Sword Cane

aka: Cane Sword

"He had thrown those thoughts as far to the side of his mind as he could manage, because holy shit sword-cane. Swooooooooooooooord-caaaaaaaaaaaaane!"

— About Jeremy Franco, The Only Way Is Up, Survival of the Fittest

A Sword Cane is a short sword or other bladed weapon that is concealed inside a cane. The cane is opened by twisting the top or pressing a release button, then pulling on the handle to reveal a blade, often with a "Tzing" sound. This weapon is typically used by Cultured Badass characters, or as a weapon of advantage by a character who has a disability (or pretends to). It is also sometimes used by villains, in which case its nature as a concealed weapon will be played up to indicate the character's sneaky and treacherous nature. Sometimes it is a switchblade opening from the tip of a cane to make it a spear. Also popular amongst blind swordsmen. Occasionally, this will be altered by the character, having a gun or stun baton disguised as a cane, which are also real weapons (and arguably more practical), but relatively rare in fiction.

Truth in Television: The Swordstick was a popular gentleman's accessory in 18th and 19th century Europe. There were also examples of ladies parasols or walking sticks having blades concealed inside them, as although openly carrying a sword was no longer acceptable for a gentleman unless he was in military uniform, it was even less acceptable for a lady to openly carry a sword, or to officially let it be known that she knew how to use one.

Other examples throughout the world include the Japanese shikomizue (often associated with Ninja) and the Indian gupti, and archeological examples have been discovered dating back to ancient Rome and Egypt.

Connected to, and sometimes overlaps with, Parasol of Pain. Compare Combat Haircomb. If the cane doesn't need to conceal a blade for the character to do damage with it, see Cane Fu.

Sword Cane is a Sub-Trope of Arsenal Attire and Retractable Weapon, and sister trope of the non-violent Classy Cane.

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Examples:

Anime & Manga

• Bleach:
  • Kisuke Urahara's Zanpakuto, Benihime.
  • Ryūjin Jakka, Captain Commander Yamamoto's Zanpakuto/wooden staff, which literally dissolves to reveal a normal katana rather than being a fancy blade.
• Mad Pierrot from the Cowboy Bebop episode "Pierrot le Fou" uses a gun-cane in his first battle with Spike. Though Spike doesn't get shot, he still gets his ever-loving ass handed to him.
• Karakuri Circus: Subverted with the automata Master Swordsman Sylvestre. At first, he looks like an old man with a conspicuous stick that seems to contain a sword, but then he reveals that his right hand is the actual handle of his saber.
• Last Exile. Alex Rowe has a gun-in-a-cane. Pretty powerful one at that.
• Lupin III:
  • Ishikawa Goemon XIII carries a katana with shirasaya style mounting. He has, however, disguised it as a cane on a few occasions.
  • The TV special Lupin III: Angel Tactics has two examples. At the very beginning, when Goemon is disguised as a scientist, he hides his sword like this. Later, his opponent also disguises her katana as a cane. This is how Goemon realizes she's hostile: someone who genuinely needed a cane couldn't possibly have climbed the mountain he was meditating atop of.
• Mandala Gundam from Mobile Fighter G Gundam is one of the more absurd examples, being a Humongous Mecha styled after a Buddhist monk with a Laser Blade hidden inside its khakkhara. Its pilot Kyral Mekirel is a blind assassin who has a normal steel sword concealed in his own khakkhara.
• Moriarty the Patriot: William's Staff of Authority sword cane is his weapon.
• One Piece:
  • Brook uses this as his main weapon, and also uses it to play his violin. After the Time Skip, he gets it sharpened and reveals its name: Soul Solid. He can use his Devil Fruit power to channel the frozen winds of the underworld through it or influence the souls of others by using it as a violin bow for his music.
  • Fujitora, the blind admiral, uses a cane sword that doubles as his weapon as well as a walking stick to help him navigate.
• Xerxes Break in PandoraHearts.
• Saito Hajime uses one in his first appearance in Rurouni Kenshin. It breaks the first time he uses it to perform a gatotsu, so he discards it and goes back to using a katana.
• Sailor Moon has Tuxedo Mask's cane, which can function as both a sword or a staff depending on the type of ass-kicking he's in the mood for.
• In Samurai Pizza Cats, Guido stores his sword, "Pikapika", inside his parasol.
• In Sword Art Online, Death Gun carries his sword in a sniper rifle. More specifically, it's a handmade, rapier-type blade made out of starship plate metal.
• Rai-Dei in Trigun is a samurai who has a sword cane with a built in gun, in the manga it shot the blade instead of bullets.
• Until Death Do Us Part: the main character is blind (he can "see" with the aid of his special sunglasses, but that's a different trope) and stores his katana in his white cane.
• In Yu-Gi-Oh!, the Millennium Rod has a blade inside it. The English dub edits it out.

