En garde in Sabre with cover in tierce.
As sabre is fenced with absence of blade, the point is held high,
affording maximum cover to the flank and cheek on the tierce line.

The first mention of the sabre in print comes in Marcelli's manual (1686). Originally the heavy, curved, weapon with which the Household Cavalry is still equipped today, it became known in western Europe during the eighteenth century as a result of the contact with the Hungarian light horsemen (hussars) who had originally derived the weapon from the oriental scimitar of the Ottoman Turk.

In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries cavalrymen of all nations practiced sabre fencing. The French cavalry commander General Chablis commented:

"The sabre is the cavalryman's science of survival"
 

Hussars

Much of modern sabre play is derived from its cavalry application, for example the target area, everything above an imaginary line across the hips known as the saddle line, as any attacks below this would hit horse. One unique feature of modern sabre fencing is that an off-target hit, will not stop the action as it would in foil fencing.

In the eighteenth century the court-sword was regarded as essentially the gentleman's sword and from association the foil received the same prestige in the fencing salle. The sabre was originally considered to be a rather crude affair for the military. The Napoleonic wars aroused a passing enthusiasm for edged weapons, primarily due to army and naval officers having to be trained in its use for practical application in battle.

George Roland poured scorn on the sabre, and most traditionally minded foilists affected to regard it with disdain. Only at the nineteenth century's end did such great Italian masters such as Radaelli and Magrini confer respectability on their chosen weapon, since then it has gained steadily in popularity, even though the Italian style has given way entirely to Hungarian influence.

The present day weapon is extremely light and flexible. The sabre is unique as it is the only weapon which the edge is also counted as an offensive area, ie the sabre truly is the 'cut and thrust' of fencing weapons. Hits can be scored with the entire length of the cutting edge (the fore-edge) and the top third of the back edge as well, both coming to a point which is also used. The contemporary blade is entirely straight. Until recently there were many variations of sabre design in fencing, with curved blades not being uncommon as long as the vestigial curve did not deviate more than 40mm from the straight line. The curved, triangular guard, reminiscent of the old basket-hilted swords, must now be absolutely smooth; whereas just as blades differed, guards (or coquilles) were often perforated, grooved, patterned or embossed.

Typology of the blades

The technique in making a hit at sabre, ie the characteristic sabre cut has been the subject of controversy and has undergone sundry vicissitudes over the years. The military pushed the forearm slash, delivered from the elbow, or even the shoulder. However the Hungarian masters revolutionised sabre-play. The great Keresztessy of Budapest, preferred the use of the wrist, the first step toward modern technique. In

the mid nineteenth century the Italian master Barbasetti took charge of the Austrian army, and he insisted in a return to the forearm method. The school of technique advocating action from the elbow became know as the Italian method, and in many ways Barbasetti's action can be viewed as a retrograde step in the development of sabre fencing. Ironically it was left to Santelli, an Italian expatriate to introduce to Hungary the classic wrist and finger action which has become universally adapted as sabre technique and has facilitated the speed and rapid inter-exchange of attack and defence characteristic of modern sabre fencing, known as the Hungarian method. Modern sabre fencing has rules and conventions similar to that of foil they were framed in Paris in 1914 by a committee under the chairmanship of Dr Bela Nagy, president of the Hungarian Fencing Federation, and since have only been modified in detail.

Modern Electric Saber

Sources:

www.uucfencing.co.uk/history/history-of-sabre, arms-museum.tulanews.ru, www.tcasfencing.com, www.geocities.com, Gerakla-ula-masters.com.ru, www.gelos.ru