Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Looking for info about a blade mark/stamp.

Jim McDougall · 31st May 2011, 06:26 PM

I think Rick is pretty much spot on here, as these kinds of markings with this quality stamp referring to the steel are well established in many instances in many countries' blades. I recall spending some time finding someone to translate some characters in Manchu on a Chinese dao (not an easy task in itself

and hoping for some mystical or key invocation, it simply read to the effect of 'tempered steel'. It is now fairly generally held that the 'Andrea Ferara' name on mostly Scottish blades was likely a term signifying good quality iron (steel) and appealed to the Scots.
This seems to be a fairly widely known style cavalry blade which developed concurrently with the British light cavalry sabre of 1796 and the German 'Blucher sabel' M1811 and had actually already been in use in Eastern Europe prior, with the favored 'hatchet' type point. Many of the British blades had been emphatically placing warranted phrases on thier blades in the late 18th into 19th c. and perhaps the practice might have been carried elsewhere.

Naturally this may be other than the warranted steel indicator, but is placed on the blade where that seems more likely than a maker or supplier, who usually marked on the forte of the blade or the spine near forte.

Best regards,
Jim

* of course I've seen something similar someplace, and I will probably not sleep til I find it !

31st May 2011, 06:26 PM	#3
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 9,801	I think Rick is pretty much spot on here, as these kinds of markings with this quality stamp referring to the steel are well established in many instances in many countries' blades. I recall spending some time finding someone to translate some characters in Manchu on a Chinese dao (not an easy task in itself and hoping for some mystical or key invocation, it simply read to the effect of 'tempered steel'. It is now fairly generally held that the 'Andrea Ferara' name on mostly Scottish blades was likely a term signifying good quality iron (steel) and appealed to the Scots. This seems to be a fairly widely known style cavalry blade which developed concurrently with the British light cavalry sabre of 1796 and the German 'Blucher sabel' M1811 and had actually already been in use in Eastern Europe prior, with the favored 'hatchet' type point. Many of the British blades had been emphatically placing warranted phrases on thier blades in the late 18th into 19th c. and perhaps the practice might have been carried elsewhere. Naturally this may be other than the warranted steel indicator, but is placed on the blade where that seems more likely than a maker or supplier, who usually marked on the forte of the blade or the spine near forte. Best regards, Jim * of course I've seen something similar someplace, and I will probably not sleep til I find it !