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#1 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Chicago
Posts: 32
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Picked up very strange Mameluke sword. Hilt is ivory with steel cross guard, I think is British mid 19th. But blade... Blade is straight, 33" long, 1.4" wide and 1/4" thick. Blade was brutally cleaned and I can see some small forging flaws, so I can assume it is hand forged, not machine made. Another thing is scabbards. It fits the blade perfectly and I'm pretty sure it is original to the blade. Scabbard looks 100% British to me. But I can't remember any 19th century British sword with such blade! At first I was thinking it is Swedish, they love this form, but all Swedish blades I know is diamond shaped and this one is convex...
Sword itself is most likely later compilation, but what is the blade origin? Maybe Scottish? Аny thoughts? Comments? |
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#2 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Chicago
Posts: 32
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Found another one, kind of similar, clearly based on Scottish blade
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#3 |
Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 66
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The blade is a dead ringer for a circa 1840s U.S. militia officer's sword in my collection. The Ames-made blade is convex, the single central fuller appears to be the same length and breadth, and the drag on the scabbard seems to be identical. Yours lacks etching, but otherwise it seems a good fit.
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#4 |
Member
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Chicago
Posts: 32
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Hm... You can be right on it. But all militia sword I saw had way smaller blades - usually 25-29" long, about 1-1.25" wide and twice lighter. This one is pretty massive and heavy - 2lbs without scabbard. Also scabbards on militia sword usually bit different - leather or brass with 3 rings.
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#5 |
Member
Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 66
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I believe the shorter militia swords with leather scabbards are generally for NCOs. Hotspur knows these very well, so perhaps he can address them.
The officer's sword I posted has a 31 inch blade that is 1 inch wide at the ricasso. The narrow central fuller is about 12 inches long. Both this example and another "full size" US militia officer's sword in my collection have all-metal scabbards. Here's an ACW-vintage shot of Lt. Col. Charles Norton wearing the same sword. |
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#6 |
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Chicago
Posts: 32
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Again, you probably right on blade origin. The central fuller on my blade is bit under 9". And whole sword handles like cutting, not thrusting weapon. Of course you can thrust with this one, but it is bit heavy and slow for the job. In handles more like palash or backsword.
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#7 |
Member
Join Date: Aug 2017
Location: North Queensland, Australia
Posts: 183
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This style of blade was common om British 1798 pattern basket hilt swords and 1796 heavy cavalry officer dress swords. I haven't come across one mounted on a mameluke hilt before.
Cheers, Bryce |
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