I made a mistake: The rapier I called "Portugese" is at the Museo Delle Armi Antiche in San Marino. Couldn't find detailed information on that one, so I don't know if it was originally made there or not. The black and white picture with the Portugese text is the one I had in mind, but upon closer inspection it seems to be yet another one (so the fifth rapier?). Sorry about the mixup, I'm a little overworked. Either way I'm assuming that there is a connection between the Portugese law that restrict total length and the extending rapier.
@@Neiot Famously the Uk is a place you can only go to once in a lifetime. Also, equally famously modes of travel only ever let you buy one return ticket, ever.
UK bans all knives and swords medieval is dead there as they killed their own history in the name of UK knife crime as people don't use Stanleys or kitchen knives they use ancient samurai swords worth half a million to kill eachother. I hate England this a silly place.
@@CptZatōichi Wtf are you talking about? I live a 10 minute walk from proper medieval castle and 5 minutes from a Civil War battleground. I also live in the heart of the Black Country, so named because of the Industrial Revolution that basically started here. We are surrounded by castles and history. How the hell did we "kill our history" and what does that even mean? Oh, and please tell me when some scrote used a Nihonto in a killing? Go on. I will wait.
Queen Elizabeth's "standard yard" stick still exists. It is a total of 985mm (38.8 inchs) overall length, according to it's description by the Science Museum in London. Presumably that overall length is the Elizabethan yard but maybe it's a smaller subdivision. The AI-ificatiin of the Internet made this very hard to look up
Oooh, I want to do the math. So "a yard and a half quarter." I think that means a yard and an eighth? why didn't she just say an eighth? Anyway, a mm is smaller than 1/10th inch so 985mm /8 = 123.125 so total length= 1108mm or 43.6 inches.
That's curious. Many other sources, including from the 19th century, say the Elizabethan yard standard was almost exactly the same as the modern yard, at 36.015 inches (or a tiny bit shorter or longer, depending on the exact text). It remained the British standard until 1824. Did the yard lose 2.8 inches in 1824? I doubt it.
Extending rapier? We are getting there lads, somewhere out there some mad lad has built an actual working switchaxe from monster hunter.. Any day now Skall is gonna find it and he's gonna be baffled. Great video
My grandmother (well, great grand) had a rotary phone until the day she died in 2005. Trying to use one while holding a *_thick_* phone book was quite a feat.
If you look for an other exotic piece. There is a weapon from the treasury shown in Castle Eltz (Burg Eltz) in Germany. It is an "Streithammer mit versenkbarer Pike, 15. Jahrhundert" (original text, I have taken a picture of the text and one of the "pike" coming out). It is an squared roughly 50cm long full steel spike extending from the warhammer head. The piece had on its sign the number 10. Number 9 is the "Reiterstreithammer (Kürißbenkel) mit Radschloßpistole, ca. 1580" (just for reference).
That last bit sent my mind back down into the deepest recesses of white-yellow tinted technology. When AOL sounded like it was possessed by demons and CRT monitors burned my retinas.
6:06 "carry this in its legal form" reminded me of that old nunchuk video. "Legal. Illegal. Legal. Illegal." And it kinda is the sword version of that :D
In Star Wars (pre-Disney) some Jedi would add this extension ability to their lightsaber in order to add a surprise during their fight. Vader eventually added it to his lightsaber as well. Neat to see Rapiers implement something like this.
@ It is in the novelization. I don't think youtube liked the link I tried to post. If you search for Dual Phase lightsabers you will find some more information on it in the wookiepedia and so on.
@@crusadernikolai1996 You tube is not liking the link I tried to send. If you search for Dual-phase lightsaber you should be able to find more details about it. The movies do not showcase it, but it is in the novels.
Lol, yeah, those rotary dial phones lasted my whole childhood … and we ultimately just replaced it not because it stopped working, but because the plastic casing started to look bad. … I damn wish my bones and joints were built to last forever like those 😂
@@michaelblacktree modern devices are not only short lived, because of the technology, but also changes in customer behaviour. We don't care about the sturdy, reliable thing, we want the new thing that comes out in 6 months, at the cheapest price. The market reacts and things only have to live for this 6 months.
