Gunner's Stiletto
 

This turned up today in a small collection of Victorian swords ... it is totally out of my experience. Is this a reproduction ? Total length 34 cm , blade length 21 cm . Weight 215 g. Although the blade is graduated along one face, there are no numbers . It looks old but I dont know. Opinions welcomed.

Guard looks modern to me for sure. Grip probably modern. Blade might be older but hard to see for sure. The Brass ring probably added as a means to make it all work together.

Thanks, much as I suspected , I appreciate your opinion .

I agree that this is of course a reproduction, and of the stilettos of the 17th-18th c. which were used by 'bombardiers' , the artillery gunners in Italy. In rechecking old discussions in these pages, the key article on these seems to be "Gunners Daggers" by Marcelo Terezi, Arms and Armor Annual, ed. Robert Held, 1973.

Interesting representation and the lines scribed on the blade recall the graduated scale on the original daggers which often had mysterious numerics on the lines. The scale seems to have numbered 1 to 120, thus these were often termed in Italy, un centoventi. While often thought for measuring powder charge, they were actually for determining bore and ammunition size.

These spike blade daggers, while ideal for use in 'spiking' a gun to render it unserviceable if required in case of abandoning an emplacement, were also favored by assassins in 'other' uses. When such weapons as stilettos were
outlawed in Italy in 1661, often such daggers were inscribed with spurious markings as only 'gunners' were allowed these weapons.

They fell out of use after first part of 18th c.