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Old 11th June 2015, 10:30 PM   #6
Timo Nieminen
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9.2cm sounds OK. What kind of hilt? How heavy is the sword.

The main thing affecting the balance will be the weight of the hilt. With heavier full baskets, the centre of balance can be as close as 7cm. With a typical mortuary sword hilt or Walloon hilt, about 10cm is common. With a lighter hilt, I'd expect to see points of balance out as far as 15cm.

I've only seen on point of balance for an original 17th century military rapier: 10cm. Not enough to judge "typical".

For 17th century sabres, I'd expect to see 15-20cm for Eastern Europe, and 8-15cm for complex-hilted sabres from Western Europe.

"Broadsword" = "not a smallsword"; i.e., a straight-bladed cut-thrust sword rather than a dedicated thrusting sword is common enough terminology, and clear enough with the context of "17th century". The only ambiguity is whether is also means "not a backsword", i.e., double-edged rather than single-edged.
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