Chris Holzman wrote:I think it bears noting for those without access to the texts, that Vince and Barbasetti were on somewhat different ends of the spectrum.
Indeed, which is why I use those two as points of reference. There is overlap in their specs which aren't precision measurements in the first place as 500 grams does not come out to 17 ounces on the nose and in any case there was considerable variation in real world fencing sabers of the era. I'm really not too picky as I am not training to wield practice sabers I'm training to wield sharps and I'm philosophically opposed to the notion of over-specialization in the first place. I'd just really rather be fencing with something(anything!) more appropriate than a typical grossly underweight sport S2000 build.
I do have specs for a proper 20mm tapering to 10mm curved sabre blade (as Maestro Parise specifies in his 1904 'da terreno' as being of a size 'as used for the duel') out to a couple of fencing forges, via my publisher. The blade is based on one of my antiques, which is just a very slight amount smaller at 17mm or so tapering to 10mm. That sabre, fully mounted, is about 580g. Such a sabre with a 20mm blade, because of the extra weight in the ricasso, and with a leather/rayskin covered grip instead of bare wood will probably come in about 600g and balance at a reasonable distance from the guard, rather than very close to the guard, which I truly loathe in a lot of 20th century sabres. I'm hoping something will come of this project.
Keep me informed, if you can get something decent made I promise I'll buy a pair.
I have sat down with a ruler and taken measurements off of the illustrations of Parise's and Radaelli's sabres in Parise and Del Frate's books, respectively, and scaled them up using 88cm as the known blade length - and interestingly enough when both blades are scaled up to 88cm in length, the width of the blade at the guard and point scales to 20 and 10mm respectively - right in line with what Parise recommended.
I'm not sure if that says more about the artists, the sabers or you.
