page_title: Small sword
section_title: Hilt
hierarchical_section_title: Small sword / Hilt
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Portepee ("tangente") mit Säbel der Großen Uniform der École polytechnique. English: Hilt of the sword worn by students of the École Polytechnique in dress uniform. Français&#160;: Garde de l'épée («&#160;tangente&#160;») du grand uniforme de l'École polytechnique.
context_page_description: The small sword or smallsword is a light one-handed sword designed for thrusting which evolved out of the longer and heavier rapier of the late Renaissance. The height of the small sword's popularity was between mid 17th and late 18th century, when any man, civilian or military, with pretensions to gentlemanly status would have worn a small sword on a daily basis.
  The blade of a small sword is comparatively short at around 0.6 to 0.85 metres, though some reach over 0.9 metres. It usually tapers to a sharp point but may lack a cutting edge. It is typically triangular in cross-section, although some of the early examples still have the rhombic and spindle-shaped cross-sections inherited from older weapons, like the rapier. This triangular cross-section may be hollow ground for additional lightness. Many small swords of the period between the 17th and 18th centuries were found with colichemarde blades.
  It is thought to have appeared in France and spread quickly across the rest of Europe. The small sword was the immediate predecessor of the French duelling sword and its method of use—as typified in the works of such authors as Sieur de Liancour, Domenico Angelo, Monsieur J.
context_section_description: The small sword guard is typically of the "shell" type, sometimes with two lobes that were decorated as clam shells. The shells were often replaced with a simple curved oval disk, which was still referred to as the coquille (shell). In later foils, the lobed type evolved into the "lunette" or figure-8 guard, and the disk became the modern foil "bell" guard, but the guards were still referred to as coquilles. Small swords with this type of guard normally included other features of the older rapier hilt, including quillons, ricasso, knuckle-bow, and a pas d'âne, although these were often atrophied beyond the point of usefulness, serving mainly as a decorative element. However, they were maintained in a usable state on some weapons, including the Italian foil, into the 20th century.
  In the 19th century, simple cross-hilt small swords were also produced, largely as ceremonial weapons that were evocative of more ancient types of weapons. An example is the Model 1840 Army Noncommissioned Officers' Sword, which is still used by the United States Army on ceremonial occasions.  As the wearing of swords fell out of fashion and the small sword evolved into the duelling sword (forerunner of the modern épée), the older hilts gave way to simpler grips such as the French grip and Italian grip.
caption: Hilt of the sword worn by students of the École Polytechnique in dress uniform
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