Blades, Swords & Spears

The skill of fencing
The word fencing describes any form of armed combat involving cutting, stabbing or bludgeoning weapons – such as swords, knives, blades, pikes, bayonets, combat spears or clubs. However, in today’s context, fencing is most commonly associated with European schools of sport swordsmanship, played using the foil, epée or sabre.

Once a necessary battlefield survival skill, the art of fencing has now been wholly displaced by the development of combustion-powered ranged weapons.
Yet the history of this weapon and the skill required to wield it remain prized in sporting terms.