Weaponry description nit

Discuss the site here - suggestions, comments, complaints, etc.
Post Reply
Mikey
Fleet Admiral
Fleet Admiral
Posts: 35635
Joined: Fri Jul 27, 2007 3:04 am
Commendations: The Daystrom Award
Location: down the shore, New Jersey, USA
Contact:

Weaponry description nit

Post by Mikey »

This is admittedly very nitpicky; however, I've noticed a bit of an issue with the "contact weaponry" entry. There is a subheading for "rapier" - however, while the background info is largely spot-on, the yellow text states that "rapiers were still used in fencing..." Rapiers were never used in sport fencing, and Sulu was never shown to have owned one. In the accompanying pictures, Sulu is shown holding what appears to be an epee (but could be a foil with a larger-than-normal guard) while Picard is shown with what appears to be a (fencing) saber based on the guard and the picture of the parry in 3 from elsewhere in the episode. Sulu's epee or foil has a 4-sided cross-section - which is a defining feature of those types - while the saber would have a triangular cross-section, though this can't be told from the image. A rapier would have a flat blade, considerably wider at the quillons than either fencing sword shown, and a simple bar or bar-and-loop crossguard. Further, the rapier was separated developmentally from the real-world precursors of the depicted sport fencing swords by at least two steps of evolution embodied in the smallsword and so-called transition rapier.
I can't stand nothing dull
I got the high gloss luster
I'll massacre your ass as fast
as Bull offed Custer
Post Reply