I want this in a videogame. Imagine a character using this being able to switch between each type seamlessly like you can in Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order.
really interesting from a product designer's point of view! I actually have an extending sword (not a telescopic Tai Chi practice one) a sharp double edged blade that slides through the hilt with a spring loaded locking button (brass so self-lubricating) on a cut out slot with notches, it has a tip at both ends. It works with gravity or a 'flick' (not spring loaded) and can be used like a spear, a double bladed weapon with the hilt locked in the centre, a sword from either end of the hilt. The locking button is on the hilt so you can control it while using it but its best party trick imo is you can unsheathe it or resheathe it backwards! Just make sure you're wearing boots in case you get it wrong. I remember seeing a stiletto blade pop out from the hilt of a rapier in the 1st 1970's 'Musketeers' movie, I think it belonged to Christopher Lee's character and appeared when he was fighting Michael York at night in the Palace grounds, have you ever seen anything like that irl?
I could have really seen Ubisoft using this back when they were making the Ezio games. From a gameplay perspective, it would have been very cool to use.
For whatever reason, this made me think: A while back when I was playing Elden Ring, I ended up playing with, well, a two handed rapier. I believe it had a cup hilt. I'm not aware of such a thing in real life, but upon thinking about it, I couldn't see anything fundamentally wrong with a thrusting two handed sword with a cup hilt. I mean there were two handed thrusting swords (often called "estocs", rightly or wrongly). Has anyone ever seen anything like this in real life? And yeees, I know "Swiss sabres" were a thing - that's not what I'm talking about. Though it at least shows that complex hilts can work on two handed swords
"A challenge, eh? Well, let's see how you like my ... wait, hang on. Stupid thing jammed. Just a sec, sorry bro. I really need to oil this more often. ... my EXTENDING rapier!"
Thanks. I bought my first sword, a Gustav messer. Fit and finish are remarkable and the peined parts are almost invisible. Not only are the main and false edges razor sharp... The edges have a mirror finish. I've never seen anything like it and having OCD, I've had to sharpen every blade I've bought in life save my Kalish Khukri. You were abotivly, positively right. My messer is worth every penny I paid for it. Well balanced, it comes in at exactly 2lbs or 907 grams for people that aren't confused by metric. The scabbard is also amazing.
The way I see it the extended version could be used like a Japanese nagimaki where it is used like a hybrid between a sword and polearm, having to move the sword around your body since the grip is too long to hold directly in front of the body
Would love to have a replica of this. I definitely think the blade extending is meant as a one time trick attack (like thrusting a two handed sword with one hand down to the pommel for extra reach) But i definitely see it as someone who wants a greatsword, but trying to hide the fact they have a "long-sword"
I did a lot of diving around 15 years ago for a novel I was writing. I've got the notes somewhere around here, but I seem to remember that Queen Elizabeth's rule on rapiers was 48 20th century inches.
I'd imagine the non-extended configuration to be nearly as resilient as a "regular" rapier. Thus, only using the extension briefly for surprise thrusts seem the obvious way to minimize its time in the less breakable configuration. However, that leaves you with a heavy and unwieldy rapier, most of the time. For use as a greatsword, the middle configuration (1:33) seems most suitable - more of the "real" blade is inside the "ricasso" and thus supported by it. It's possible some "limiters" on how far the adjustment goes have been removed or otherwise lost.
UK law's "offensive weapon" is a very general term. There are things that are specifically listed, but the definition covers anything used or possibly used as weapons. The spanner is a good example. It is not listed specifically in the law, but if you are holding it in public and used it to attack someone, or the assumption of you are going to use it to attack someone(like chasing people while holding it up or swinging it around), it can be considered an offensive weapon.
