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

[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.

[Jim McDougall]

Thank you Keith! That sums things up nicely. It seems incredible that the entire dynamics of English blade making has been 'swept under the carpet' for over two centuries, leaving us with lore and misconceptions. The work you have done in a few years has completely revised most of these notions, and given us entire new perspectives.
Well done Keith!

All the best,
Jim

[urbanspaceman]

Thank-you Jim!
Peter and I had lunch at the "Oleys" restaurant at the" Crown and Crossed Swords" hotel in Shotley Bridge today. You were much missed!