Comic Books

• Batman:
  • When he first appears, Anarky uses a taser concealed in a walking stick.
  • Sterling Silversmith carries a varies a variety of silver walking sticks that conceal either a blade or a gun.
• In Bondage Fairies, Pamila carries a bullwhip that has a retractable blade concealed in the handle.
• Daredevil: Matt Murdock's cane conceals a variety of weapons and tools, including a billy club, grappling hook and (originally) a small-caliber rifle.
• Foolkiller: The fourth Foolkiller, Mike Trace from the Marvel MAX series, has one. In fact, he doesn't really use other weapons at all.
• In Grendel, Hunter Rose has a cane that expands into Grendel's trade mark "fork on a stick" weapon.
• In Lori Lovecraft: The Dark Lady, Lori is trapped in a dreamscape based on the films of recently deceased actor Sir Andrew Parke-Jones. The demon possessing Sir Andrew's body attempts to kill Lori with a sword cane from one his films.
• In one of the older Mickey Mouse Comic Universe stories, among the items Mickey inherits from a deceased uncle is a cane that supposedly "will help you in your time of need." The context makes it sound like it's in case he hurts himself, but in a critical moment he figures out that it can be bent and reconfigured into a long-barreled rifle. (He uses it to shoot a coconut and knock it out of a tree so it lands on the villain's head. This is Disney, after all.)
• In The Punisher, Full Moon Killer, Cane and Blind Joe Death have swords in their canes. The latter two also have guns in them.
• The Sandman (1989): Fiddler's Green has one which he carries with him when wandering around in human form. He uses it during The Doll's House arc. (Like everything else about Fiddler's Green's human form, this is based on G. K. Chesterton, as mentioned under Literature.)
• The Shade (DC Comics): The Shade has one, although it's really just a solid formation of his shadow powers.
• Star Wars:
  • Jedi Master Zao has a lightsaber cane. That is, a lightsaber built into a cane.
  • So did Haazen, a Sith Acolyte who uses it to skirt the rule that acolytes couldn’t use lightsabers.
• Used by one of the villains in the Tintin story Tintin in America.

Comic Strips

• In Little Orphan Annie, Arunah Blade has one. It's tipped with poison.

Fan Works

• The School for Good and Evil (2022) fanfic Not a prince: Before she begins teaching Dovey how to sword fight, Lesso reveals that her cane also has a sword hidden in it.
• In the Turning Red fic Turning Red: Secrets of the Panda, Xia's cane is revealed to be one.

Films — Animated

• In The Adventures of Tintin (2011), Ivan Ivanovitch Sakharine has one which he threatens Tintin with on board the Karaboudjanin.
• Batman Ninja: As might be expected, the parasol the Penguin carries in feudal Japan conceals a hidden blade.
• Martin has one in The Secret of NIMH 2: Timmy to the Rescue, and he uses it against Timmy during the climax.

