Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Can anybody ID this sabre-ish sword?

Jim McDougall · 29th March 2009, 01:54 PM

Hi Vaarok,
Welcome to our forum!! and thank you for posting this. At a cursory glance, my impression is that this is likely from either Central America or further south in Latin America. I know that one of the Levine knife books shows a bayonet form with this style ring on the guard as Central American, and the piece overall seems to feel Spanish colonial.

I think one feature is the re-profiled cavalry sabre blade, which appears to be a British M1796 light cavalry sabre blade with the hatchet point blade ground to a point.

In the case of certain guardless sabres that seem to have begun appearing about 10-15 years ago that typically had these British blades reground into an almost kampilan stylized looking point, they were originally thought to be from Spanish Morocco, and termed 'Berber' sabres. Further research revealed that these were more likely from Spanish colonial spheres and indeed included Philippines regions. These were among a number of such hybrid anomalies that seem to have been 'bringbacks' from the Spanish-American War, and I believe if memory serves, at least one had markings specifically locating it to Cuba. There was also compelling suggestion that these were from either the Phillipines archipelago or in contact regions.

It is unclear how or why so many of these British light cavalry blades seem to have entered the Spanish colonial sphere, unless there may have been surplus numbers of them in the Peninsula after the Napoleonic period. In any case, your example is quite honestly something I have not seen before, but if anyone will recognize something similar, it will be here!!!

Thank you again for joining us!
All best regards,
Jim

29th March 2009, 01:54 PM	#3
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,177	Hi Vaarok, Welcome to our forum!! and thank you for posting this. At a cursory glance, my impression is that this is likely from either Central America or further south in Latin America. I know that one of the Levine knife books shows a bayonet form with this style ring on the guard as Central American, and the piece overall seems to feel Spanish colonial. I think one feature is the re-profiled cavalry sabre blade, which appears to be a British M1796 light cavalry sabre blade with the hatchet point blade ground to a point. In the case of certain guardless sabres that seem to have begun appearing about 10-15 years ago that typically had these British blades reground into an almost kampilan stylized looking point, they were originally thought to be from Spanish Morocco, and termed 'Berber' sabres. Further research revealed that these were more likely from Spanish colonial spheres and indeed included Philippines regions. These were among a number of such hybrid anomalies that seem to have been 'bringbacks' from the Spanish-American War, and I believe if memory serves, at least one had markings specifically locating it to Cuba. There was also compelling suggestion that these were from either the Phillipines archipelago or in contact regions. It is unclear how or why so many of these British light cavalry blades seem to have entered the Spanish colonial sphere, unless there may have been surplus numbers of them in the Peninsula after the Napoleonic period. In any case, your example is quite honestly something I have not seen before, but if anyone will recognize something similar, it will be here!!! Thank you again for joining us! All best regards, Jim Last edited by Jim McDougall; 29th March 2009 at 03:59 PM.