0:40 wait, portugal? Are you sure? That site is for San Marino in Italy. I saw some weird guns over here in the army museum but I don't remember a sliding rapier
I think it's like those glocks that can have the handle and magazine fold up to make it more portable. It adds more complexity and more points of failure. However, if you are only going to be using it hopefully never, then portability can occasionally become more important than reliability to a certain extent. Also, I'd imagine much as someone might today get the folding Glock today partially because it looks cool, I would imagine the same reasoning might inform a noble's decision to buy a folding rapier.
There are also two in Dresden (SKD inventory numbers IX 0121 and VI 0410.01) but those use a completely different mechanism (hollow grip and spring-loaded cogwheels).
It feels like an emergency use weapon, something that was bought for the intent to use in one to two duals max. Though given there's no mechanism to extend it mid fight, I don't know if its even right to call it an extending blade, more adjustable blade. With that in mind maybe it was only for training or testing out what your preferred grip/reach was.
Seems like they could have been made as answers to different situations? The standard-weight rapiers get extra reach, while the heavier ones get a rapier profile with longsword momentum. Especially if they really were meant to lock the quillons further up into a two-handed hilt. I love "overengineered" gimmick weapons. The Red Dead Redemption games are placed in almost the perfect time for firearm designs to all be plausibly contemporary (mostly); I would love to have something similar set in a time where a player could collect some of the fascinating blades of history.
I had thought there were complaints about sheaths in court being to long and getting in the way,it is possible that it was intended to have a smaller sheath
Did you, by any chance, happen upon Jonathan Ferguson, keeper of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK - which houses a collection of thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history?
It would be cool just to have a sliding handle so you could have a compact carry or transform from a rapier to a high leverage short two handed weapon.
Never stops amusing me the amount of times people have tried outsmarting the law banning x y z and (somehow) either getting away with it, or doing silly things like these rapiers. Still fun to have them around for the memes :P
It warms my heart to see that our ancestors were just as goofy as we are. Personally, I would love to see one of these using a spring to push the blade forward, I would be curious to see if it add any effectiveness, turning a normal attack into a surprise attack. I would name it Wolverine Rapier. Of course, you can only do it once, and then you're left with a weaker (if longer) rapier, but still.
it was great finally having a closer look on it and taking the measurements . extremely uncomfortable and unwieldy but fun design. zürich has more hidden gems.
The overwhelming majority of the literature says the Elizabethan yard was almost exactly the same as the modern yard. If it really was 985mm, as that museum description suggests, something very weird is going on. The 1588 standard yard remained in effect until 1824. Did the yard suddenly lose 2.8 inches then? I'm skeptical. There also apparently an earlier yard measure, from 1490, that's very close to the modern yard.
Very interesting. Seems like one of those ideas where they might be like “ok…we know this is dumb, but are we absolutely sure?” *builds a few examples* “Yep. That was dumb. Interesting, but just as dumb as we thought.” Various armored vehicle and aviation museums have lots of examples of weird tanks and planes that seem just built with the exact same logic as the extending rapier.
So hear me out; put a spring in the handle and attach it to the blade. Fix the blade on a pair of pins and try to make the tolerance as tight as possible to withstand strikes. When you swing the sword. The inertia will pull it out, giving you extended reach and once the blade strikes somethig, the springs will pull the blade back increasing the cutting potential. Clearly a flawless design with no issues whatsoever
Just a thought: what if there is a removable part missing? Like, extend the blade, move up the guard... and put some attachment over the blade part behind the guard so you have a bigger grip and a 2 handed sword like thing? That might be a kind of versatility that would mean something?
I don't know about Portugal, but Spain had a rather famous decree (1564 by Phillip II.) limiting total length of rapiers to 5/4 varra, so about a meter in length. I called this one famous because it is the main reason for La Verdadera Destreza using (comparatively) very short rapiers - no matter how many times Destreza masters quite literally call you a massive wuss for using a long blade. They were, in fact, sponsored by the royal court - or trying to be - after all. That does not mean all Spanish rapiers are short, though, because you can get away with a lot of stuff if you are never caught. Or a nobleman. Or out there in the Americas somewhere.
