OpenSwords - Spanish Cup-Hilt Rapier

Overview

OpenSwords is a project that aims to make historical fencing available to anyone!

Cup-hilt rapiers first became popular during the 1600s. Most closely associated with Spanish fencing styles such as Destreza, the fully-enclosed guard offered excellent protection to the wielder against the thrusting techniques that were prevalent at the time. 

The OpenSwords cup-hilt rapier allows you to produce a usable cup-hilt trainer for under fifteen dollars, using only 3D-printed components and a few easy-to-source parts: With 85g of PETG printed using the below settings, a 3/4in dowel from the hardware store, and a 5-inch stainless steel bowl (along with a handful of screws), you can expect to produce a 42-inch blade weighing in at just over 350g.

The metal bowl offers excellent strength when combined with the wooden dowel and printed guard. During durability testing, the trainer was repeatedly struck with a longsword as a worst-case scenario test; as you can see in the slow-motion gif (4x slower than real time), it handled the strikes quite handily, suffering no damage. However, please note that as with all OpenSwords designs, the cup-hilt trainer is intended for use in positional training and slow work only. It is not to be used for any fast work or sparring.

These files are released free to the public, but if my designs have helped you in any way, I'd really appreciate a donation! All proceeds go directly towards the development of further models and the distribution of trainers to the historical fencing community. 

I release all of my files under a non-commercial licence; if you're interested in producing and selling OpenSwords products as a vendor, please feel free to contact me via email so we can discuss licensing.

https://ko-fi.com/openswords

This file is more of a work in progress than the other guards I’ve released so far; I'd like to modify it in the future to use more universally-available parts. I expect to be able to release a variety of files in the near-to-medium-future in order to accommodate a wider breadth of hardware. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to DM me on printables or email me at [email protected].

Hardware/BoM:

Blade:

• Any 3/4” diameter wooden dowel from your local hardware store will do. You can expect the guard and handle to take up roughly 8” of length, with the rest of the dowel forming your usable blade (the 48” dowels from my hardware store result in a ~42” sword, measured from the crossguard).

Cup:

• Any metal bowl that is 5" or greater in diameter should be sufficient to form the cup of your guard. Depending on the exact profile of your bowl, additional heat-forming of the base guard might be required to get the two profiles matching one another, but your mileage may vary depending on what bowl you select - I recommend sourcing from a dollar store or similar so that you’re not out too much money if your bowl isn’t a good fit.

Guard/Coupler/Handle:

• PETG is recommended for its impact resistance, flexibility, and temperature resistance over PLA, but PLA will work if it’s what you've got! Printing the guard, handle, and coupler using the below settings, you can expect to use roughly 85 g of filament to produce one sword.

Fasteners:

• All the screw holes in the handle and guard have been designed with #4x1/2" woodscrews in mind, but #6x1/2" screws should also work; they simply won't lie as neatly flush with the profile of the handle. The screw holes in the coupler have been designed for standard M3 hardware (2 M3 nuts and 2 M3x20mm socket head screws).
• Coupler:
  • 2 - M3 nuts
  • 2 - M3 x 20mm (at least) socket head screws
• Guard/Handle:
  • 3 - #4x1/2” wood screws

Assembly Instructions:

 Tools needed: Heat Gun, Screwdriver, Drill bits, Round Metal File.

• Print the parts to the specifications detailed below.
• Drill and file the holes in your bowl to match the coupler.
• Heat form the printed parts.
• Mount the base guard and handle to the dowel, leaving about 1” of space below the handle.
• Slide the bowl onto the dowel, and secure using the M3 hardware.

Print Settings:

For the Guard and Coupler:

I recommend a brim and 15% gyroid infill for all nozzle diameters.

For the Handle:

I recommend a brim and 15% infill for all nozzle diameters. 

Printing with fuzzy skin will add enough roughness to easily grip the handle! The recommended settings are as follows:

• Fuzzy skin: Outside walls (paint-on fuzzy skin is a great option as well).
• Fuzzy skin thickness: 0.15mm.
• Fuzzy skin point distance: 0.3mm.

Update 19/10/2025:

• Added 5/8" and 1/2" Dowel variations