Can you ID this sword
 

Hi, can anyone help me out here. I have this sword, and its a little odd.At first it looks like a 1796 light cavalry pattern sword. Put on closer inspection it looks to small, the blade is 34 inches long and a narrow inch and a bit wide. the clip hand guard is made of steel which is narrower when looking at it from the edge then my other swords of this type. its missing its leather hand chip and wire. there are no makings on the blade to be seen. the scabbard as been painted black and stamped above the upper scabbard ring is 14 LD.
The scabbard fits the sword and overall it all looks lighter then it should. any ideas, views, michael

Aa alway, photographs would be helpful... ;) :)

forgot to add, sorry
 

here is a pic. michael

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/u...1956/sword.jpg

the british 14th dragoons became the 14th light dragoons in 1776. (14 LD)

metal was frequently painted black (japanned) to increase rust protection.

as noted pictures would help.

wiki link

hope the picture comes out
 

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/u...1956/sword.jpg

picture of the handle and guard. there are no markings on the blade at all.
michael

3rd go at adding picture
 

Would still like to see some photos of yours, but here are some swords attributed to the 14th Light Dragoons.

in answer
 

hi, for some reason my picture is not getting posted. the sword however is a lot lighter then the above pictures weapons. and the markings are not the same. I am thinking that the sword i have in question must be wrong and that the 14th LD markings are not correct.
michael

Terry, you are still in moderated status so i take a Mod to pass your images on to the thread. I took care of it. A shot of the markings on the sheath might be helpful. :)

on a 1796 the grip should be ribbed, tho the leather cover seems loose, is the wood underneath ribbed or cord wrapped to provide ribbing? the portion of the back strap that is riveted to the grip wood (the ears) meets the rest in a rather rounded fashion, compared with the above 3 documented originals, where the same bit has fairly squared corners at the transition.

there were some variances in privately made officers models, which could have been a bit lighter.

as noted pics of the whole sword, blade, & scabbard & the markings would help.even the drag at the end of the scabbard can be diagnostic.

p.s. - the rounded ear junctions look more german than british, see This Linky which is in german, they hilight similar ear/backstrap and other differences between the german 1811 and later ones... (1831 left, 1811 right)
http://zietenhusar.de/Bluchersabel/u...s_Bluecher.jpg

there are notes i found on later model german sabres of similar design to the 1796 UK one being passed off as 1796's. the german 1811 'blucher' sabre which mimicked the 1796 had later descendants. there is a 'lighter' argentinian variant on the site i linked to. could be the scabbard is a mis-match, tho it seems to fit, or it could have been later stamped in an effort to deceive.

on a historic note, the 14th LD did not participate in the waterloo campaign, as they had been dispatched to america to thrash the unruly colonists at new orleans on jan 8th 1815. their results were not quite what they'd expected. i imagine it took them a while to get over it.