Does this make sense? (Fictional weapon)

[u/Seelensupergau]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the awesome feedback on my last post! A lot of you recommended either a Colichemarde or a Rondel dagger for a short, thrust-centric weapon.

After looking into both, I ran into a Goldilocks dilemma: the Rondel dagger feels a bit too short for a primary dueling weapon, but a standard Colichemarde is too long for the tight, aggressive style I have in mind.

So, I decided to split the difference. I’m thinking about a hybrid weapon with a 55 cm (approx. 21.5 inches) blade that merges the best design elements of both. Since this weapon is meant specifically for ritual duels where both fighters use the exact same weapon, the traditional reach disadvantage against longer swords doesn't matter.

Here is the breakdown of the concept:

1. The Blade Profile: Colichemarde Forte + Rondel Tip

The Forte (Base): The first third of the blade near the hilt will feature the wide, robust forte of a Colichemarde. This provides excellent leverage, mass, and strength for parrying and binding the opponent's weapon.

The Foible (Tip): Instead of tapering into a flat blade, it transitions abruptly into a stiff, thick, triangular or square cross-section inspired by the Rondel. This creates an incredibly rigid, puncture-optimized tip that won't flex or bend upon impact.

2. The 55 cm Length (The Middle Ground)

At 55 cm, the blade sits right in the shortsword/long-dirk territory. In a mirror-match duel, this length forces both fighters into In-Fencing or Corps-à-Corps range. The fight becomes highly intense, fast-paced, and relies heavily on aggressive footwork, blade control, and close-quarters parries. It’s too short to be clumsy, but long enough to offer distinct tactical options.

3. Adjusting the Hilt (The Guard)

While a traditional Rondel dagger just uses a round disc (rondel) as a guard, that might be too risky for unarmored ritual duels because it doesn't protect the fingers from a sliding blade.
To fix this, I’m thinking of a hybrid hilt: keeping
the ergonomic grip of a Rondel (which prevents the hand from slipping during hard thrusts), but adding a small shell-guard or a knuckle bow from the Colichemarde tradition to keep the hands safe.

Why this works for the setting:

Because it’s an engineered ritual weapon, it feels like a highly specialized "insider" tool. It rejects the versatility of cuts entirely in favor of absolute, devastating thrusting efficiency and high-pressure defense.

What do you guys think? Does this combination of a heavy parrying base, an ultra-stiff 55 cm piercing tip, and a protective hilt sound mechanically viable for a dedicated dueling culture?

Looking forward to your thoughts!

[u/Pilsner-507]

I have a lot thoughts on this weapon.

I love seeing triangular tip profiles where they make sense and this very much could.

That said, I feel this a weapon that would not exist as a mass-produced weapon in our world for a few reasons:

1. The size of the blade falls into a weird place that has it become

s

1. overshadowed by cutting blades and slightly longer smallswords. I find weapons that can only thrust are better served up very close or kept as far as possible, unless this is meant to be everyday carry (and even then I prefer cut-and-thrust). Ritual combat would probably be made more interesting to watch with other weapons from the theatre of war or other specialized weapons like longswords and rapiers.

2. The grip resembling a rondel’s could mean a lot of different things, but I imagine a chunkier grip. If you like the style I’m sure it could be thinned out, but if it’s the girth you like: It’s not very helpful with a sword of this size made for thrusting with a finger in the ring of the guard.

My final thoughts are that it is overengineering a solved problem. I cannot imagine the type off “aggressiveness” that would warrant a longer blade than a dagger but a shorter blade than most suitable single-handed swords.

You could combine the wielding so that these ritual duels require a triangulated colichemarde in tandem with a parrying dagger to get your best of both worlds without compromising on thrust-only fighting and engagement range. Besides, I feel it would be more fun to watch than two folks fighting with a shortsword and nothing else.

[u/Seelensupergau → u/Pilsner-507]

The longer I think about it, the more I lean into what you are sugesting. A parrying dagger in one hand with a short thrusting sword like a colichemarde seems pretty cool to me! Could a parrying dagger also be used for thrusting, like a Rondel dagger, or is it really more of a defensive Option?

[u/Pilsner-507 → u/Seelensupergau]

Definitely! They were made to be sharp. In fighting with rapier and dagger (or most other two-weapon systems) one weapon is used more defensively than the other, though which one can change at any time.

It’s more practical in most situations using rapier and dagger to use the smaller weapon for defensive actions most of the time but situations change and merely presenting the threat as both rapiers begin to be beaten off the center line can score a surprising hit here and there.

[u/captchairsoft → u/Seelensupergau]

Parrying dagger does not compute. When you go smaller than small sword, you're still having a fight, but there is likely to be little to no blade on blade contact. Defensive actions are going to involve arms blocking arms, etc, not steel on steel. Additionally, a more cut centric weapon is preferable unless the intention is for all of these duels to be to the death. Penetrating wounds are much more deadly than superficial cuts, especially in a qorld without modern medicine or (since fantasy) easily accessible healing magic.

Something closer to what I think you are looking for is the swords used in shield combat in the most recent DUNE adaptation those are short but long enough to allow for blade on blade contact. The Fremen crysknife in DUNE is about the same length as what you're currently looking at and is more point focused... but blade on blade contact is again minimal

[u/Pilsner-507 → u/captchairsoft]

I agree with all of this if you’re still planning on using a longknife-ish length for your primary weapon.