Bit of a HEMA reflection from almost 18 years experience.
If you’re looking for a blunt or feder that handles like a sharp, I want to offer a touch of perspective. First however I want to preface this by saying that I am not shitting on the idea of tools that mimic real weapons. I do however have to put this out there anyway:
1. There is no sword simulator that will one-to one match the handling of any given sharp sword.
2. The reason for this is that sharps handle and feel the way they do **because they are sharp.**
The sharp that you like feels the way it does because of the distribution of material on the blade, the narrowness of the edge and point, the level of flexibility, and while a blunt or feder can mimic some of these things, it cannot mimic all of them **without being a sharp.**
A blunt that has the same level of flex and blade profile is going to be heavier because it by definition will have more mass on the blade in order to keep the edge from cutting and the point from stabbing. Or it will have more flex for safety, or or or. You can’t have all the qualities of a sharp in a simulator, so you have to choose which qualities you want to have, and if your purpose in fencing is understanding how sharps interact, you need to be very aware when fencing of the areas in which your tool is not able to do one or several things a sharp does, for various reasons.
This doesn’t mean you can’t or shouldn’t train with the idea of use of sharps under stress as one of your learning goals. Far from it. IF that is one of your goals, however, you have to be aware of the fact that making a tool that perfectly mimics the handling characteristics of a sharp sword while still being safe to fence with, is not doable. In order to become safe it must lose one or more of the sharps traits.
The conscientious fencer will be discerning about this when choosing their tool, and will keep those changes in mind when training.
