Regarding this bit about heavy war-rapiers and light civilian version, how is the distribution between light and heavy? Do we have two somewhat distinct groups, or is is perhaps just a bell-curve from light to heavy, with the lighter ones being more likely to see civilian use, and the heavier ones more likely to see military use? And what differences we have, how much of these existed in a single point in time, and how much is due to developments over time? Many cup-hilts for example would seem to be considerable later than the majority of swept-hilts.
Basically, I'm not entirely convinced yet that speaking of the civilian and military ones as fully separate categories is entirely suitable, at least not for slightly earlier times (say, 16th to mid 17th century for a rough guess at a suitable time period there). Looking at things like officer's scarf swords, it may not be necessarily so that lighter swords indicate civilian use with any greater probability, at least not in all time periods.
These aren't areas I've looked into nearly enough, but hopefully it'll be a few decent questions at least.
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