Hello again Jim. Thank-you for running with this ball. You bring up in my memory two issues that might benefit from exposition: firstly, did the fluted blade arrive with Charles 2nd and brother James? The smallsword certainly did but... we have looked - recently - at the re-hilting of slender rapier blades, could it be possible that these found favour prior to the arrival of the trefoil blade? They certainly persisted long after. Also, I have seen squeezed blades that taper abruptly to a very narrow rapier blade.
Returning to the initial essay I submitted, there's something I wish to interject:
a petition to The Council of State from John Cooke who had a mill in Hounslow (cross and star mark) occurred in 1655 "seeking to encourage him in his manufacture of hollow ground smallsword and rapier blades". At the time he was supplying the Tower with Hounslow Hangars (600 in 1658 is recorded) for Naval use. This looks like yet another example of the Mohlls trying to get their machines over to England. Apparently Cooke had Johannes Dell grinding for him back then.
What reinforces this presumption is that there is a curious incident occurred in 1686 that is recorded in the London Cutlers Company archives:
Lord Dartmouth (the Master-General of the King's Ordnance) revealed a plan to the Company to produce hollow swordblades with a secret machine: a scheme that would result in the creation of the Hollow Swordblade Company in Shotley Bridge - which by then was already underway. Dartmouth (a staunch Jacobite) was informed by the Crown of the new syndicate and their imminent Shotley Bridge endeavor; and here's the vital bit: AN ENGLISH HAND-GROUND HOLLOW BLADE HAD BEEN PRESENTED TO DARTMOUTH ALONGSIDE A 'MACHINE-MADE' EXAMPLE FOR COMPARISON. This is a very important occurrence as it poses two crucial questions: first, which smith in England, in 1686, could have hand-ground a hollow blade that was worthy of competing; and second, where did that machine-made blade come from?
BTW. Re. Washington: he had two colichemardes: this one was never seen before by me.
