The Via Astra Rapier

This Thibault-inspired rapier is highly customised to our client's requirements, optimised for practicing Destreza, and especially for Thibault’s prescribed grip.

Its blade features a wide base tapering into a nimble point, and a stepped ricasso that feeds cleanly into a slim, rounded quillon block which was designed for a comfortable pinching grip. The result is an eager blade with a speedy tip, able to track Thiabault's circular lines while maintaining pronounced presence in the bind.

Our client's concept sketches

The hilt blends comfort, and period style with faceted bars and straight, flaring quillons, a two-port foreguard, an hourglass counterguard, and star-themed carving and piercework.

The sword is named for the constellations engraved into the pierced ports: Circinus, the Compass, and Sagitta, the Arrow. The combination of these two signs suggests a discovery of direction, hence the Latin name, "The Path of Stars".

Please see our pricing structure for an idea of what a similar sword would cost.

Contact Us

---

∴ Specs ∴

• Total length: 119cm

• Blade length: 112.5cm from cross

• Blade width at widest: 2.5cm

• Grip length: 9cm

• Grip and pommel: 15cm

• Grip to guard: 5.5cm

• Quillon span: 22cm

• Weight: 1202g

• Point of Balance: 7.5cm from cross

• Right-handed

• Blunt edges & rounded tip

• Fencing safe flex

---

∴ Notes ∴

The hand-forged and heat-treated guard and pommel are blackened to a matte finish.

The guard consists of long, straight quillons with star-detailed bead to the terminals, and two rings with star-detailed beads to the centre. The rounded ecusson also features a carved star.

The counterguard is formed of a barwork X with a star-detailed bead to the centre. Both fore and counterguards feature closed and pierced ports with constellation details engraved into them.

The pommel is an elongated octagonal faceted ovoid, with an eight-pointed star engraved to the top.

The oak grip is carved into a spiral and covered with brass and steel twisted wire, finished to the top and bottom with Turk's head knots.

---

∴ Gallery ∴

---

∴ A Celestial Guide ∴

The moonpath is crisp on the rippling waters. You scan its pale trail from the edge of the caravel’s quarterdeck, one hand curled around the worn wooden rail, and the other steadying the astrolabe.

Your eyes follow the path upward, from the little rills that texture the sea, to the thin band of brightness that marks the horizon, to the endless canopy of night sky, where the first stars emerge like flecks of salt on a dark blue doublet.

You reach for the sword at your side, your fingers tracing the well-known matrices of piercework and carved lines on the undersides of each closed port. There is the first constellation: Sagitta, the Arrow, pointing you onwards. To most, it is only a scattering of stars, barely noticeable. To you, it is a map.

Your well-attuned eyes quickly find the design’s celestial counterpart, and its position at once tells you where the celestial equator lies, how far you have drifted, and whether the ship has held its course.

Farther south, just above the dim horizon, you seek the faint pattern of Circinus, a delicate arc of stars that you call the Compass. Its shy glimmer gives you an extra point of reference, a reassurance in unfamiliar waters.

You align the alidade with the constellations, measuring their altitude, letting the slow swing of the ship become part of your calculation.

Again you reach for your rapier with a smile. You may not know where you’re going, but you trust your sword to lead you there.