British Infantry Officers Battle Swords in the 19th C...and up to 1914

[Peter Hudson]

Originally Posted by Will M

The Crimean War was responsible for officers ordering special order swords during and after the war. They realized their regulation swords with brass hilts and fullered blade was lacking. One example is a Wilkinson infantry sword with steel patent hilt and solid flat blade. The officer ordered this sword after the Crimea and wore it in Afghanistan into 1879.

Hello Will... Your flat bladed Wilkinson looks formidable. This blade was designed to cut.There was no fuller, pipeback or raised back blade to impede cutting. Some variation was allowed and Officers could choose a fully criss crossed backstrap and either the same pattern on the pommel or polished.Cavalry quite often preferred the hilt to be of a pistol grip style turned down at the pommel so a straight profile could be offered in the charge...The Wilkinson I had in 1969 was literally a spike formed of a very sharp point supported by two I Beams either side of a fuller running three quarters of the blade length to a narrowing spear point.Flat blades though effective in the slash and cut were regarded as a bit heavy but frankly that is what heavy Cavalry needed in their role.Thus we see two different sorts of requirement here...so we begin to see the problem. Regards Peter Hudson.