Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. A rapier is a slender, sharply pointed sword, ideally for thrusting attacks, used mainly in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. The word "rapier" generally refers to a relatively long-bladed sword characterized by a complex hilt which is constructed to provide protection for the hand wielding it. While the blade might be broad enough to cut to some degree (but nowhere near that of the wider, slightly heavier swords in use around the Middle Ages), the strength of the rapier is its ability as a thrusting weapon. The blade might be sharpened along its entire length, sharpened only from the centre to the tip (as described by Capoferro), or completely without a cutting edge as called “estoc” by Pallavicini, a rapier master who, in 1670, strongly advocated using a weapon with two cutting edges. A typical example would weigh 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) and have a relatively long and slender blade of 2.5 centimetres (0.98 in) or less in width, 1 metre (39 in) or more in length and ending in a sharply pointed tip.

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