Quote:
Originally Posted by Jim McDougall
The 'warranted' inscription does not really have to do with battle 'testing' but came from the 'sword scandals' in late 1780s in England. A group of English blade makers, led by Birmingham swordsmith Thomas Gill began protesting the long standing practice of importing blades from Germany.
He claimed the English blades were as good and actually better than the German imports, and initiated testing to prove it.
In the subsequent testing of his blades and several others including Henry Osborn, it was proven as only several of the English blades failed where the failures in the numbers of German blades were considerable.
From here, beginning with Thomas Gill, he began to place the motto on the blade, 'WARRANTED NEVER TO FAIL'. I have a M1788 Thomas Gill saber
with that inscription on the back of the blade. Through the 1790s as late as perhaps 1810, he and several English makers would place the 'warranted' notice on their blades, though typically officers along with etched or inscribed motif.
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This is not strictly correct. While it is true that the term "Warranted Never to Fail" originated with Thomas Gill, it did not come from the 'Sword Scandals' which actually occurred much later, towards the end of the 19th Century (Matt Easton has published a good video on this:
When 'MADE IN GERMANY' meant BAD! The SWORD SCANDAL).
In the 1780s the Treasury was receiving requests from many of the London makers and suppliers to remove the duty on imported swords and blades, owing to the alleged inferior quality of English swords. Seeing his livelihood threatened Thomas Gill wrote to the treasury that his swords were as good as any coming out of Germany and requested that a test be performed comparing his blades to the imported ones. This request was passed on to the Board of Ordnance who replied that the purchasing of swords with the responsibility of the colonels of individual regiments.
Not content to leave the matter, Thomas Gill continued with his campaign to have tests taken. When, in 1786 the East India Company placed an order with various suppliers for 10,000 horsemen's swords Thomas once more called for comparative tests to be performed. In October 1786 the first tests were performed on a special machine made for the East India Shipping Committee, which included swords by Gill, Runkel, Hervey.
I'll post the results when I have them to hand later today, but needless to say, Gill's swords came out the clear favourite. Runkel's swords from Solingen came in second and quite a bit ahead of the other two which does in part support what was being claimed about the state of English sword manufacturing.