1788 light cavalry sabre

[elfina]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

The M1788, like many of these once quite common early British cavalry swords, are now becoming quite rare. Naturally this would be presumed due to their being absorbed into collections and now static.

Hi Jim,

I'm going off on a tangent here but regarding your comment about the 1788 light cavalry sabre, I'm wondering if the same thing has happened to the British 1804 pattern cutlass. For a sword that was manufactured in what (I think) were considerable quantities and even taking into account the possibility of many being figuratively "lost at sea", i.e. through period use, I've noticed how rarely one of these comes on the market these days. I have one myself, an earlier one with fuller in okay condition, but I like it so much I would like to find another. However, I don't see any being offered nowadays, fullered or unfullered, and the ones that do come up appear a bit suspicious, with rather thick hilts (I've read that this is one giveaway of modern repros).

Eric