Basket-hilted (cage-hilt) sword for discussion

[jezcott]

Hi Jim
Many thanks for your kind remarks and interesting observations.

That this hilt would have been made by a local 'slipper' fits nicely of my impression of the hilt. It is clearly produced by hammering iron and has a 'hand finished' perhaps cruder look rather than a more 'manufactured' appearance. Personally I love this hand-made artisan appearance.

The blade looks to have started life as a two-edge broadsword blade. If you look carefully you can see a small asymmetry in the short fullers at the ricasso, I thnk caused by the grinding off of a mm or so to create the thin spine. This looks to have been done professionally to turn it into a backsword. Maybe in that transitional period when backswords blades were becoming favoured. The blade is of lovely quality. Not hard to see why so many were imported from Germany and why blades were reused in later hilts.

Thanks also for sharing the various relevant images.

Jerry