Films — Live-Action

• The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes' Smarter Brother. Sigerson uses one while fighting the mooks during the carriage battle.
• Army of Frankensteins: When John Wilkes Booth sneaks into the theatre to assassinate Lincoln, heuses his sword stick to attempt to dispose of Alan.
• The Avengers (1998): During the final fight with Sir August, Steed reveals a sword hidden in his umbrella, which was hinted at about 50 min earlier when he fenced with Mrs. Peel to test out a new handle for it.
• In the Disney version of Victor Herbert's Babes in Toyland, Barnaby, having been shrunk, like Tom Piper, down to toy size, is held at sword point by Tom, but Barnaby pulls on the head of his cane, which comes free with no effort, revealing that it's a sword in disguise, leading to a climactic Sword Fight between them. Needless to say, Barnaby loses.
• Ra's Al-Ghul has one with him in Batman Begins during Bruce Wayne's birthday party.
• In Beat the Devil, Major Ross, who has already been established as a Murder Is the Best Solution hitman, whips out a sword from what appeared to be an ordinary swagger stick. He is about to perforate Harry with it when Billy saves him Just in Time.
• Nick Parker in Blind Fury has one as his primary weapon.
• In Blindsided: the Game, Walter carries a dagger in the top of his white cane and carries a Shikomizue in the style of Zatoichi for the second act that he also uses as a cane.
• Killer #2 in Bunraku uses one, although he uses it as a striking cane about as much as he uses the hidden blade.
• In Casino Royale (1954)^note The first screen adaptation of a James Bond novel, released in 1954 as a television movie/episode of the anthology series Climax!, one of Le Chiffre's henchmen has a gun cane.
• The therapist in Cat People has a sword cane which he uses in a fight with the heroine who turned into a black panther. The weapon doesn't help him though, proving you should never bring a sword to a catfight.
• The Thin Man from Charlie's Angels (2000) uses one.
• In Circus of Horrors, Schüler has a blade concealed inside the crop he always carries. He uses it in an attempt to kill Ames.
• Alex's cane in A Clockwork Orange conceals a dagger, which is apparently a surprise to the rest of his gang.
• Daredevil (2003). As in the comic, Matt Murdock's cane collapses to form his billy club and grappelling hook. Unfortunately this reveals Daredevil's Secret Identity to reporter Ben Urich, who's seen Matt using the cane.
• The Big Bad of Game of Death is a textbook example. Unsurprisingly, he gets his ass handed to him.
• Gilda: The Affably Evil Ballin uses his sword cane to fight off a couple of Mooks when he first meets Johnny. It is later shown to be a lethal weapon.
• In The Great Train Robbery, Edward Pierce uses one to defend himself when two thugs try to mug him in a part of Victorian London's seedy underbelly.
• The wizard version appears in the movies of Harry Potter. Lucius Malfoy has a "pimp cane" that he unscrews his magic wand from (this was apparently Jason Isaacs' idea).
• Bad guy Count Mancini has a sword walking stick in He Who Gets Slapped. He uses it to inflict a mortal wound on Lon Chaney's character, a circus clown, but Chaney has his revenge by loosing a circus lion on Mancini.
• In The Hound of the Baskervilles (1983), The Bearded Man attempts to assassinate Sir Henry in London using an air gun concealed in a walking stick.
• The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. Dorian Gray has one.
• Madhouse (1974): When Toombes confronts the real murderer, Herbert Flay, he reveals he is carrying a sword cane and draws the blade and attacks Toombes.
• Alejandro has one when he poses as a Don in The Mask of Zorro. He doesn't use it though. In fact, the only reason we know it's a swordstick at all is that he checks it briefly before attending the banquet.
• In Murders in the Rue Morgue (1971), Pierre Triboulet, the dwarf who is assisting Marot, carries one. Unfortunately for him, he is not very adept at using it and, when he attacks Cesar, Cesar takes it off him and stabs him with it.
• In Necronomicon, the walking stick Lovecraft carries is actually a swordstick, which is revealed when he is attacked by an Eldritch Abomination during the climax.
• In The Outlaws IS Coming!, Bat Masterson carries a shotgun cane.
• In The Phantom of the Opera (1989), Erik has a whip which has a hidden knife in its handle.
• Predator 2. During his confrontation with the Predator, the Jamaican drug lord King Willie draws a sword out of his cane and prepares to fight. It does him no good at all.
• The Sabata Trilogy: In the first film, Stengel carries a cane gun that fires a steel dart.
• Gideon in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.
• In the Direct-To-Video movie Sherlock: Case of Evil, Sherlock Holmes and Professor Moriarty both have them. Since Moriarity is a much better swordsman, Holmes trades this in for a Single Shot .45 caliber Gun Cane. And Moriarty turns out to be wearing body armor under his clothes.
• Sherlock Holmes (2009):
  • Watson carries one; the villain swipes it in a deleted scene to duel with Holmes.
  • In the final battle between Sherlock and Lord Blackwood, Sherlock grabs the cane Blackwood is holding only for him to whip out a sword from it. Holmes ends up fending him off with the cane part.
• In Sherlock Holmes and the Deadly Necklace, Moriarty carries a walking stick that fires handleless knives.
• In The Show, the Greek, who is a murderous psycho, breaks out his switchblade in order to intimidate Robin. It doesn't work, as Robin uncaps his walking stick to reveal a considerably longer and scarier blade.
• In The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1968), Hyde uses a rapier concealed in a cane as his signature weapon. When he's not stabbing with his sword, Hyde usually resorts to beating people to death with his cane instead.
• Sherlock Holmes carries one and uses it to defend himself when he and Watson are set upon by Steiner's thugs in an alley in A Study in Terror.
• The main bad guy in The Thirty Nine Steps (1978) carries one.
• Pujol in The Tiger Brigades, a film (from a TV series) about an elite squad of detectives in 1910's France.
• In TRON: Legacy, Castor's cane doubles as a laser gun. This being cyberspace, it's completely transparent. He uses it mostly for effect, wildly shooting it above a crowd, but no-one is injured. On the other hand, when he shoots a soldier with it in the back, it puts a nice hole through the head.
• In Underworld: Blood Wars, Thomas dual wields his sword and the cane he drew it from.
• Kwinto in Vabank carries one and puts it to good use against an assassin.
• Vigilante Diaries: Armenian mobster Andreas carries a sword cane and uses it to kill one of Hanover's girls in his first scene.
• Judge Doom in Who Framed Roger Rabbit, which he uses in the climactic confrontation.
• In The Wolfman (2010), the iconic wolf cane from the original is reimagined as this. In the film's climax, Lawrence briefly wields the sword against the film's villain, but is quickly disarmed.
• Zukovsky has the gun variant in The World Is Not Enough. Apparently it's powerful enough to shatter a manacle without harming the restrained person.
• In Yellowbeard, Blind Pew's white stick conceals a sword blade that he wields with devastating efficiency.
• The heroine of the Shaw Brothers wuxia, The Young Avenger uses a sword-cane as a weapon. This is perhaps the only (or among the very few) instance of a wuxia heroine from a Shaw Brothers film that uses this kind of weapon, with the traditional swordswomen preferring to use the classic Chinese jian instead.
• In Zatoichi, the eponymous hero needs a cane due to his blindness. The 2003 version doesn't use the cane much to help with his blindness, and makes no secret that it conceals a sword due to how he holds it preparing for Single Stroke Battles.

