SIGI unveils montante for HEMA study and controlled sparring

SIGI is making a pointed bid to turn a specialist HEMA niche into a real product category. The company has expanded beyond its feder, saber and rapier lines with a montante, a long two-handed sword built for the kind of wide movement, winding and blade management that late-medieval and Renaissance greatsword study demands.

The numbers show how serious the design is. SIGI lists the Montante at 156 cm overall length, with a 115 cm blade, a 33 cm handle and a 35 cm crossguard. Weight runs from about 1750 to 1950 grams, the point of balance sits around 7 to 8 cm, and the flex is meant to stay gentle enough for moderate controlled sparring. The basic price is 550 euros, and SIGI says the sword can be customized. Shipping may cost more because of the size, which underlines that this is a full-scale training weapon rather than a display piece.

The release lands in a corner of the market shaped by unusually thin historical evidence and unusually demanding practice needs. In HEMA reference material, the montante, also known as spadone or zweihänder, is treated as a battlefield weapon used for protection and offense against multiple opponents. But the deepest practical value for modern fencers comes from surviving Iberian sources, especially Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo’s Memorial Da Prattica do Montante from 1651, held in Lisbon’s Biblioteca da Ajuda. That treatise focuses on solo exercises because the weapon was considered too dangerous to practice with a partner. Wiktenauer also identifies Luis Barbarán’s 1528 manuscript Las nueve reglas de la espada de dos mano as one of the very few surviving instruction sets for montante use.

For HEMA students, that makes SIGI’s launch bigger than a single new model. It is a test of whether a weapon that lives between solo study and limited sparring can justify its own production line. SIGI says the release was delayed while the company upscaled output to shorten waiting times across its range, a sign that the maker sees enough demand to invest in the tooling and logistics a large sword requires.

The company is not alone in sensing that demand. Regenyei Armory currently markets a TH 04 Montante inspired by Iberian swords, starting at 495 euros before VAT, while Castille Armory says its 2025 Montante batch is produced at about two swords per week. The category remains small, but it is no longer an afterthought. SIGI’s entry suggests the montante is moving from obscure specialist curiosity toward a mature training weapon with a market, a use case and a place in modern historical fencing.