Cutting Edges

[urbanspaceman]

Way back at the start of my introduction to arms and armour I came across a curious smallsword belonging to Mel, my friend and mentor. Initial reaction to this sword was that it was likely munitions grade, but was certainly unlike any hollowed blades I had seen at that point.

Mel had sent this picture because I had asked him about non-colichemarde blades that featured a rolled fuller. I was, even then, beginning to become curious about rolled fullers. That said, what was of further interest was the fact that the sword featured sharpened edges; a possibility due to the width and shape of the blade, which was, obviously, very different to a regular hollowed trefoil smallsword.
The iron hilt will have been gilded, or embellished in some way, as the pierced pommel and shell was indicative of a superior quality, but the style of blade was absolutely indicative of battle-field activity rather than purely civilian and/or ceremonial. 
I put all of this curiosity on the back-burner as it was not really necessary material for my research into the Shotley Bridge enterprise, but...
Since that time I have noted, on more than one occasion, similar style blades, and by then I had accepted that rolled fullers were a product of the Mohll machine, therefore these swords had come from Shotley Bridge.
Further consideration of a Northern fondness for weightier, sharpened smallsword blades brought me to the conclusion that they were almost certainly early output from the village to local officers, so I grabbed any images I came across; unfortunately, most were of mediocre quality. Nonetheless, so far I have found five of them, which is significant for a battlefield blade of limited production from the late 1600s. What can be seen is they all have better hilts than are found on munitions-grade swords: these were officer's personal purchases.
Trefoil blades, some with cutting edges and a bit more weight, made in Shotley Bridge. When all of this is added to my earlier considerations regarding those narrow broadsword blades it leads me to believe that this machine was first producing blades for local militia before sending smallswords to London which, originally, was not what they were there for.

[Oriental Armament Collection]

It's pretty.

[urbanspaceman]

I don't know how I overlooked this one: