Cinquedea Fighting with the Italian Renaissance Short Sword

The Cinquedea was a popular sidearm in Northern Italy in the early part of the 16th century. They can vary in size immensely from being a small dagger to a full size sword, however most fit into the category of a very short sword. These training examples made by Black Fencer represent a roughly avarage example with a 50cm blade length. There is no documented style for how they were used (arguably a little of Marozzo perhaps with his large dagger type involving some cutting actions), and so we are mixing the styles of short swords we do practice with (messer, dussack) with some dagger techniques. With its very broad blade and zero flexibility as a result, these training examples are a lot of fun but must be used with the appropriate levels of control.