SIGI unveils purpose-built rapier for modern HEMA fencing

SIGI has moved its clearest bid beyond the longsword and into one of HEMA’s most specific weapon classes: the rapier. The new model is built around the weapon that museums and fencing references describe as the principal civilian sidearm of the 16th and 17th centuries, a cut-and-thrust sword defined by its elaborate hand guard and its place in Renaissance dueling culture.

The package is not a generic sport sword dressed up for the rack. SIGI says the rapier is threaded, the blades are replaceable, and the base setup pairs a standard blade with a heat-treated cup-hilt and leather grip. The cuphilt measures 13 cm across, and the sword is offered in two blade lengths, about 108 cm and about 100 cm. Depending on configuration, the weight runs roughly from 1030 to 1090 grams.

The real decision point for fencers is the blade choice. SIGI offers a standard blade and a fullered blade. The standard version is pitched as light, fast and flexible, the kind of setup that should appeal to fencers who care most about quick recoveries, easy point control and a lively feel in training. The fullered blade keeps the same flex but adds a few grams, which gives it a little more blade presence. That should matter to practitioners who want more feedback in the bind and a more historical look in free play or technical work.

That split gives the rapier a wider reach than a single-purpose training tool. The standard blade looks aimed at modern sparring needs, where speed and comfort can matter as much as appearance. The fullered version is the one more likely to draw students of historical-style practice, especially those who want the weapon to feel closer to period examples without sacrificing safety and durability.

SIGI is also building the release around tradition rather than novelty. The company says the design was inspired by the fencing plates of Salvator Fabris, the Italian master from Padua whose rapier treatise was published in Copenhagen in 1606 and later reprinted and translated, including Tom Leoni’s 2005 English edition. A dagger is planned for later, a detail that fits Fabris’s own system and hints at where SIGI wants this line to go next.

The timing matters too. Full production began in April 2019, and SIGI operates near Bratislava, Slovakia, branding its work Made in Slovakia/EU. With feders, sabers, montantes, messers and katanas already in its catalog, the rapier is not a detour. It is a signal that demand in HEMA is deep enough for purpose-built rapier gear to stand beside the company’s better-known longswords.