Sentiment du Fer

Sentiment du Fer: feeling the blade
I am not a skilled fencer by any stretch of the imagination. But I have taken a few classes and read many texts on foil fencing and rapier fencing. (I have even stayed at a Holiday Inn Express or two.) Aside from the length of blade, there are many similarities between fencing and dagger or knife fighting. You will note the motto "In Ferro Veritas" posted on our website, in steel there is truth. We believe this, and that the steel in a person is shown by their actions on the fencing strip, in the kendo hall, or the dojo.

While reading "The Inner Game of Fencing" by Nick Evangelista, I came across another term I had not heard in quite a long time, that being "Sentiment du Fer" or vulgarly translated, feeling the blade. To quote Sir Richard Francis Burton,

"The sentiment du fer is that supreme art of digitation which is to the complete swordsman what the touch of the pulse is, or rather was, to the old physician who disclaims the newfangled thermometer. It begins to make itself felt as soon as the blades come into contact. Essential to the highest development of our art, it is the result of happy natural disposition, of long study, and of persevering attention. To the hand it gives lightness and that indescribable finesse which guide the cue of the billiard player; to the passes it communicates quickness directed by an appreciation of the case which can hardly be subjected to analysis. It is that mysterious résumé of delicate manipulation, of practised suppleness in wrist and forearm, and of precision in movement, which makes the adversary feel powerless before it, which startles at the same time that it commands him. No quality in a swordsman is more rarely found in any degree approaching perfection."

It would be extremely uncommon for two knife duelists to physically cross blades before engaging. But is there a sentiment du fer that extends beyond the tip of the blade, whether sword or knife? At what point does the engagement actually begin in time and space? These are questions worth exploring and their investigation part of my raison d’etre.

The Image is from Camillo Agrippa's manual