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Originally Posted by M ELEY
I am aware of the machete pattern existing in the period of which we speak (first half 19th century, GR III/IV and VR period) as seen in Brinckherhoff's book, but none with British markings. Could these be from cut-down sword blades? The profile and beefy tip on them reminds me of exported GR examples that we've come across on the forum over the years, noteworthy being a British blade mounted on a Brazilian cutlass in the past. England (and Germany, of course) were exporting blades to the Americas, and in particular, the Spanish colonies. Thus, a Georgian blade on a traditional Spanish-style machete sword seems reasonable-  |
Yes I would agree with much of your thesis , and I have attached a picture of the 'Georgian' machete , alongside a brass hilted sidearm which came from a maritime collection in Liverpool . This sidearm purports to be an early 19th C British cutlass as used by merchant ships . What struck me is the similarity in blade form to the cutlass - particularly the single fuller close to the pipe back. I can well imagine that this illustrates your point of a British made sword blade recycled as a rehilted machete at a later date. Unfortunately the sidearm id too pitted to discern any markings.
However by contrast I illustrate the 'Georgian' machete alongside a Victorian marked machete . This is clearly a purpose made machete style blade and certainly bears no relationship to any British sword . So from this it must be taken that machetes were a Government issue item at least from the Victorian period .