"Thomas de Groot" <t.d### [at] internlDOTnet> wrote in message 
news:4598ccbb$1@news.povray.org...
>
> "Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> schreef in bericht 
> news:4598096c$1@news.povray.org...
>> St. wrote:
>>>    Well Vincent, this was the best that I could do with Wings so far on 
>>> your Rapier Hilt project. Hope you like it.
>>>
>> Nice job!
>
> I second that !


  Thanks Thomas!  :o)


   ~Steve~




> Thomas
>

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"Jim Charter" <jrc### [at] msncom> wrote in message 
news:4598096c$1@news.povray.org...
> St. wrote:
>>    Well Vincent, this was the best that I could do with Wings so far on 
>> your Rapier Hilt project. Hope you like it.
>>
> Nice job!

     Thank you Jim!

>
> So I'm wondering, is this a right or left handed sword, or does it matter?

    I was wondering this myself, and now Vincent has explained it, but it 
did look right-handed to me.

    ~Steve~

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"St." <dot### [at] dotcom> wrote:
> > Almost(?) there!
>
>     Well, I did spot a mistake on that spiky bit by the join to the right
> where it's scaled 'fatter' than the bit before it. I think I left some verts
> selected when scaling something else. Anyway, it's now corrected in the .obj
> model posted in my reply to Vincent.  :o)

Spiky bit, would that be what most people call the blade? Only joking, the



Stephen

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"Vincent Le Chevalier" <gal### [at] libertyALLsurfSPAMfr> schreef in 
bericht news:45991601$1@news.povray.org...
>
> No it's indeed a left-handed rapier. Well, that's the convention actually, 
> you could certainly hold it in your right hand as well...
>

 As I have no experience at all with rapiers, mine was a wild guess just 
based on trying to hold the thing  :-)

So... what makes this particlularly left-handed, is there clue? Just down to 
earth curiosity really...

Thomas

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Thomas de Groot wrote:
> "Vincent Le Chevalier" <gal### [at] libertyALLsurfSPAMfr> schreef in 
> bericht news:45991601$1@news.povray.org...
>> No it's indeed a left-handed rapier. Well, that's the convention actually, 
>> you could certainly hold it in your right hand as well...
>>
> 
>  As I have no experience at all with rapiers, mine was a wild guess just 
> based on trying to hold the thing  :-)
> 
> So... what makes this particlularly left-handed, is there clue? Just down to 
> earth curiosity really...
> 

Swords being another of my hobbies I will happily try to satisfy your 
curiosity :-)

However it's a bit difficult to explain in text... Some terminology 
necessary to understand what I'm saying can be found here: 
http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_anatomy.php#rapier

The conventional way of holding the rapier is as follow: you pass your 
index finger around the fore quillon, inside one of the finger rings. 
The rest of the fingers hold the grip, and are protected by the knuckle 
guard. In this position, the back of your hand is protected by the side 
ring and loop-guard (the spiraling bar in the specific example modelled 
by Steve is a style of loop-guard). The thumb is on the other side, and 
is protected by the counter guards.

To sum up and speak POV-ish :-) , on a right-hander, you have the blade 
on +z, the knuckle guard on the +x side, and the side ring raising along 
+y. The assumption being that the hilt was designed (or rather evolved) 
to be most protective when held in this way.

But this does not prevent a left-hander from fighting with a 
right-handed rapier, nor the opposite. I tend to think this is by design 
also, in case of injury on your dominant hand you wouldn't like to be 
unable to use your weapon in the other hand as well ;-)

There are also some other way to hold the thing, that were less spread 
as far as I know. You can pass your index and middle finger through the 
same finger ring to increase tip control. You can pass them through both 
of the finger rings, one in each of them, to have the blade more 
parallel to your fore-arm. I even read about a grip which looks like the 
opposite of the usual way, with fingers protected by the counter guard, 
the index passed in the other finger ring, that provides advantages when 
using the quillons to control the opponent's blade...

I'll have to model and pose a hand inside Steve's guard to explain more 
visually, I guess :-D

Regards

-- 
Vincent

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Vincent Le Chevalier wrote:
> Thomas de Groot wrote:
> 
>> "Vincent Le Chevalier" <gal### [at] libertyALLsurfSPAMfr> schreef 
>> in bericht news:45991601$1@news.povray.org...
>>
>>> No it's indeed a left-handed rapier. Well, that's the convention 
>>> actually, you could certainly hold it in your right hand as well...
>>>
>>
>>  As I have no experience at all with rapiers, mine was a wild guess 
>> just based on trying to hold the thing  :-)
>>
>> So... what makes this particlularly left-handed, is there clue? Just 
>> down to earth curiosity really...
>>
> 
> Swords being another of my hobbies I will happily try to satisfy your 
> curiosity :-)
> 
> However it's a bit difficult to explain in text... Some terminology 
> necessary to understand what I'm saying can be found here: 
> http://www.myarmoury.com/feature_anatomy.php#rapier
> 
Thanks for the explanation.  My original question was provoked by the 
assumption that the side-ring would probably be held to the outside of 
the body although I have no clue what it is supposed to do.

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Thank you very much indeed!!! An excellent explanation. I never realized the 
necessary complexity of the thing. Always thought it was mere decoration, 
but that was not doing right to the builders who were able to merge 
technology with beauty. A revelation to me. Thank you!

Thomas

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