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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dogbrain" data-source="post: 1512035" data-attributes="member: 14980">Chris's Mensur days were back at Universitaet (in Germany), and Mensur is legal in Germany.If yo ulook at the manuals Rapiers couldn't cut like a good English short sword could, but they could cut better than a mere "draw cut", if, by "draw cut" you mean gently laying the edge upon an opponent and cheese-slicing away in SCA fashion.  The thing is that the cutting technique did change from a straight-on hack to a "hack-plus-draw".  This technique was and is also used in dueling sabre from the 19th century, unwards, and one could be killed from a cut with a dueling sabre.  Severing an arm through both forearm bones would be quite unlikely, but cutting down to the bone, itself, crippling the arm, could be done with a rapier of proper cross section.In a way, claiming that rapiers "cannot cut" or are only worth harassing cuts is like claiming that human beings "cannot climb trees" because they are not as agile as are spider monkeys.  That being said, I was taught to thrust when I could and cut when I must..Silver's ideal longs word had a blade nearly as short as his short sword, but with a handle that could accomodate two hands.  Think of the speed. In the old European tradition, any blade-on-blade contact is undesirable, if sometimes necessary.  The ideal, as far as I can tell, from the days of the sword-and-buckler men up to the end of the rapier era was a flawless counterattack.  The best defense was to disappear from where your opponent attacked.  Now, the Germans realized that this was often unrealistic, so they taught a lot of what would be called "counterattacks in opposition" today.  Of course, if one counterattacks in opposition with a cut against a cut, that may look like a parry to the uninitiated.</blockquote>However, at some point between the beginning of time and the 18th century, Europe adopted the edge parry as a preferred method, and I'm going to guess that it was some time in the 16th century, given how Swetnam talks.[/QUOTE]

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