Literature

• Manly Wade Wellman's Occult Detective Judge Pursuivant has a silver version of one of these, with the words "Sic pereant omnes inimici tui, Domine" (thus perish all thine enemies, O Lord) engraved on it. When he becomes too old to wield it, the Judge passes it on to his colleague John Thunstone.
• In Angels of Music, Yuki is always described as carrying her parasol, which is eventually revealed to have sword concealed in it.
• In Anno Dracula, Charles Beauregard uses one as an upper-class British gentleman. He eventually has it coated with silver so it will more effectively deal with vampires.
• Artemis Fowl: In The Lost Colony, Billy Kong uses crutches modified as tranquilizer guns whilst attempting demon capturing.
• Rehvenge in the Black Dagger Brotherhood series has a sword pimp-cane with a blood-red blade.
• Early in Black Is the Colour of My True Love's Heart by Ellis Peters, visitors to a stately-home-turned-convention-center are shown a collection of exotic weapons, including a sword cane, that were acquired by a former owner as a way of seeming more mysterious and glamourous than he really was. Later in the novel, one of the characters takes the sword cane from its display case and uses it in a murder attempt.
• Fencing master Xiphias gives one to Patera Silk in Gene Wolfe's Book of the Long Sun. He says it might be useful in some situation where a man of his station might not want to be seen possessing a weapon, but was better off actually having one to hand. He is correct.
• Doctor Talos in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun turns out to be armed with one of these.
• In Casino Royale, one of Le Chiffre's goons carries a short swagger stick-like cane. At a crucial point in the game, he presses it against James Bond's back and whispers in his ear that it's actually a silenced zip gun, and if Bond doesn't withdraw his last bet he's going to get a hole blown in his spine. Bond has to fake a faint to get out of the situation.
• In The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, protagonist Richard uses one of these, that also has a built-in gun. The fact that he's had a foot amputated makes it a lot easier for him to carry it without raising suspicion.
• In a flashback in The Count of Monte Cristo, it was mentioned that Monsieur Noirtier carried one and was even able to defeat a seasoned military officer armed with a full-sized rapier with it.
• More or less subverted in the book A Dirty Job. Charlie Asher has one. Then, being an antique, it jams when he tries to draw it. He gets a newer one, then turns out to leave it at home when he just gets a friend to lend him a gun.
• Discworld:
  • Secret Police leader Captain Swing in Night Watch carries a sword cane, which like other "covert weapons" (i.e. flick knives and palm daggers) is looked upon with disgust by Vimes. Swing surprises him by not Flynning but actually being a fairly competent swordsman
  • In both The Truth and Making Money, rumour has it that Vetinari's walking stick is a sword cane, possibly forged from the blood of his enemies. Vetinari's own view is that if people think your stick might be a sword, they forget that it's definitely a stick.
• 'Ham' Brooks' preferred weapon in the Doc Savage novels. It's also coated with a drug that rapidly produces unconsciousness when he scratches someone with it.
• Doctor Who Expanded Universe: The Eighth Doctor Adventures novel The Slow Empire has the Doctor discover that the question-mark umbrella he carried in his previous incarnation contained a sword which had never been used. Presumably because the Seventh Doctor was Crazy-Prepared enough not to have to resort to swordplay.

• In The Dresden Files, Harry Dresden has two of these. One is an authentic 19th-century sword cane that's been prepared to be a focus for magic, useful for moving around without drawing attention and as a backup magic-focusing tool. The other is one of the Swords (capital "S" there) wielded by the Knights of the Cross; the latter is actually a shirasaya, a type of Japanese sword that, when sheathed, looks just like a long, somewhat curved walking stick, and is otherwise known as Kusanagi.
• As a fashionable 19th-century detective, Erast Fandorin is required to carry one of these. In The Coronation he uses it to stab a would-be kidnapper.
• In one of the Father Brown stories, the solution hinges upon the murderer using a sword cane.
• Fevre Dream: Jeffers, the ship's clerk, is mentioned early on to have a sword cane. He turns out to be a surprisingly Badass Bookworm with it.
• In The First Law series, Inquisitor Glokta, a former soldier turned torturer who has extensive injuries because he was tortured himself, walks with a cane. It has a sword in it, and as the third book reveals he's still capable of inflicting quite a bit of damage with it.

• The main protagonist of Wolfgang Hohlbein's Hexer von Salem stories, Robert Craven, occasionally uses one of these that he's inherited from his father. He's never really described as a particularly exceptional fencer, but the weapon itself is magical and rather effective at killing shoggoths.
• In The Infernal Devices, Jem Carstairs' weapon is a jade-tipped sword-cane.
• Granny Carry of the Liavek anthologies has a swordcane, although she never actually has to use it.
• The victim in the Lord Darcy mystery Murder on the Napoli Express was killed by his own swordstick. This turns out to be a major clue: He was bludgeoned to death with the stick. Every member of the original list of suspects knew that it was a swordstick, and thus would presumably use the blade if they planned to kill someone with it.
• Lord Peter Wimsey's favourite walking stick is "a handsome malacca, marked off in inches for detective convenience, and concealing a sword in its belly and a compass in its head".
• Syme, the protagonist of The Man Who Was Thursday carries one, mostly because it fits with his sense of living a life of whimsy and adventure, although he actually does know how to fence. The author, G. K. Chesterton, also carried a Sword Cane (and quite frequently a revolver) for much the same reason.
• A Master of Djinn: Fatma has one, which serves as her personal weapon. It fits with her personal style of wearing a bowler hat and fine Western men's suit.
• Matt Helm fights a man wielding one of these in The Wrecking Crew.
• In the Matthew Hawkwood novel Resurrectionist, Mad Doctor Colonel Titus Hyde carries a sword cane and very nearly does the hero in with it.

