A 13 C. Crusader sword from the Holy Land

Oriental-Arms · 26th March 2009, 01:20 PM

This sword was first posted in the ethnographic forum but the interest in it was quite low. At the suggestion of Jim McDougal I am posting it here with some more information:

This sword was collected in the desert on the surface after a heavy sand storm that moved tons of sand, somewhere in the southern region of the Holy land. The exact location is unknown to me. I chased this sword from quite many years and finally it found a good home in my drawer.

The blade is 33 1/2 inches long, 2 inches wide with traces of wide and long shallow fuller. About 2 inch are missing from the blade tip. The cross guard is of round cross section flaring at its tip and the pommel knob is a heavy steel of polygonal shape. Total length 39 1/2 inches.

The sword was X-Rayed in order to better determine the length of the fuller and to try and learn how it was constructed. The full length of the X-Ray image is here below. (Actually it is composed of three different X-Ray shots)

The X Ray image of the cross guard is also shown below:\

It looks as if the cross guard was prepared separately, heated, hammered into the blade shoulders and let cool down.

The sword is believed to fit to Oakeshott type XII, mid 13 C.

Beside this sword and very unfortunately, in spite of thousands of crusaders marching through the Holy Land during almost 200 years, not a single complete crusader sword was found here, save few fragments in private collections and two swords salvaged from the sea at the old port of Atlit which naturally are nothing more than a pack of rust. This sword is in a surprisingly good condition, with the light blade still flexible.

Your comments are welcome.

26th March 2009, 01:20 PM	#1
Oriental-Arms Member Join Date: Jan 2005 Location: Haifa, Israel Posts: 183	A 13 C. Crusader sword from the Holy Land This sword was first posted in the ethnographic forum but the interest in it was quite low. At the suggestion of Jim McDougal I am posting it here with some more information: This sword was collected in the desert on the surface after a heavy sand storm that moved tons of sand, somewhere in the southern region of the Holy land. The exact location is unknown to me. I chased this sword from quite many years and finally it found a good home in my drawer. The blade is 33 1/2 inches long, 2 inches wide with traces of wide and long shallow fuller. About 2 inch are missing from the blade tip. The cross guard is of round cross section flaring at its tip and the pommel knob is a heavy steel of polygonal shape. Total length 39 1/2 inches. The sword was X-Rayed in order to better determine the length of the fuller and to try and learn how it was constructed. The full length of the X-Ray image is here below. (Actually it is composed of three different X-Ray shots) The X Ray image of the cross guard is also shown below:\ It looks as if the cross guard was prepared separately, heated, hammered into the blade shoulders and let cool down. The sword is believed to fit to Oakeshott type XII, mid 13 C. Beside this sword and very unfortunately, in spite of thousands of crusaders marching through the Holy Land during almost 200 years, not a single complete crusader sword was found here, save few fragments in private collections and two swords salvaged from the sea at the old port of Atlit which naturally are nothing more than a pack of rust. This sword is in a surprisingly good condition, with the light blade still flexible. Your comments are welcome.