Thank you Udo. As usual my wording is often unclear, and in my post I noted that the Austrian practice had 'influenced' other European cavalry swords in adding these curious notches. The two I specified were French and Prussian. In the nearly thirty years I pursued this conundrum, nearly everyone I reached out to seemed to wonder what in the world I was talking about.
Virtually nobody had given this strange feature a second thought, many seeming to wonder what such an insignificant feature or practice mattered, often just throwing out flip responses.
Actually Wagner, the single source who had thought the practice significant enough to include in his detailed line drawings in 1967, was the only one who suggested the possible purpose behind these notches.....to add to the wounding capacity of the 'old hewers' (heavy Austrian pallasches).
What puzzled me was, why then would the back of a saber blade be notched? with it being a slashing weapon, so the 'barbed' points effect in thrust etc. ?
It is often hard to understand for those insistent on pragmatic solutions for things to grasp practices or vestigial features which are a matter of simple symbolic convention or talismanic device, so the only solutions which were seemingly worthy of consideration were these practical notions.
Could you please post that Prussian 1732 example ?
Here is my 'pandour' saber, which is I believe Hungarian, but of course Austro-Hungarian (with page from 'Wagner' , 1967).
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