Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post

Philip · 1st May 2017, 05:45 AM

Jim,
There is an excellent book on the history of the saber in Poland by Wlodzimierz Kwasniewicz, PIEC WIEKÓW SZABLI POLSKIEJ (five centuries of Polish sabers), Warsaw 1993; chapter 3 has many pages and illustrations devoted to the Wz 1921/22 in all its variations. Anyone who reads Polish can learn everything that a collector needs to know about it; unfortunately there are no English summaries to the text for the rest of us.

As to mis-aligned blades and hilts, you see this on earlier Polish sabers as well. One in my collection, early 17th cent. ex-zu Salm-Reifferscheidt collection, has a blade that is radically offset in its hilt, the arrangement looks awkward but when you wield it, the balance doesn't seem to be adversely affected. My study of early Italian swords led me to examine the dozens of Venetian broadswords with the horizontal S-shaped guards (spade alla schiavonesche) preserved in the armory of the Palazzo Ducale and guess what -- despite the good quality blades, the fitting-up of the hilts on many is notoriously sloppy; out of the three in that collection published in Boccia/Coelho ARMI BIANCHE ITALIANE (Milano 1975), two are wonky. One has an off-center blade and the other, a magnificent and rare "mano e mezzo", has blade, grip, and pommel all misaligned! We have to remember that these were munition-grade weapons from the mass-production facilities of their day, and considering the achievements of La Serenissima Reppublica's soldiers and sailors during the period, slightly off-center hilts were probably not that big a deal.

1st May 2017, 05:45 AM	#4
Philip Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: California Posts: 1,036	more details on this model / misaligned blades Jim, There is an excellent book on the history of the saber in Poland by Wlodzimierz Kwasniewicz, PIEC WIEKÓW SZABLI POLSKIEJ (five centuries of Polish sabers), Warsaw 1993; chapter 3 has many pages and illustrations devoted to the Wz 1921/22 in all its variations. Anyone who reads Polish can learn everything that a collector needs to know about it; unfortunately there are no English summaries to the text for the rest of us. As to mis-aligned blades and hilts, you see this on earlier Polish sabers as well. One in my collection, early 17th cent. ex-zu Salm-Reifferscheidt collection, has a blade that is radically offset in its hilt, the arrangement looks awkward but when you wield it, the balance doesn't seem to be adversely affected. My study of early Italian swords led me to examine the dozens of Venetian broadswords with the horizontal S-shaped guards (spade alla schiavonesche) preserved in the armory of the Palazzo Ducale and guess what -- despite the good quality blades, the fitting-up of the hilts on many is notoriously sloppy; out of the three in that collection published in Boccia/Coelho ARMI BIANCHE ITALIANE (Milano 1975), two are wonky. One has an off-center blade and the other, a magnificent and rare "mano e mezzo", has blade, grip, and pommel all misaligned! We have to remember that these were munition-grade weapons from the mass-production facilities of their day, and considering the achievements of La Serenissima Reppublica's soldiers and sailors during the period, slightly off-center hilts were probably not that big a deal.