The "Elizabethan yard" was the same as the modern yard, my guy. 3 feet, or 36 inches, which is roughly 91cms. It was during Queen Elizabeth I's reign that the yard became standardized to this length.
This is correct, based on tons & tons of texts from the 19th century. The only counter evidence is the museum listed length of the Elizabethan yard standard. Though there is a yard standard from 1490 is that is also supposedly almost identical to the modern yard.
a lot of the data gathered is, possibly, aligned with like-minded swords. but would the extension be more helpful if they were fighting a different type of sword with the same or shorter/longer reach?
I made a mistake: The rapier I called "Portugese" is at the Museo Delle Armi Antiche in San Marino. Couldn't find detailed information on that one, so I don't know if it was originally made there or not. The black and white picture with the Portugese text is the one I had in mind, but upon closer inspection it seems to be yet another one (so the fifth rapier?).
Sorry about the mixup, I'm a little overworked. Either way I'm assuming that there is a connection between the Portugese law that restrict total length and the extending rapier.
Brother, you need to visit the municipal armory of Graz, Austria.
just for the sake of nitpicking 😁San Marino is an independent country. It works like Monaco for France or Andorra for Spain
There are two of these, spring loaded to extend suddenly, in an arms museum in Dresden.
This is an amazingly well done video. Thank you!
This looks like the perfect opportunity for a collab with Tod's workshop.
A weird weapons episode with Matt Easton
He already went to England for the collab. I don't think he's going back. :P
@@Neiot Famously the Uk is a place you can only go to once in a lifetime. Also, equally famously modes of travel only ever let you buy one return ticket, ever.
UK bans all knives and swords medieval is dead there as they killed their own history in the name of UK knife crime as people don't use Stanleys or kitchen knives they use ancient samurai swords worth half a million to kill eachother. I hate England this a silly place.
@@CptZatōichi Wtf are you talking about? I live a 10 minute walk from proper medieval castle and 5 minutes from a Civil War battleground. I also live in the heart of the Black Country, so named because of the Industrial Revolution that basically started here. We are surrounded by castles and history. How the hell did we "kill our history" and what does that even mean?
Oh, and please tell me when some scrote used a Nihonto in a killing? Go on. I will wait.
Queen Elizabeth's "standard yard" stick still exists. It is a total of 985mm (38.8 inchs) overall length, according to it's description by the Science Museum in London. Presumably that overall length is the Elizabethan yard but maybe it's a smaller subdivision.
The AI-ificatiin of the Internet made this very hard to look up
Yeah maybe this brings museums & libraries with real items & books back in fashion. :)
Oooh, I want to do the math. So "a yard and a half quarter." I think that means a yard and an eighth? why didn't she just say an eighth? Anyway, a mm is smaller than 1/10th inch so 985mm /8 = 123.125 so total length= 1108mm or 43.6 inches.
That's curious. Many other sources, including from the 19th century, say the Elizabethan yard standard was almost exactly the same as the modern yard, at 36.015 inches (or a tiny bit shorter or longer, depending on the exact text). It remained the British standard until 1824. Did the yard lose 2.8 inches in 1824? I doubt it.
Royal armouries feel like a pilgrimage for weapons lovers, go visit it people, such a great place
@@filippoarceci1954 it's been my favourite place since I was a child and what started my own collection
I'm actually planning on going this summer. Can't wait!
Is that your extending rapier or are you just pleased to see me?
Uhh...its a rapier sir
It can be both.
I like your avatar.
@@Neiot He says aaaaaa
@@Scarlet_Soul We can both say AAAAAA
It's only one step away from rapier that shoots its tip at the opponent.
What, a gun? *Runs while giggling at the way too obvious joke*
I immediatly reminded of Sword from "Sword and Sorceror: campy movie, but still have some good scenes.
Happy to hear I wasn't alone in thinking of that movie!
@@josecoronadonieto6911 well you see gun powder usage also existed back then.