• In the kid's horror novel The Nightmarys, the main character is afraid that the old man he and his friend are going to talk to has one.
• In one of Agatha Christie's Partners in Crime stories, Tommy (who is pretending to be blind to win a bet with his wife) has one concealed in his fake "white stick".
• The narrator in Umberto Eco's The Prague Cemetery carries one so nobody will notice he's armed. The first person he meets immediately congratulates him on carrying such a fine Cane Sword.
• In the Ravirn series, Ravirn stores his court weaponry (rapier and dagger a la a Renaissance nobleman) in his ski poles in the first book. They're actually useful, too, even though he also carries a gun (he doesn't have any silver bullets, but the silver inlay on the rapier proves very helpful when his werewolf cousin attacks him).
• The Riftwar Cycle: After Keyoke is crippled in the second book of the Daughter of the Empire trilogy and has to retire from his life as a soldier, he is given a crutch with a retractable sword blade built into it. He dies while wielding it in the third book.
• Simon Templar, AKA The Saint, uses a sword cane in his early adventures, notably "The Man Who Was Clever".
• In the first Spellsinger novel, Jon-Tom gets a ramwood staff that looks like an ordinary walking staff, but contains a concealed blade in the end that he can deploy by pressing a hidden button on the grip, turning it into a spear. The head of the staff has a large bulge in the wood that he can use as a bludgeon, as well.
• Star Wars Legends: An older Lando Calrissian, as of the Legacy of the Force series, carries a cane with a small blaster and a voice-activated stunner. (Which stuns anyone touching the cane — in case it's taken from him. Lando's like that.)
• A popular accessory in Technomagia i smoki (the protagonist carries one, so does his colleague). Some - but not all - Gentleman Wizards will carry canes with concealed magical crystals instead.
• Vorkosigan Saga: Lt. Koudelka in Barrayar has a swordstick. It gains special historical notability when it is used (by Sergeant Bothari) to behead a pretender to the throne. It has an ejector mechanism that is so powerful that it turns the sheath into a projectile weapon, which is the subject of some comedy as Koudelka slowly masters its workings.

Live-Action TV

• In Auction Kings, although not of the greatest quality, Paul sold one for quite a bit of money due to the novelty factor.
• In The Avengers (1960s), Steed has a sword concealed within his umbrella.
• Adam's trademark weapon in Adam Adamant Lives!. An Edwardian adventurer, Adam was carrying when his Arch-Enemy turned him into a Human Popsicle. He continued to use it after being revived in the 1960s.

• In Colonel March of Scotland Yard, March's iconic umbrella is also a sword cane. He undoubtedly bought it at the same place as John Steed.
• Doctor Who: In "Let's Kill Hitler", the Doctor uses a sonic cane, a variation of the sonic screwdriver. He apparently took the time to build it while he was dying of a fatal poison.
• Uncle Si from Duck Dynasty breaks a Japanese sword given to Willie by a friend. When going to a pawn shop looking to see if it can be fixed or replaced, Si starts killing time by playing with some of the swords and weapons on the wall. When he finds a cane sword, he says all elderly people need to have one, because nobody would mess with them.
• Father Brown: A sword cane is used as the murder weapon in "The Dance of Death" and as part of an elaborate Frame-Up.
• The Gifted (2017): A flashback in the episode "meMento" shows that Andreas Von Strucker wielded one of these, which served as a focus for his powers.
• Highlander has two Immortals who used sword-canes:
  • In "The Vampire", Nicholas Ward carried an elegant gentleman's cane that had a sword inside. It was appropriate to the time and place of Victorian England.
  • In "Double Eagle", Kit O'Brady dressed like a high-society gentleman, including a cane which concealed his sword inside.
• House:
  • House carries not a sword, but an axe and a shotgun within his cane during a dream sequence.
    House: [slice] Good thing I brought my axe cane.
  • In one episode, House has a cane confiscated by airport security — it was an antique cane made for a vintner that has a corkscrew concealed in the handle.
• Interview with the Vampire: Louis de Pointe du Lac owns a cane with a concealed knife that he unsheathes thrice on-screen. In the series premiere, Louis intimidates Paul by placing the blade against his brother's chest, and later, Louis stabs Lestat de Lioncourt several times in the back. In the Season 1 finale, Louis slits Lestat's throat.
• In the Kolchak: The Night Stalker episode "The Ripper", Jack the Ripper carries a sword cane that he uses to kill and mutilate his female victims.
• In one episode of Leverage, old Archie Leach has at least two — one with a stun prod and one with a blade. When Chaos (Wil Wheaton) annoys him too much and calls him super old, he pulls his cane against his throat, then says he can't remember which one it is, because "after all, I am super old". Turns out it was the stun. Which he comes to find out, in fact, after using it on Chaos.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe: On Daredevil (2015) and Iron Fist (2017), Madame Gao hobbles around on a cane, but she doesn't need it, and in fact it is used to conceal a sword.
• A sword umbrella was a murder weapon in an early episode of Murder, She Wrote (although it was used accidentally in self-defense by someone who didn't know there was a sword in it).
• In The Prisoner episode "Hammer into Anvil", a particularly nasty Number Two is revealed to have turned his shooting-stick-of-office into a sword stick, and threatens to stab Number Six in the eyes with it.
• In The Sarah Jane Adventures, Sir Alistair's walking stick is a camouflaged single-shot shotgun.
• Played for Laughs in a finale episode of Sherlock, where Mycroft finds himself ambushed and reveals his favourite umbrella serves as a sheath for a swordcane. That isn't the whole joke. After he gets the impression that a blade won't do for self-defence, he uncouples it from the umbrella handle, which is shown to conceal a short, one-shot pistol barrel. So Mycroft's secret weapon is an umbrella-hilted swordcane pistol.
• Sherlock Holmes. When Moriarty confronts Holmes at 221B, he persuades Holmes to put down the derringer he's concealing in his pocket so they can have a civilized conversation. As Moriarty goes to leave however, he picks up his cane and does something that makes an ominous 'click', implying it's a concealed firearm, which he then brandishes threateningly at Holmes.

