[urbanspaceman]

Hello Folks; wishing you all the best for '25.
Hi Jim. You will recall that just last week I suggested that the Portuguese and Spanish appeared to prefer their slim rapier blades on small-sword hilts, rather than the rapidly becoming ubiquitous 'hollowed' blades. I wondered if there was many examples of Iberian smallswords with hollow blades.
I have two swords: one is a Portuguese smallsword/court-sword with a re-purposed slim rapier blade, and the other a Spanish court-sword hilt, again on a slim rapier blade (see below).
Until the arrival of Klingenthal manufacturing, hollow blades only came from Solingen and Shotley Bridge; I don't know what political circumstances existed between these countries which may have made it necessary – or opportune – to re-use what would obviously have been a profusion of rapier blades in Portugal and Spain.
I have never seen a hollow-bladed smallsword distinctly attributed to Portugal or Spain and I am beginning to suspect they did not predominate; however, my experience is limited and – consequently – I call on the forum to disabuse me of my suspicions if necessary… Fernando would know for sure.
It seems absolutely possible that the blades they had carried and fought-with so effectively, and for so long, would not be abandoned causally, and certainly not to oblige fashions.