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Old 28th January 2009, 01:59 AM   #12
kisak
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Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: Stockholm
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From what I can recall it wouldn't be very rare for these blades to be without stamps actually, though I've never really though about looking for stamps and such when I've seen such swords at auctions, etc, so I'm not too sure.

The length of the hilt is indeed quite a bit, if the blade comes from one of these Swedish swords, then the tang would have been lengthened as well in the process.

Regarding the handling, these heavy cavalry swords are big, sturdy things, so their blades wouldn't be entierly out of place with a two-handed grip (as we can see here). As a curiosity I'm also reminded of George Silver recommending the same blade length for one handed and two handed swords.

And as for the engravings, they could simply be there to make it sell better (decorative work on a decorative thing). If we look at "tourist" versions of the various ethnographic weapons, they are often very heavily decorated (though I assume generally decorated in ways which won't take too much time or skill to produce), to make the customers open their wallets. The same could be the case here.
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