SILVER CHARIOT
I love loophole weapons, a nice reminder we've always been humans, and makes for interesting stuff too
There are literally a loop and a hole in this case.
Hallo, dat's a fine _knife_ you're carrying zhere!
@@Disgruntled_Dave I love my concealed carry spear
@@wolfremus2521 lol, damit
Extending rapier? We are getting there lads, somewhere out there some mad lad has built an actual working switchaxe from monster hunter.. Any day now Skall is gonna find it and he's gonna be baffled.
Great video
Haven't seen that, but I've covered the switchaxe before: th-cam.com/video/LDupX99T-GU/w-d-xo.html
Just yesterday, literally yesterday, I had to explain to someone what a rotary phone was. Man that made my joints ache, more so than usual at least.
gotta look up how it works internally
Beam us up, Mr. Scott.
My grandmother (well, great grand) had a rotary phone until the day she died in 2005.
Trying to use one while holding a *_thick_* phone book was quite a feat.
I feel your pain man.
Wdym I remember those growing up 😭
TBF it was in my grandmothers house, but still
Thousands of TTRPG character just got created
Thanks skallagrim
As dwarven dad said "movable parts means many chances to fail! And why isn't it a hammer?!?"
"Ye olde market ninja"
If you look for an other exotic piece. There is a weapon from the treasury shown in Castle Eltz (Burg Eltz) in Germany. It is an "Streithammer mit versenkbarer Pike, 15. Jahrhundert" (original text, I have taken a picture of the text and one of the "pike" coming out). It is an squared roughly 50cm long full steel spike extending from the warhammer head.
The piece had on its sign the number 10. Number 9 is the "Reiterstreithammer (Kürißbenkel) mit Radschloßpistole, ca. 1580" (just for reference).
I adore the presentation of the stuff at the start. Genuinely beautiful
That last bit sent my mind back down into the deepest recesses of white-yellow tinted technology. When AOL sounded like it was possessed by demons and CRT monitors burned my retinas.
Lol true times for us older, but still not old, farts.
Whoever curated that rapier in the Royal Armouries understood the assignment.
6:06 "carry this in its legal form" reminded me of that old nunchuk video. "Legal. Illegal. Legal. Illegal." And it kinda is the sword version of that :D
This should be a Trick Weapon from Bloodborne. What a neat find.
The Reiterpallasch without the gun. Pure beauty.
Damn, the way everything is displayed at that museum is really pleasing to the eye
I would have loved to talk to the designer and watch this be made with manual tools. What an innovative idea for the time!
In Star Wars (pre-Disney) some Jedi would add this extension ability to their lightsaber in order to add a surprise during their fight. Vader eventually added it to his lightsaber as well. Neat to see Rapiers implement something like this.
The phrasing of this comment makes it seem like you think the rapiers were implementing the idea from Star war lmao
@@Ezekiel_Allium It wasn't the intent, but the events of Star Wars did take place a Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far Away...
Never heard anything about adjusting lightsaber lengths, link something? I don’t even know what to type to see more about this
@ It is in the novelization. I don't think youtube liked the link I tried to post. If you search for Dual Phase lightsabers you will find some more information on it in the wookiepedia and so on.
@@crusadernikolai1996 You tube is not liking the link I tried to send. If you search for Dual-phase lightsaber you should be able to find more details about it. The movies do not showcase it, but it is in the novels.
more than meets the eye... LEGEND. took me back.
Lol, yeah, those rotary dial phones lasted my whole childhood … and we ultimately just replaced it not because it stopped working, but because the plastic casing started to look bad. … I damn wish my bones and joints were built to last forever like those 😂
Back in those days, we just assumed stuff would last a long time. Planned obsolescence wasn't really a thing yet.
We had our rotary phone until the phone company gave us a new phone. With buttons!
@@michaelblacktree modern devices are not only short lived, because of the technology, but also changes in customer behaviour. We don't care about the sturdy, reliable thing, we want the new thing that comes out in 6 months, at the cheapest price.
The market reacts and things only have to live for this 6 months.
