Decoration and styling in Scottish Basket Hilts

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Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

I have always wondering WHY would they put a curved cavalry blade on this basket hilt......as noted mine is not the only example..
But this perspective seems to suggest a possible physical aspect of this period and employing these theories.

Curved blades on basket hilts go back at least to the German Dussak (spelling?) which is outside my area of interest so I can't put a date to that without doing some research. Basically there is no hard rule that a particular hilt type must go with a particular blade type and someone somewhere has attempted at least one example of every possible combination. Sabres were favored for their cutting power and basket hilts were favored for both protection and for moving the point of balance back enough to allow a relatively heavy sword to still be somewhat nimble in the point.

Robert