Forum: European Armoury
13th April 2026, 05:43 PM
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Replies: 2
Views: 4,604
Hi Jim
Hey Jim. Is all well with you?
Thanks for your input; succinctly educational as always.
Regards, Keith.
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Forum: European Armoury
2nd April 2026, 10:54 PM
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Replies: 2
Views: 4,604
domestic products
William Oley didn't let the grass grow under his feet: if they didn't need swords in the late 1700s then he gave them what they wanted.
251991
251989
251990
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Forum: European Armoury
2nd April 2026, 10:39 PM
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Replies: 13
Views: 25,814
Give the men cigars
Hello Folks.
It is so encouraging to see the talent flex its muscles.
Well done all of you, and best wishes for the Easter holidays.
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Forum: European Armoury
25th December 2025, 10:33 PM
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Replies: 3
Views: 8,423
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Forum: European Armoury
20th December 2025, 08:31 PM
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Replies: 19
Views: 12,131
Timing
I'm pretty certain it is a stylised "Bushy Tailed Fox" which was the Oley symbol after they left Solingen and came to Shotley Bridge. See my book for the development of the fox over the years.
This...
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Forum: European Armoury
20th December 2025, 05:23 PM
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Replies: 19
Views: 12,131
fox
This extremely stylised fox has now appeared on at least six occasions that I am aware of; none of them being connected. The best suggestion of identity (from Peter Hudson) was that it may be from a...
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Forum: European Armoury
10th December 2025, 11:11 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
Brass
All through the 1600s we had the wide variation on rapier hilts; although the blades of the Cavaliers were predominantly narrow (am I right?) and often Toledo sourced.
Those rapiers persisted via...
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Forum: European Armoury
9th December 2025, 11:23 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
Timing
Returning to the Mortuary hilt motifs; it is all a question of timing.
Those hilts were in constant production till well after the regicide, so it is perfectly reasonable to attribute the heads to...
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Forum: European Armoury
7th December 2025, 09:43 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
thumb ring blade
Here is the inscription on the blade of that thumb-ring Mortuary which - according to a very knowledgeable dealer here in the UK - was most certainly a Hounslow product. This is interesting given...
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Forum: European Armoury
7th December 2025, 06:40 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
Back to the Mortuary
I am inserting a link to a section of Brian Moffatt's website. It was Brian who told me about Robert Coltman Clephan.
Brian and his family have established a truly remarkable museum on the border of...
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Forum: European Armoury
7th December 2025, 06:01 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
Follow up
I asked at the Islay History Museum for someone who might be able to illuminate this issue and was directed to the (now retired) principle historian in the museum. He knew nothing about any of it...
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Forum: European Armoury
7th December 2025, 05:43 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
This is worth repeating
NB:
apropos of this mention of the schiavona I will interject here with this pertinent information:
One of the solutions to Border Reiving was to encourage the leaders to remove the problem. In...
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Forum: European Armoury
7th December 2025, 05:37 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
Lords of the Isles and Dalriadic Scotts
While leaving no stone unturned during my early search for an accurate history of the German swordmakers of Shotley Bridge I came across a very well regarded Tyneside writer and collector from the...
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Forum: European Armoury
5th December 2025, 07:48 PM
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Replies: 21
Views: 17,273
Proto
Hello Folks. Mortuary swords are on my radar at present because I don't have one and I am torn between the odd and the exemplary. I have a Cavalier rapier (with a Toledo blade - remember Jim) that...
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Forum: European Armoury
28th October 2025, 09:11 PM
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Replies: 57
Views: 56,900
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Forum: European Armoury
28th October 2025, 07:35 PM
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Replies: 57
Views: 56,900
clarification
This information came from British surgeons attending the wounded during the Peninsular wars and stated that penetrating punctures could rarely be fully repaired and the patients died, whereas cuts,...
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Forum: European Armoury
28th October 2025, 05:32 PM
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Replies: 57
Views: 56,900
My 10c worth
A brilliant thread.
If you ignore the arrival of the rapier, which was of extremely questionable use on a battlefield and absolutely useless for cavalry, here in the UK during our civil war battles...
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Forum: European Armoury
24th October 2025, 05:19 PM
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Replies: 10
Views: 25,979
response
Thank-you Jim!
Peter and I had lunch at the "Oleys" restaurant at the" Crown and Crossed Swords" hotel in Shotley Bridge today. You were much missed!
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Forum: European Armoury
21st October 2025, 09:59 PM
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Replies: 10
Views: 25,979
Shotley Bridge blades
The enterprise at SB was the most complicated and obfuscated affair ever in the British sword-blade industry's history.
Originally, the story was put about that a secret machine was arriving that...
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Forum: European Armoury
20th October 2025, 10:23 PM
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Replies: 10
Views: 25,979
Moving North
Hello Jim. Yes, I'm still lurking in the shadows. Hope all is well.
Reading this thread made me wonder how many Shotley Bridge Oley blades went North, considering we are just over the border. ...
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Forum: European Armoury
9th October 2025, 09:12 PM
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Replies: 14
Views: 23,746
WOW
Hey Lee. These are your swords??? You own an ULFBERHT?
This is where the name of the forum comes from? I've often wondered.
Thank-you for letting me see these.
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Forum: European Armoury
24th August 2025, 06:48 PM
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Replies: 7
Views: 36,728
Oliver Cromwell and ANDREA FERARRA
I was reading the Mortuary Sword section of Stuart Mowbray's book this morning and came across this:
The blade on one of the Cromwell swords from the Cromwell museum is marked Clemens Wilms :...
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Forum: European Armoury
24th August 2025, 11:28 AM
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Replies: 7
Views: 36,728
dates
Thank-you, that fits.
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Forum: European Armoury
23rd August 2025, 01:52 PM
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Replies: 7
Views: 36,728
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Forum: European Armoury
19th August 2025, 11:01 PM
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Replies: 30
Views: 53,732
Enlightenment
Thoroughly disabused... thank-you; all is now becoming clear. I am much obliged.
I wonder how many folks know all this?
"Mad, bad and dangerous to know"... I've actually known more that one person...
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