I want this in a videogame. Imagine a character using this being able to switch between each type seamlessly like you can in Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order.
really interesting from a product designer's point of view! I actually have an extending sword (not a telescopic Tai Chi practice one) a sharp double edged blade that slides through the hilt with a spring loaded locking button (brass so self-lubricating) on a cut out slot with notches, it has a tip at both ends. It works with gravity or a 'flick' (not spring loaded) and can be used like a spear, a double bladed weapon with the hilt locked in the centre, a sword from either end of the hilt. The locking button is on the hilt so you can control it while using it but its best party trick imo is you can unsheathe it or resheathe it backwards! Just make sure you're wearing boots in case you get it wrong. I remember seeing a stiletto blade pop out from the hilt of a rapier in the 1st 1970's 'Musketeers' movie, I think it belonged to Christopher Lee's character and appeared when he was fighting Michael York at night in the Palace grounds, have you ever seen anything like that irl?
I could have really seen Ubisoft using this back when they were making the Ezio games. From a gameplay perspective, it would have been very cool to use.
For whatever reason, this made me think: A while back when I was playing Elden Ring, I ended up playing with, well, a two handed rapier. I believe it had a cup hilt. I'm not aware of such a thing in real life, but upon thinking about it, I couldn't see anything fundamentally wrong with a thrusting two handed sword with a cup hilt. I mean there were two handed thrusting swords (often called "estocs", rightly or wrongly).
Has anyone ever seen anything like this in real life? And yeees, I know "Swiss sabres" were a thing - that's not what I'm talking about. Though it at least shows that complex hilts can work on two handed swords
"A challenge, eh? Well, let's see how you like my ... wait, hang on. Stupid thing jammed. Just a sec, sorry bro. I really need to oil this more often. ... my EXTENDING rapier!"
Excellent video quality! Loved it.
Thanks!
It seems like its always us germans who made these weird complicated weapons
Still less weird than the set of pistol cutlery 💁🏻♂️
Swiss are worse
_"This_ is a rapier!"
So it's basically the same cursed kind of legal workaround gun manufacturers have to pull off in California😂
200 years from now: why did they make bad stockless ak when they had available cheap AR15? We believe it was ceremonial
it has the mandatory 0 capacity magazine
That's actually a really interesting comparison. It'd be cool to see the sociopolitical comparisons as well.
Pistol braces are a perfect comparison I think.
Heyyy so happy you made a video on this weapon!
First I've ever heard of such a thing. Interesting!
This is so terribly interesting.
I remember this video about a dubbing of the tour of the Leeds Armoury Museum, it was hilarious.
Thanks. I bought my first sword, a Gustav messer.
Fit and finish are remarkable and the peined parts are almost invisible.
Not only are the main and false edges razor sharp...
The edges have a mirror finish.
I've never seen anything like it and having OCD, I've had to sharpen every blade I've bought in life save my Kalish Khukri.
You were abotivly, positively right.
My messer is worth every penny I paid for it.
Well balanced, it comes in at exactly 2lbs or 907 grams for people that aren't confused by metric.
The scabbard is also amazing.
That shot at the start is so goddamn cool.
Hey man i just wanna say that i really like this kind of video where you visit and review museums
Extremely intheresting, craftsman ship never dissapoints, thank you for this great walkthrough
I always enjoy the humorous and sarcastic bits of your videos. 😁
Great video, Skal. Sorry it took me a day to find and watch.
They had some interesting ideas back in the day
The way I see it the extended version could be used like a Japanese nagimaki where it is used like a hybrid between a sword and polearm, having to move the sword around your body since the grip is too long to hold directly in front of the body
We NEED Todd to make one of these to play with LMAO
Some legitimately fascinating history
Would love to have a replica of this.
I definitely think the blade extending is meant as a one time trick attack (like thrusting a two handed sword with one hand down to the pommel for extra reach)
But i definitely see it as someone who wants a greatsword, but trying to hide the fact they have a "long-sword"
I did a lot of diving around 15 years ago for a novel I was writing. I've got the notes somewhere around here, but I seem to remember that Queen Elizabeth's rule on rapiers was 48 20th century inches.
