Darkwood Armory carries an almost overwhelming number of options to customize your rapier or dagger – from pierced designs to sharpening your blade, sometimes it can get confusing. The best way for us to answer your questions is via email (sales@darkwoodarmory.com) but we will try to cover a few questions here, especially with pictures for explanation. See below for Quillions, Pierced Designs, and Finishes please!
FAQ
BLADE LENGTH – most of the closed hilts have a “ricasso”, or part of the blade that lies inside the hilt. Therefore, a 42″ blade on a Pappenheimer or ring hilt will have 2″ of ricasso and 40″ sticking out the front of the hilt. A 39″ blade will have 37″ sticking out, and a 45″ will have 43″ sticking out. I hope that clarifies things a little.
The quillions / quillons, can be straight as pictured, or S-curved. The photo show the possible styles of quillon end we usually carry.
The Clovers Only piercing pattern is very light and we use it on the Double Ring Closed Port hilt a lot. It is lighter than many but dents with a hard hit.
Stars and Clovers is a very open piercework that lightens Pappenheimer hilts considerably, but does not put up well with hard hits or repeated blows.
Stars and Crosses is a very open, striking period piercework style that lightens the Pappenheimer hilts moderately, but does not offer the same stiffness – it dents with hard blows or repeated hits.
The Ring in Ring style of piercework looks light but really doesn’t pull off a lot of weight. The close-knit holes withstand hard hits better than many.
Cross Bottany is an overall blanket of crosses with little leaves in the ends of each cross. It is quite strong but is a teeny bit heavier than Stars and Crosses.
