Quote:
Originally Posted by kronckew
Trooper ones were mostly all marked with regimental/troop/rack numbers.
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British 1796 LC sabres with regimental/troop/rack numbers are significantly less commonly found than those without. Normally such numbers indicate foreign service, for example, with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Sweden, Prussia or Portugal. All of these countries received supplies of British cavalry swords amongst other weapons during the Napoleonic wars.
The most one can realistically hope for on a British troopers sword is an inspectors stamp (crown over a number) and a makers mark on the spine at the base. Some are marked with a B on the spine for the balance point. But plenty have nothing.
Of course there are exceptions like with the Yeomanry, who often had swords purchased privately by their Colonel. So I’m not saying that they aren’t out there, but they are not “mostly all” marked.
For some reason, such markings are more common on the 1796 heavy cavalry sword, and one possible reason could be because the yeomanry were all light cavalry and for the large part used the 1796 LC sabre. But again there were exceptions here as well.
Edit: Kronckew, that’s a light cavalry sword! What is the blade length?