• The private rail car in The Wild Wild West included a sword concealed in a pool cue.
• Yancy Derringer often carries a cane or a riding crop with a sword concealed within.
• On Z Nation, Murphy picks up one of these during Season 4, and is surprisingly skilled with it.

Music

• The Vigilante Man in Abney Park's "Victorian Vigilante" comes after someone who has one of these.
• Bob Dylan's On The Road Again from Bringing it all Back Home:
  Your grandpa's cane, it turns into a sword
  Your grandma prays to pictures that are pasted on a board
  Everything inside my pockets your uncle steals
  And you ask me why I don't live here — honey, I can't believe that you're for real!
• Ham Danshaku of FAKE TYPE.'s animated music videos uses one to cut down gangsters and ghosts.
• Ronald Isley has one that he threatens to use on R. Kelly in the video for "Contagious"
• The titular character in Lou Reed's "My Friend George" carries one.
• The Gothsicles cover this trope in their aptly named song "Sword Cane", where the singer recognizes that a seemingly frail old man is concealing a weapon behind his frail appearance.
  old man, i don’t wanna fight you
  there’s a blade housed in your walking stick
  i can tell that your frailty is fake
  your reflexes are much too quick

Roleplay

• Jeremy Franco of Survival of the Fittest was given this as his assigned weapon. As seen by the page quote, he enjoyed it.

Tabletop Games

• 7th Sea includes a swordsman's school based around the use of a sword cane.
• Aftermath, Scenario Pack 1: Into the Ruins. In the ruins of the Gatlin Center, the Director's office holds a cane which, if examined, can be discovered to be a sword cane. If the outer covering is removed, the sword can attack as a Ceremonial Sword.
• Call of Cthulhu
  • Boxed set Cthulhu By Gaslight. One of the new Victorian Age weapons in this supplement is the sword cane. The sword is the equivalent of a sharpened fencing foil. Some models cause the sword to extend from the base of the cane when the handle is turned.
  • Supplement H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham: Unveiling the Legend-Haunted City. The Non-Player Character Danté Helcimer has moderate skill with the sword cane he carries.
• R. Talsorian Games' Cyberpunk supplement Solo of Fortune II. An ad for Midnight Arms has the Kendachi Monosword Cane, an Absurdly Sharp Blade concealed in a mahogany-finished walking cane.
• Dark Heresy has a power sword cane.
• Sword canes show up in GURPS: High-Tech. They're expensive, low quality and bad for parrying. On the up side beating people with the cane is still a viable option. There's also a rifle cane.
• FASA's The Doctor Who Role Playing Game. Game News #6 magazine (August 1985) had a mini-adventure in which a German nobleman tried to assassinate the U.S. President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. The nobleman had a sword cane that he could use with uncommon skill.
• Dungeons & Dragons
  • Dragon magazine #42, adventure "The Mansion of Mad Professor Ludlow". One room in the mansion has a chest which contains a sword cane. The sword is released from the cane by squeezing the cane's ivory handle.
  • Adventure DA1 Adventures in Blackmoor. In the Comeback Inn, the Master Closet has five walking sticks, one of which is a sword cane.
  • Masque of the Red Death campaign expansion for the Ravenloft setting has these devices available for purchase by adventurers.
  • The 5th edition supplement Xanathar's Guide to Everything includes a magic item called veteran's cane, which is a walking cane that permanently transforms into a longsword when its command word is spoken.
• Hollow Earth Expedition. A favorite weapon of evil masterminds and the nobility, the sword portion was equivalent to a rapier.
• The New World of Darkness Sourcebook Armory has these listed. They deal bashing damage with the cane on and lethal with the blade out.
• Shadowrun. The Neo-Anarchist's Guide to Real Life introduces the Barton Arms Gun Cane. It fires a single 8 mm bullet that does light damage to targets at close range.
• TSR's Top Secret espionage game allowed Player Characters to purchase sword canes for $50 for use as concealable weapons.
• Traveller
  • The Space Gamer magazine #49 article "Tools for Terrorists". The sword cane has a foil (sword) inside it. It weighs one kilogram and costs 150 credits. Once drawn from the cane, the foil can be used normally. The scabbard can be used to parry other melee weapons.
  • FASA's The FCI Consumer Guide. The sword cane is a walking stick consisting of a foil covered by a wooden sheath. Once removed, the sheath can be used to parry enemy melee attacks.
• Many characters in Cubicle 7's Victoriana supplement Faces in the Smoke Volume Two: Shadows and Steel have and use a sword cane.
  • The Adventurers' Society: Generic Watchbearers and the old wolf Beastman Thaddius Grey.
  • The Deceivers: Lord Harold Wyndham.
  • The Knights of Ludd: The revolutionary terrorist Bernard Wilkins.
  • Fellowship of the Red Pharaoh: Their chief enforcer Mr. Thoth.
  • Observant Society of the Meek: The standard Order "courser" (operative).

Theatre

• Edward Hyde uses and is killed by one in Jekyll & Hyde.
• Rupert in Rope has one and uses it to defend himself against the killers while they wait for the police.
• In The Threepenny Opera, Villain Protagonist Macheath carries a sword cane.

