Did Scottish highlanders manufacture their own weapons, or were they all imports?

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Keith!
Im glad to see you come in on this, as nobody knows these northern blades as you do. The mysterious Mr. Oley of Shotley Bridge was indeed the silent player of English sword blade manufacture well through the 18th century, long after that historic enterprise at Shotley was deemed ended.

The production of swords for British other ranks, which included the Scottish form basket hilted dragoon swords was well known with Jeffries and his partner Drury in London in the mid 18th century. While it has been unclear on the source of their blades, it seems certain these men were cutlers producing the hilts only.

As you note, Oley was producing blades which supplied the other ranks sword assemblers in this time for various hangers as seen by the well known mark of the running fox seen on numerous blades (we term it bushy tail fox, or BTF). This seems to have been sometime just prior to 1750s and continued into 1770s-80s.
It is curious that all of the blades that must have been produced at Shotley do not necessarily seem to have carried the familiar BTF, and more confounding that the blades into England that did have it, ended up with the initials SH in the body of the fox. This was of course for Samuel Harvey of Birmingham, a well known producer of regulation military swords of the mid 18th c.
Many of the blades on these swords carrying the BTF however were without the SH initials......these must have been Oley blades used by other cutlers also producing regulation swords mid 18th c.

While this seems to digress from the question regarding production of British dragoon swords of Scottish basket hilt form 'throughout England'...it does suggest that the Oley blades certainly must have GONE NORTH as well as to the southern regions in Birmingham.

The fact that these outstanding examples of the basket hilt of Glasgow form, as well as a dirk with clearly cut down Oley blade, very much suggests this was indeed the case.

The matter of few remaining examples of these blades in Scottish contexts does not preclude that they must have done so. Absence of evidence does not mean this was not the case. If there was only small volume of these blades into Scottish regions, the chances of overall survival over time would have been notably diminished.
There was always the factor of the dominance of German blades of course, which remained the key source for British and Scottish cutlers.

Which brings me to Andrea Ferara, the mysterious blade maker of Belluno in the late 16th century. For generations there have been myths about this famed Italian maker. Some have said he worked in Spain, others even insisted he had worked in Scotland.
Most of this derived from the fact that his name is ubiquitous on Scottish basket hilt blades through the 17th century into early 18th.

In reality, Andrea Ferara and his brother Donato were indeed bladesmiths in Belluno, Italy in the late 16th century. There were apparently dealings with factors in Scotland establishing contracts to supply blades in notable numbers established, but it is unclear the outcome and if that was completed.

It seems that the Scots took to the name Andrea Ferara with its literal meaning in Latin, Andrea= true, good, for St. Andrew the patron saint of Scotland....and 'ferrara' =iron/steel .
This evolved into the Scottish penchant for ANDREA FERARA on their blades.

The industrious Germans in Solingen naturally took this to create a 'brand' which would be eagerly sought in Scotland, and the rest of course is history. This practice in Solingen was the backbone of their suggest, not only in the production of quality blades, but the marketing of them to select clientele.

While obviously the volume of ANDREA FERARA blades from Solingen went into Scotland, we do know that in some degree they did go into England as there was always notable volume of their blades to cutlers there. Interestingly, here is a 'mortuary' from Hounslow c. 1642 with Andrea Ferara blade.

The blades often bore the names and punzones of highly regarded Spanish makers, and Sahagum was one highly favored in Europe, particularly in the north. As Toledo was all but defunct by the end of the 17th century, its reputation lived on in the blades produced in Solingen.

As always, I fear I have gone into lecture mode again, but it is hard to describe these matters without detail, and of course wanted to offer as much information as possible to the volume of readers.

This esoterica as we know on these topics on Shotley Bridge as well as Scottish edged weapons typically remains notably 'visited' on these pages, with little response. Just the same, it is good to write on them as this query by Sakalord has truly rekindled my interest in the basket hilts!

Thank you again Keith for coming in, and I am anxious to hear more on the Shotley fox in Scottish examples!

All the best,
Jim

[urbanspaceman]

The enterprise at SB was the most complicated and obfuscated affair ever in the British sword-blade industry's history.
Originally, the story was put about that a secret machine was arriving that could make hollow blades at a fraction of the cost. That had been talked about long before the 1687 beginning of the works, because given the high German fees, plus exclusivity, plus tariffs and restricted numbers of imports, this made it a very plausible proposition: the facade was ideal. Of course its true purpose was to arm James VII/II's loyal supporters with munition's grade battlefield weapons.
For a brief moment between the start in 1687 and the arrival of a new governing (Williamite) syndicate in 1691 there were many blades made for the Jacobite militia, and it seems certain that included the Scots. These blades featured the bushy tailed fox and/or the script SHOTLE BRIDG. Of course those markings were also used on blades for the Williamite forces: John Holles, Duke of Newcastle, for example.
After 1691 blades were ostensibly all sent to the Tower to supply the Parliamentary forces and also to the syndicate's much advertised warehouses in London, from where many were subsequently sent to Glasgow to arm the Williamite supporters. Not all Scots were Jacobites… ever
None of these blades were marked in any way and neither were the ones the village secretly sent to Jacobites after 1691. For a time they were supplying both sides of the conflict. According to Kalmeter, the first Swedish industrial spy to observe the works, the potential output of SB was 21,000 blades per annum.
As well as munition's grade blades they did actually have secret machines, and they did actually produce hollow blades. Their hollow blades featured a constant width groove in the lower (wide) face and are instantly recognisable, as the Solingen handmade versions had a reducing radius that could not be produced by a machine, only by hand.
By 1715 Oley was autonomous and by around 1740 was marking his munitions grade blades with the more stylised bushy tailed fox that were often bought by Birmingham cutlers who added their names or initials to ensure the Tower paid them.
By the mid 1750s, according to Swedish spy Angerstein, the production in the village was (he understood) predominantly of hollow blades for smallswords, especially Colichemardes. (n.b. All hollow style Colichemardes feature a machine made groove.) William Kinman was a typical, constant customer as can be seen by his output that features the machine-made groove; but they supplied many other cutlers as well. In that respect, the original advertised function of the enterprise was fulfilled.