Victorian Wall Decoration?

[Robert]

Hello Gene, I'm glad you had a chance to take a look at this. I'll start with the wooden grip. If you look closely at the sixth picture down right above the steel collar you can just see where wire was once wound around the wood. When I originally removed the friction tape that had been wrapped around the grip (only to find the wood had also been given the paint treatment too) a few broken coils of rusty braided wire fell out from between the collar and wood. The wood has been roughly sanded before they painted it probably after the wire had started falling off. After stripping the paint off of the wood I put a preservative on it to try to keep it from further damage. The parts of the guard that look like knots do look to be soldered in place while the rest of the guard is one piece of worked steel. Where would the POB on a sword like this be? Right now it is 4-3/4 inches from the cross guard. If you would please tell me what parts of the blade you would like to have pictures of and I will post them as soon as it quits snowing. Thank you again for your interest.

Robert

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Robert Coleman

Hello Gene, I'm glad you had a chance to take a look at this. I'll start with the wooden grip. If you look closely at the sixth picture down right above the steel collar you can just see where wire was once wound around the wood. When I originally removed the friction tape that had been wrapped around the grip (only to find the wood had also been given the paint treatment too) a few broken coils of rusty braided wire fell out from between the collar and wood. The wood has been roughly sanded before they painted it probably after the wire had started falling off. After stripping the paint off of the wood I put a preservative on it to try to keep it from further damage. The parts of the guard that look like knots do look to be soldered in place while the rest of the guard is one piece of worked steel. Where would the POB on a sword like this be? Right now it is 4-3/4 inches from the cross guard. If you would please tell me what parts of the blade you would like to have pictures of and I will post them as soon as it quits snowing. Thank you again for your interest.

Robert

Hi Robert,

4 3/4" off of the actual crossbar quillons? Or from the bottom of the curling bars attached to them?

Does the blade look like its shortered? The tip is unusual (from swords I've had) having the central ridge so pronounced right to the end.

Um, pictures of the blade....
Well any marks at all, either side, top and bottom?


Perhaps Manuel can post some pics of his if it looks similar for a comparison?

So, those bars.
A close up of a couple of the joins might be a good idea.
Have you had a good look to see if it is solder?
In fairness you don't really want solder on a hilt as lead is fairly soft.
But there does look like quite a lot of it! Couldn't be remains of some silvering or paint caught in the recesses that someone has put on it could it?

Gene

[Robert]

Hi Gene, The POB is in front of the actual crossbar quillons. I don't think that the blade has been shortened BWDIK. I will post a picture of the tip of the blade but I will have to do it inside with a flash. As far as the solder goes I don't think it is lead solder (it is way to hard) but it could be the remains of some kind of silvering. Could this be some kind of silver solder, or was silver solder even used then? Like I said it is only where the knotted sections are. The main part of the curling bars and the actual crossbar quillons and the rest are all one piece. Could the knots have been added later as decoration? I too was hoping that Manuel would post some pictures and measurements of his sword for comparison. Thanks again and I will post pictures shortly.

Robert

[Atlantia]

Originally Posted by Robert Coleman

Hi Gene, The POB is in front of the actual crossbar quillons. I don't think that the blade has been shortened BWDIK. I will post a picture of the tip of the blade but I will have to do it inside with a flash. As far as the solder goes I don't think it is lead solder (it is way to hard) but it could be the remains of some kind of silvering. Could this be some kind of silver solder, or was silver solder even used then? Like I said it is only where the knotted sections are. The main part of the curling bars and the actual crossbar quillons and the rest are all one piece. Could the knots have been added later as decoration? I too was hoping that Manuel would post some pictures and measurements of his sword for comparison. Thanks again and I will post pictures shortly.

Robert

Well, from what is visible in the pictures, there is considerable work in those bars, and the main ones seem to be 'forged' and shaped, so it might just be that the secondary elements were attached with some kind of silver coloured braze or hard solder as the maker thought that adequate for their level of stress.

Take a couple of close ups of the bars if your can too mate.

[Robert]

Gene, Here are the best ones I could get inside. A little picture intensive so if this is to many mods please let me know and I will delete as many as needed. These give a good idea of how the guard is put together. As I mentioned earlier the only parts that are not forged together are the knotted pieces. I made a typing error on the POB, it was supposed to be 5-3/4 inches so I double checked it and it is actually 6 inches.

Robert

[kisak]

Expanding on what Manuel said, this type of blade is seen on a number of Swedish heavy cavalry swords from the 18th century (and a few cavalry swords from the early parts of said century as well). To provide some examples I'm attaching a close-up of an m/1773 (colour), and a scanned full-length shot of an m/1775 for Småland's cavalry regiment (b&w).

These two would have slightly shorter blades than Coleman's, but there are other, similar models with blades matching very well (m/1761 and m/1778 for Västgöta' cavalry regiment, and then of course there's the possibility of an officer custom-ordering something). I have pretty much no idea at all if, and then to what extent, this blade shape saw use outside of Sweden.

As for the overall package, it looks very much to me like assembled in the 19th century as a decorative.

[Robert]

Kisak, Thank you very much for posting the pictures of the two swords. I do agree that the blades do look strikingly similar and this could very possible be a Swedish blade . Could you please tell me where the stampings on their blades are as I have been over and over this blade with no luck finding any markings at all. If most blades of this age were marked (I supposed they were ?) maybe if I knew were to look and with better light and a magnifying glass I might be able to find something. The other thing that I'm wondering about is the length of the hilt on my sword. The sword handles very well one handed but with the length of the hilt a two handed grip is very comfortable and greatly improves how it handles. I know absolutely nothing about this type of sword so everything I say is pure speculation on my part. Another question is would they have gone to all the trouble of putting the engraving on the pommel and collars if this was just to hang on a wall? I am only asking questions to learn, I am not disputing anything that has been offered in reference to this sword as I know things were done quite differently even 50 years ago. Again I thank you for your interest and help in trying to identifying this .

Robert