entrenched that the military still tolerated dueling for most of the 19th century, even attempting to regulate it.

After seriously injuring another soldier in a duel, Rossignol is threatened with imprisonment by his sergeant-major. This argument seems sufficient for the sergeant-major to release him on the spot, with a smile. During the wars of the Empire, many masters and provosts of fencing were taken prisoner by the enemy. American prisonners at Dartmoor, such as Uriah Levy, first Jewish commodore of the US Navy, took the opportunity to learn fencing from some of them.

It would appear that these richly decorated diplomas began to appear during the Empire. The pattern appears to be fairly regular. The diploma usually depicts two fencers playing under the eye of military masters. The certificate lists the name and affiliation of the candidate, and invites the undersigned to provide assistance as needed.

The large number of signatories to these diplomas, often thirty in number, shows us the very large population of military masters in the regiments. Indeed, even if the weapons described previously are really what most would associate with fencing, others were also practiced, especially, it seems, in the Imperial Navy. The sailor of the Imperial Guard Henri Ducor tells us how fencing was then part of the entertainment on board a Spanish prison ship on which he was imprisoned from to , and in the prison camps of Russia from to I have already written quite a bit about la canne and le baton , so I will try not to repeat myself here, but it is not quite clear how these methods came to evolve, as we have very few sources.

Even though sailors were apparently recognized for their skills with blunt instruments, swordsmanship also seemed to have been a fairly popular activity, according to the memoirs of then Lt.

They would also routinely train in dancing, and adopt a peculiar way of walking from these activities, with their feet turned at an extreme outward angle as a result. He also mentions how many would also wear a sharpened foil next to their cutlass. Their presence at the military barracks in Vincennes, as they were called to help defend the city during the campaign of France, contributed to many sabre fights with the horse artillerymen with whom they shared those barracks.

Norman Cross War Prison, England, ca. A close up shows several figures practicing fencing, as well as two practicing what looks like le baton.

Interestingly, they are located in the sailors prison, in the lower right square as indicated in the no. Several sailors and soldiers therefore began to teach weapons at the end of their service. In addition to these illustrious characters, we can also imagine several hundred masters with a more humble background, such as this spurrier from the region of Le Mans in The Napoleonic wars did not only contribute to the development of fencing in France.

As in other fields, the Empire extended French influence in Europe and even beyond. Thus, we can identify several French masters teaching fencing abroad. We have already named de Saint-Martin, teacher at the Austrian court, Valville [31], general instructor in the Russian imperial guard, and who left a very marked mark on the fencing of this country until the end of the 19th century, Domenico Angelo and his son Henry, both taught at least in part for Henry in France, as well as Francalanza teaching contre-pointe at the Military College of High Wycombe, the institution created by none other than Gaspard Le Marchant.

Among them is Christmann, a veteran of the Imperial Guard and native of Mainz whose method was exported not only to Germany but also to Greece [33]. Or Bertolini, who publishes a volume on the contre-pointe in Trieste [34]. Even in America, where some exiled soldiers such as FP Girard taught in Boston and Montreal [35], or even at the prestigious military academy of West Point in the United States where the first fencing master, Pierre Thomas, taught espadon, pointe and contre-pointe [36].

Napoleonic influence also continued to be felt in countries such as Italy where French military academies had been established. Following the Restoration, fencing spread but did not experience any major revival in the army. There are three types of fencing blades, each for a different type of fencing. They are foil, sabre, and epee. There are three kinds of swords in the sport of fencing: The Foil, the Epee, and the Sabre.

There are three types of sword used in fencing, and all three are used in Olympic fencing. The types are: Sabre Epee Foil. This question is not clear. Fencing is a sport. A foil on a sword used in fencing. There is also epee's and sabre's. What are you tryin to ask. There are three types of swords used in fencing: An Epee, Foil, or Sabre. The weapon used for training in the fencing duel era was called the foil fleur.

It is still used as one of the 3 weapons for fencing today, although it has never historically been a real weapon used for combat.

There isn't a training sword in fencing. Originally the foil see above before the sport fencing - like we know it now - exsisted. Now you choose a weapon like the foil and train with that. So in fencing there is no training sword. Log in. See Answer. Best Answer. Celine sarmiento. Study guides. Q: Who invented the fencing sword? Write your answer Related questions. Who was the inventor of fencing?

Who was the person that invented fencing? How many different use's are there for a fencing sword? Who invented fencing?