I did not expect the ch in Landesmuseum Zürich to be the hardest part to pronounce. Wasimpressed by the pronunciation!
I hereby declare this rapier the *"Extendo-Stabbo"*
At last! I’ve waited so long for this!
This is very interesting, thank you for sharing.
See this here? Great stuff Skall.
Nothing quite as demoralizing before a duel than an opponent squinting down your height and arm length, then carefully adjusting his blade length.
Thanks. Never seen one of these before. Learn something every day,right?
Would be great if you could get a hands on to try the different combinations of extensions to see how good they feel compared to each other.
I'd imagine the non-extended configuration to be nearly as resilient as a "regular" rapier. Thus, only using the extension briefly for surprise thrusts seem the obvious way to minimize its time in the less breakable configuration. However, that leaves you with a heavy and unwieldy rapier, most of the time.
For use as a greatsword, the middle configuration (1:33) seems most suitable - more of the "real" blade is inside the "ricasso" and thus supported by it. It's possible some "limiters" on how far the adjustment goes have been removed or otherwise lost.
UK law's "offensive weapon" is a very general term. There are things that are specifically listed, but the definition covers anything used or possibly used as weapons. The spanner is a good example. It is not listed specifically in the law, but if you are holding it in public and used it to attack someone, or the assumption of you are going to use it to attack someone(like chasing people while holding it up or swinging it around), it can be considered an offensive weapon.
0:40 wait, portugal? Are you sure? That site is for San Marino in Italy.
I saw some weird guns over here in the army museum but I don't remember a sliding rapier
I think it's like those glocks that can have the handle and magazine fold up to make it more portable. It adds more complexity and more points of failure. However, if you are only going to be using it hopefully never, then portability can occasionally become more important than reliability to a certain extent. Also, I'd imagine much as someone might today get the folding Glock today partially because it looks cool, I would imagine the same reasoning might inform a noble's decision to buy a folding rapier.
2:30 The Elizabethan yard was based on the distance from the tip of a man's nose to the end of his outstretched thumb
This is some Dishonored style blade right there. Would be fun to add to the trick weapons in Blade and sourcery
There are also two in Dresden (SKD inventory numbers IX 0121 and VI 0410.01) but those use a completely different mechanism (hollow grip and spring-loaded cogwheels).
It feels like an emergency use weapon, something that was bought for the intent to use in one to two duals max. Though given there's no mechanism to extend it mid fight, I don't know if its even right to call it an extending blade, more adjustable blade. With that in mind maybe it was only for training or testing out what your preferred grip/reach was.
Seems like they could have been made as answers to different situations? The standard-weight rapiers get extra reach, while the heavier ones get a rapier profile with longsword momentum. Especially if they really were meant to lock the quillons further up into a two-handed hilt.
I love "overengineered" gimmick weapons. The Red Dead Redemption games are placed in almost the perfect time for firearm designs to all be plausibly contemporary (mostly); I would love to have something similar set in a time where a player could collect some of the fascinating blades of history.
The bakelite phones were a vibe this generation can't even begin to fathom.
Now I want to know more about how it does work, and if there are any references to their use.
Nice animations!
This thing is soooo cool. It's a real life bloodborne weapon. Little one handed thrusting form with a two-handed longsword transformation.
I had thought there were complaints about sheaths in court being to long and getting in the way,it is possible that it was intended to have a smaller sheath
I believe another example like this was the "Museo delle armi bianche"/Ancient Weapon Museum in San Marino. I don't know if it's still displayed.
Did you, by any chance, happen upon Jonathan Ferguson, keeper of firearms and artillery at the Royal Armouries Museum in the UK - which houses a collection of thousands of iconic weapons from throughout history?
Here is the usual comment, like, and full watch for channel growth.
It would be cool just to have a sliding handle so you could have a compact carry or transform from a rapier to a high leverage short two handed weapon.
