We tend to think that fencing has always been about foil, epee, and sabre. And there is some truth to this assumption. Foils in the form of rebated practice weapons appeared for German longswords as early as the 1400s. The epee, a safe version of the dueling sword, descends from the Renaissance rapier through the Enlightenment smallsword.

But this is not all there was. Gentlemen of the late 1800s commonly carried a walking stick, a cane with a straight shaft and a knob head. Starting in the 1890s, some fencing masters taught gentlemen how to use this walking stick for self defense, and a variety of texts appeared in French, English, and Italian.

Structured training for the use of the bayonet starts at least by the 1840s in both the English and French armies. Regular training for the use of the bayonet in combat, combined with the reinvention of fencing as a sport made it inevitable that competition with the bayonet would evolve. By 1888 there is regular bayonet fencing in the British military’s Royal Tournament and service fencing matches included all four weapons, foil, epee, sabre, and bayonet.

The singlestick, originally a weapon used in English country games, was in general use in some English salles by the mid 1800s. In its later versions it was a more sophisticated weapon, fenced as a cutting version of epee with similar rules. However, it retained the heavy characteristics of the weapon that demanded heavy protective equipment and that encouraged lusty hitting.

All of these weapons disappear from the fencing master’s skill set with the end of the classical period. The singlestick has a brief Olympic career in the 1904 games, but is gone from common fencing use by World War I. Cane manuals were published as late as the 1920s, but the walking stick falls out of fashion, and along with that instruction in its use. Bayonet fencing survives in military competition until 1956, but was probably gone from civilian fencing by World War I. Each of these weapons had a community of users and masters, but it is important to remember that not every fencing master taught cane, walking stick, or bayonet.

Suitable training weapons for all of these are readily available today. And period texts that describe the use of all three weapons are available as reprints. In addition, the Bayonet Society provides a training framework for those interested in the bayonet. As a classical fencing master, having the ability to teach any of these adds to your ability to represent the full range of classical fencing activity.