[Jim McDougall]

[QUOTE=Ian;280106]Jim,

I'm just getting to your fascinating thread on theatrical weapons. You mentioned people going through old movie companies' prop collections and culling weapons. In eBay's early days there was a Californian seller who had a ton of this stuff. I bought a few pieces. Of note were two swords from Yul Brunner's Taras Bulba (1962). Both swords were for extras. Each was a U.S. cavalry saber from the 1860s from which the hilt and guard had been removed and a crude aluminum hilt added. I still have them somewhere and I think I still have the sales docket from the late 90s/early 2000s. I believe the sabers came from Bannerman's Catalog originally and were modified on site by the props people.

I have a few other swords from the same source but I don't know which movies they may have been used in. Again, they were 19th C pieces, and from memory they were Austrian sabers (but I will have to dig back in my archives to get that info.).


Thats outstanding Ian! and thank you for adding to this thread. It sounds like the 'adjustments' that were used in customizing these authentic old weapons to add to the ambience in scenes.
No doubt Bannerman's was a great source for this stuff....after the Civil Wat they literally bought old cavalry sabers by the ton. When the Spanish American war broke out (at the behest of William Randolph Hearst who needed headlines for his papers)...the Army needed sabers for the cavalry and had to go to Bannerman to equip them!