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Old 18th August 2018, 02:23 PM   #12
midelburgo
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Posts: 238
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Nice to see from where it is coming. I was misusing the term Bilbo just for the sake of identification. The article from JL Calvo is full of uncertainties, many still unsolved. For example, even when Toledo factory started in 1761 and producing in remarkable numbers by 1764, you cannot find dated blades before 1769 for Dragon blades and 1771 for cavalry blades. Also the crowned R for Royal Property does not appear before 1777.

From JL Calvo, I understand that the name "Boca de Caballo" comes from the cross becoming a closed piece, like a horse bit, not because the two different shells resembling a horses mouth. This would mean that many swords under "Boca de Caballo" at museums do not comply. This includes officers swords with 4 screws but not a closing piece at the "ears" (orejas is the original Spanish for the two half rings of the pas d'ane).

I am not sure how a Spanish horse bit from 1the 1730s looks like, but that can be easy to find.

About the To marking coming from Toledo, I am not completely sure. The last sword has both, To at the ricasso, and Solingen at the channels. Next to a date 1760 when there was not a single swordmaker left at Toledo. Bad latin motto, In te domine speravi...

By the way another thing I have observed is that officers 1728s are often bolted, but troopers have screws. Again this is a tendency, not a rule.
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Last edited by midelburgo; 18th August 2018 at 02:39 PM.
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