Never stops amusing me the amount of times people have tried outsmarting the law banning x y z and (somehow) either getting away with it, or doing silly things like these rapiers. Still fun to have them around for the memes :P
It warms my heart to see that our ancestors were just as goofy as we are.
Personally, I would love to see one of these using a spring to push the blade forward, I would be curious to see if it add any effectiveness, turning a normal attack into a surprise attack.
I would name it Wolverine Rapier.
Of course, you can only do it once, and then you're left with a weaker (if longer) rapier, but still.
Something something Bloodborne
it was great finally having a closer look on it and taking the measurements . extremely uncomfortable and unwieldy but fun design. zürich has more hidden gems.
The overwhelming majority of the literature says the Elizabethan yard was almost exactly the same as the modern yard. If it really was 985mm, as that museum description suggests, something very weird is going on. The 1588 standard yard remained in effect until 1824. Did the yard suddenly lose 2.8 inches then? I'm skeptical. There also apparently an earlier yard measure, from 1490, that's very close to the modern yard.
Assassin's Creed devs: *WRITE THAT DOWN!! WRITE THAT DOWN!!!*
Holy shit, that tower looked awesome.
Very interesting. Seems like one of those ideas where they might be like “ok…we know this is dumb, but are we absolutely sure?”
*builds a few examples*
“Yep. That was dumb. Interesting, but just as dumb as we thought.”
Various armored vehicle and aviation museums have lots of examples of weird tanks and planes that seem just built with the exact same logic as the extending rapier.
A rapier with leverage is an excellent idea 😊
I get adds on extending my rapier all the time. Never expected one to come from Skallagrim.
I had to smile when you showed the transformers logo. Thanks for that :)
So hear me out; put a spring in the handle and attach it to the blade. Fix the blade on a pair of pins and try to make the tolerance as tight as possible to withstand strikes.
When you swing the sword. The inertia will pull it out, giving you extended reach and once the blade strikes somethig, the springs will pull the blade back increasing the cutting potential.
Clearly a flawless design with no issues whatsoever
If anything, it looks almost like Bloodborne's reiterpallash, but in BB it also had a gun in addition to being extendable.
Ah, the classic four handed rapier
What if there was a way to snap it open during a fight? Like, with a lunge- gaining an extra few inches the enemy didn't expect could be a kill move?
Looks like we got a sneak peek at one of the new trick weapons for Bloodborne 2.
you could say it's strangereal... with the weapon innovations
Just a thought: what if there is a removable part missing? Like, extend the blade, move up the guard... and put some attachment over the blade part behind the guard so you have a bigger grip and a 2 handed sword like thing? That might be a kind of versatility that would mean something?
Nice Idea !
Corvo's blade! Corvo's blade! Corvo's blade!
This is the precursor to the "Chainsword"
I imagine it making the sound of an 870 pump shotgun.
For dramatic effect of course.
I don't know about Portugal, but Spain had a rather famous decree (1564 by Phillip II.) limiting total length of rapiers to 5/4 varra, so about a meter in length. I called this one famous because it is the main reason for La Verdadera Destreza using (comparatively) very short rapiers - no matter how many times Destreza masters quite literally call you a massive wuss for using a long blade. They were, in fact, sponsored by the royal court - or trying to be - after all.
That does not mean all Spanish rapiers are short, though, because you can get away with a lot of stuff if you are never caught. Or a nobleman. Or out there in the Americas somewhere.
Ye old marketplace ninja sword.
The "Elizabethan yard" was the same as the modern yard, my guy. 3 feet, or 36 inches, which is roughly 91cms. It was during Queen Elizabeth I's reign that the yard became standardized to this length.
This is correct, based on tons & tons of texts from the 19th century. The only counter evidence is the museum listed length of the Elizabethan yard standard. Though there is a yard standard from 1490 is that is also supposedly almost identical to the modern yard.
a lot of the data gathered is, possibly, aligned with like-minded swords. but would the extension be more helpful if they were fighting a different type of sword with the same or shorter/longer reach?