Well, we finally got our first batch of sabers made, thanks to smith Samuel Fedoruk. First batch is already sold! So, packing will have to happen as quickly as we can manage. It may take a week to get everything out, though. These sabers were obviously a hit! Woo hoo! We’re ready to take backorders for the next batch, if anyone is interested. Our current wait time is about nine weeks, which is pretty good for HEMA swords. So, you can get a saber for a holiday gift if you put one on backorder.
Total length is 100 cm.
Blade is ~86.5 cm
There are two guard types, standard and three-bars.
With the standard guard, mass is ~940 grams.
With the 3-bars guard, mass is ~985 grams.
Some History and Sources on Sabers
While sabers were originally a cavalry weapon, which in part explains their design, they did later become used on foot, with many modern practitioners of HEMA drawing their skills from treatises such as “Cold Steel” by Alfred Hutton (1889).
(Image courtesy: Mathiasrex Maciej Szczepańczyk, CC BY-SA 3.0)
There are, of course, other manuscripts available.
A French treatise by M.J. de St. Martin (1804) called “The Art of Fencing Reduced to True Principles” is available in a translation to English. This covers smallsword as well as saber.
Henry Angelo’s “Infantry Sword Exercise” is, perhaps, the most influential in the English speaking world for his work, next to his student Hutton.
“Lessons in Sabre, Singlestick, Sabre and Bayonet, and Sword Feats” (1880) by John Musgrave Waite includes some experiments done on cutting and is applicable to more than saber.
Other sources include those who have studied these treatises today. Check your local HEMA club to see if they teach saber or would be able to bring in someone who does.