Well, the Portugese ones have these flat, circular quillion ends (hence the "colhoes"
), the Spanish ones tend to widen progressively. Cut-out designs there and in the pommels are not uncommon in both types. Also, the proportions guard -
pas d'ane - grip - pommel are different between the Spanish and the Portugese models, as tends to be the typology of the blades.
There's also the exemplars so kindly made available in
Antonio's page
Of course, there's a lot of variations and exemplars that stand in the blurry middle ground (that's the thing with the "mutual influences"...), but there's some ground for distinguishing them. But there's not THAT many surviving exemplars, that's why I jumped to the chance of getting this book. Now, if I could manage to get Daenhardt's in a better shape than the lousy photocopies I have now...
Here, pics of the ones Philip have mentioned plus a couple more. Up to down and left to right:
Fernando the Catholic King's (Granada), the so-called Fernando the Catholic King's in the
Real Armerķa (Royal Armoury) in Madrid, the so-called
Gran Capitan's also in the
Real Armerķa in Madrid, and finally the so-called
El Cid's
Tizona, formerly in the Army Museum in Madrid.