Rapiers and estocs[1] for piercing and hitting chinks in armor were also constructed with most of the weight centered around the hilt (large pommels and guards)

Rapiers and estocs[1] for piercing and hitting chinks in armor were also constructed with most of the weight centered around the hilt (large pommels and guards), which give better control of the point. The other extreme would be something like the falchion[2], with the weight concentrated near the end of the blade for chopping, like a scaled up meat cleaver or machete. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoc https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estoc [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falchion https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falchion