Video Games

• Ace Attorney
  • Case 3-5 of the original trilogy featured one of these. It belonged to the victim, and was the murder weapon.
  • Plum Kitaki from Apollo Justice has a blade in the handle of her broom, and often displays it when she's irate.
• Assassin's Creed Syndicate has canes with knives hidden in them as one of the usable melee weapons, particularly for Evie.
• Gio from Atelier Rorona: The Alchemist of Arland and Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland uses a sword cane, fitting his Old Master and Cool Old Guy characterization. He wields it like an Iaijutsu Practitioner, drawing his sword for a quick slash before immediately sheathing it.
• Battleborn has a gun example with Battle Butler Marquis. His gold cane is outfitted as a Sniper Rifle. It's also a Double Weapon, having a small pistol built into the handle for close quarters.
• One of the Trick Weapons in Bloodborne is the Threaded Cane, which is an unusual take on this trope - it's a hexagonal metal cane with sharpened corners that can serve as a highly effective bludgeon but also has a steel cable inside it, letting it become a vicious serrated whip as the situation requires.
• Elden Ring:
  • It's possible to find a Cane Sword in a corner of Leyndell, Royal Capital. The flavor text says it was the weapon of a veteran knight who grew decrepit in his old age but still wanted to meet his end with a weapon in hand.
  • Morgott, the Veiled Monarch, the true identity of Margit, the Fell Omen, begins his boss fight by crushing the huge cane-like staff he wielded as Margit to reveal a curving, iridescent sword at its core, said to have been forged from his own cursed blood. Incidentally, overlaying Morgott's model with Margit reveals that the sword curves too much to actually fit inside the cane; so you don't notice, its blade is kept off-screen when he reveals it.
• In Fallout 4, canes are a melee weapon wielded like swords, and can be upgraded with the very ironic Crippling Barbs mod.
• Fate/Grand Order: Nagakura Shinpachi's First Ascension has him holding what looks like an ordinary cane over his shoulder... until he enters combat, at which point he unsheathes the curved blade hidden inside said cane.
• Gloomwood: This serves as the player's melee weapon, which they can use to defend themselves and kill enemies. Holstering the weapon has the player put the sword back in the cane.
• The titular Gunbrella is, as it's name implies, a gun with a parasol attached. While the gun part is pretty straightforward, the parasol can be used traverse environments as well as to deflect projectiles.
• In The Last Bounty Hunter, Handsome Harry has the gun variant. When you meet him, he'll raise his cane, claim to be unarmed, and then try to shoot you with it. You can Blast It Out of His Hand to capture rather than kill him.
• Not quite this trope, but clearly influenced by it: Kohaku from the Tsukihime fighting game spinoff Melty Blood conceals a sword in her Flying Broomstick.
• In Onimusha Blade Warriors, Juju-ran has a hidden blade in the handle of her parasol.
• In the original Police Quest 1: In Pursuit of the Death Angel, Sonny is given a cane with a derringer hidden in the handle when he goes undercover as a pimp in lieu of his service revolver.
• Special maces in Romancing Saga 3 allow you to draw out a sword from within them through a special skill. Afterwards, it is treated like a short sword.
• Saints Row offers you a Shotgun Cane. A Shotgun Pimp Cane no less. Your character's idle animation while holding it is to rest on it like a regular cane.
• The weapon of choice of Ujiyasu Hojo in the Samurai Warriors series. Both a sword cane AND a gun cane.
• Setsuka of the Soul Series conceals a sword in her parasol.
• Cap'n Cuttlefish from Splatoon has a variation of this. He is a decorated veteran who fought in the Great Turf War using his trusty Bamboozler — a type of rifle fashioned from a piece of bamboo. In the present day, he uses it as a cane.
• Master Rishu from Super Robot Wars: Original Generation is a proud owner of one of these.
• Watch_Dogs: An understated example: mob boss "Lucky" Quinn keeps a knife hidden in the handle of his cane. In his first scene, he uses it to stab an underling in the throat after they nearly messed up a robbery.
• In Triangle Strategy, Benedict has one of these as his signature weapon. The cane sword fits well with his Battle Butler aesthetic.
• Todd, butler to the Schrodinger Family in Wild ARMs 3, wields one of these, fitting his flamboyant attire and giant afro.

Web Animation

• RWBY: Neopolitan uses a long, thin blade concealed inside Hush, which is very much in the spirit of this trope. In early seasons, she predominantly fights using the parasol itself as a bludgeoning tool and shield, augmented by her own combat prowess and Semblance, only revealing the sword as a coup de grâce on a defeated opponent. Later on, she begins using it far more often, usually by extending the tip from the ferrule to give herself an edge in combat.

Webcomics

• The premise is roundly mocked in Basic Instructions. After all, a real gentleman would never think of possibly damaging his sword-cane.
• Bug wanted one, but sees a few problems on the way.
• In Champions of Far'aus, Ebenezer’s cane is revealed to be one, when one of the cultists who have captured the protagonists & his assistant, approaches him with a bow ready to shoot, and calls him an “old timer”.
• Adrian Raven in El Goonish Shive has this, but carries it only when expecting serious trouble.
• Thaco from Goblins has a variant. There's no element of concealment; his two swords lock together so he can use them as a cane.
• Blind Terezi Pyrope from Homestuck turned her walking cane into one at some point during her session. It's actually two swords in one cane.
• In Impure Blood, Caspian has one, but doesn't always have to draw the blade.
• Several characters in The Search For Henry Jekyll use these as a signature weapon, including Utterson and Hyde.

