Featuring an 8mm thick blade with a slender central fuller, this simple, elegant rapier is exceedingly nimble in the hand, allowing for fast yet precise movements and returning willingly to the centre line.
The guard offers simple yet comprehensive hand protection when used with the correct angulation, and features wide quillons and a closed port with decorative piercework to protect the fingers in thrusting actions.
The oak grip offers a unique aesthetic, covered in twists of braided brass and steel wire. The effect of this, along with the sword's nimble flight through the air, reminded us of a bee - it is after the honey bee's genus that the sword is named.
Please see our pricing structure for an idea of what a similar sword would cost.
∴ Specs ∴
Total length: 121cm
Blade length: 107cm
Blade width at shoulder: 2.2cm
Blade stock: 8mm
Quillon span: 24cm
Grip length: 8.5cm
Grip and pommel: 13cm
Point of balance: 13.5cm
Weight: 1000g
Right-handed
Blunt tip
2mm edges
Fencing-safe flex
∴ Notes ∴
The hand-forged and heat-treated guard and pommel are blackened to a matte finish.
The guard features straight, flat sectioned quillons, flaring to the terminals, and a closed port with diamond piercework. The pommel is spherical, and finished with a faceted steel nut.
The oak grip is wrapped in braided wire of brass and steel, finished top and bottom with Turk's head knots.
The blade features one central fuller to half of the blade's length.
∴ Gallery ∴
∴ A Honeyed Word∴
Your stomach churns as you step onto the waxed wooden floor of the piste, sweat already building behind the haze of your mesh mask. The excited chatter of your audience rises and falls, sickly inside your skull, a persistent buzz behind your reeling thoughts.
Suddenly you remember.
Another summer, another mask filtering your vision. But this time the swaying buzz is the humming of hundreds of bees, and the mesh is the veil of a hand-me-down beekeeper’s hat.
“Easy now,” your grandmother coaxes as your gloved hands lift the lid from the hive.
A flurry of honey bees spills from beneath the lid and you flinch back violently, dropping the lid with a thud.
Your grandmother shakes her head behind her veil.
“Watch the bees," she tells you, her tone soft and soothing against the agitated buzz of the swarm. "See how they dart on the breeze, turning effortlessly in the air? There is much we can learn from them: move lightly through the world, and it will give you wonders.”
With this she steps deftly toward the hive, composed as a queen, and places the lid aside. You watch in awe as she reaches into the box of writhing insects, and gently lifts a honey-dripping comb from it.
A shout of “to measure!” brings you back to the duel with a start. Your opponent hovers in front of you, faceless behind their fencing mask, their sword already hanging in an extended guard. You draw your rapier to meet theirs, and cannot suppress a smile at the brass and steel bee-stripes of its grip.
As you fall into stance your blade dances through the air, light as a beeswing, and recalling your grandmother’s words you prepare to dance behind it.