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My wife and I used to do a lot of demonstrations for the Higgins museum.
The curator (who also did the translations of several of the manuals we use in the historical show) let my wife and I into the basement workshop one day to see some of the artifacts being restored.
It was when we were developing the falchion demo and there was one being worked on he wanted to show me to give me a feel of how the real ones felt.
It was quite old (600 or so years) and not in the best of shape. So it did more to show me the sort of hilt we were talking about then anything else.
But, he had another sword in there at the time that he also let us hold that was the best sword I’ve ever held.
It also doesn’t fit well into any of the standard categories we use for swords. The blade was triangular about 30” long with a hilt like a rapier.
The balance of it was phenomenal. And, for lack of a better way to describe it, it felt like it wanted to be used.
You’d stand there holding it (with gloves on, of course) thinking how nice it felt in your hand, how good the balance of it was.
“Stop point that at me,” one of the other people in the room would say.
“I’m not,” you’d say, looking down at the sword. Then, you’d look up and realize you were.
“Oh, sorry,” you’d say, turn the blade aside and look down at it again.
“You’re doing it again,” they’d say. You’d realize that while you were looking at it, the point and swung over to the person again.
It wasn’t just me that had the issue. Everyone who held it.
It was really, really great to hold a 400 year old sword that was that great.

That was 5 years ago. I’m telling all this so that when people say “Frank, you’ve been unemployed for 3 months now, why did you drop $200 on a new sword this weekend?” and I say “because it is the closest thing I’ve held to that sword in the basement” and you’ll understand.