Web Videos

• The main protagonist of The Knight Shift, Knight/Ellpagg wields a sword cane with a stylized dragon carved into the metal handle. The sword cane itself goes by the name of Dragonier, The Dragon Cane Sword, and Reignbreaker - and goes on to become a legendary relic in the setting.
• Man at Arms has an episode where they forge Jacob Frye's cane sword, inspired by Assassin's Creed Syndicate. Includes a short blade on the side of the handle, and a retractable scythe at the tip of the cane.

Western Animation

• In one episode of The Adventures of Tintin, the Big Bad has one of these, but at the time he unsheathes it, Tintin is wearing a suit of medieval armor (It Makes Sense In Context), hefts his massive claymore, causing the villain to drop his weapon and flee.
• In the Batman Beyond episode "Mind Games", Terry encounters a psychic albino who telekinetically beats him up with a sword cane. He doesn't unsheathe the blade until Terry gets pins under a coatrack, at which point he launches it at Terry to finish him off — only for Terry to deflect it with the coatrack and quickly defeat him.
• Sherlock Holmes, yes that Sherlock Holmes, carries one in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold "episode Trial's of the Demon".
• Carmen Sandiego: In the Season 3 finale, Roundabout reveals that he possesses one of these, which he uses in his fight against Shadow-san.
• Valmont has one in Jackie Chan Adventures, which he makes use of it in the season 1 finale to break out of his jail cell inside Section 13.

• In the Miraculous Ladybug episode "Robostus", the Classy Cane that Hawk Moth carries is revealed to hide a blade, which comes in handy when the titular villain turns his lair's security system on him.
• Mr. Magoo carries one in the short "Barefaced Flatfoot", which he uses to fight an opponent (actually his own reflection).
• In the Puss in Boots short "The Three Diablos", The Whisperer is shown to carry a FLAIL cane, with what looks like a gilded spiked ball and chain ball.
• Regular Show: In "A Bunch of Baby Ducks", a poacher threatens Mordecai and Rigby with one.
• The Simpsons:
  • In the opening of one episode, the family attends a garage sale by Reiner Wolfcastle. While there, Bart marvels at an authentic swordcane, and Wolfcastle then explains how he has a ton of sword-objects such as a sword-bat, a sword-rifle, and sword-pineapples, sword-sword sharpeners and sword-pies (which Homer ate).
  • In the episode where Bart becomes a Junior Camper, Hans Moleman pulls out a very large knife from his cane saying "You call that a knife? This is a knife". Unfortunately for him, it's too big and falls to the ground.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
  • "Lightsaber Lost": Elderly Jedi Master Tera Sinube's lightsaber turns out to be concealed as the handle of his cane, revealed when he finally uses it at the climax.
  • "Unfinished Business": Separatist Admiral Trench's cane is revealed to have a stun weapon built into it when he attempts to use it on Anakin Skywalker, but this gets him Impaled with Extreme Prejudice.
• Star Wars Rebels: Darth Maul's series debut in "Twilight of the Apprentice" has him walking with a cane that turns out to be his double-bladed lightsaber slotted into a sheath.
• Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rarely uses its sword function, but most incarnations have him using a sword cane.
• Teen Titans Go!: In "La Larva de Amor", Silkie ends up in Mexico where he has an exciting telenovella adventure where he rescues a woman named Sonia from her gangster boyfriend Carlos. Carlos wields a sword cane.

Real Life

• These can be purchased from several respectable theater supply companies or swordsmiths. That being said, you have to make sure the supplier uses high-quality material, because a sword thin enough to conceal in a cane is a fragile weapon, like the majority of swords. You can get a cheaper, stronger, and more deadly weapon just by purchasing a regular cane. Though if you do buy one, you should note that they are legally classified as concealed weapons, which are illegal or at least restricted in many areas, and will not be allowed past most security checkpoints.
• 16th century soldier Alonso de Contreras once wielded a staff sword when he was traveling as a pilgrim. Ironically, it only got him in trouble, because when some Burgundian soldiers decided to rough him up, the blade got accidentally unsheathed and they arrested him on the thought only a spy would carry such a weapon (he was soon freed thanks to his connections, though).
• In the fight that established Jim Bowie's reputation as a knife-fighter and a badass, Norris Wright, his opponent, after exchanging gunfire with him, used a sword cane to impale him. When Wright tried to retrieve the sword, Bowie pulled him down and gutted him with his distinctively large knife.
• The street martial art of Capoeira, which developed especially during the cane sword's popularity peak in the 19th century, sometimes included the usage of these weapons, known over there as tira-teima.
• In Israel, pre-1948, many of the elderly Jews of Jerusalem were armed with one-shot canes. They had produced enough bullets, but couldn't smuggle in enough guns.
• The London umbrella shop James Smith & Sons is famous for its surviving, elaborately-decorated Victorian-style shopfront, which still advertises "dagger canes" and "swordsticks" despite the fact that they are now illegal to carry in a public place.
• You way also find the narrative of a real life use for one of these here.
• A cane-gun was used in the infamous "bomb collar bank robbery".

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