Ahhh, the narwhale worked as planned! Actually, I really didn't intend to steer attention away from this great sword. Last comment on the claimore, though. There was a great example with apparent age in an old Man-at-Arms magazine from the 90's. Impressive piece.
Now, back to this rapier. I am amazed once again with seeing details of the nails in the hilt. Truly, their design reminds me of Japanese menuki and someone went to a lot of trouble artistically to create them. They are just beautiful and their shapes appear to represent objects, at least symbolicly, just as Japanese sword furniture would have (I used to have an old wak with fuchi/menuki showing koi eating salmon roe, lily pads, cherry blossoms, etc, with gold relief. I miss them sometimes-sigh). Fernando, I agree with you that if you wish to replace them, you may want to inlist the work of a jeweler. An incredible sword. Now that you have this one, you can just send me one of your other plainer types (
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