original 16th century Katzbalger sword?

[valkenburg]

Greetings! I recently bought an early 16 th century Katzbalger (German Landsknecht) sword. Can anyone of you tell me if this is the real deal? Here are some pics:







It has been professionally cleaned/restored. It was heavily corroded first.

I'm looking forward to hearing your reactions!

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Valkenburg,
and welcome to our forum!
Thank you for posting this most interesting example of the Landsknecht arming sword, the katzbalger.
It is always difficult to assess authenticity on weapons from photos, and it looks like your example is quite structurally sound, though extremely cleaned. By its form it appears correct, and elements are consistant with known examples of these.
Several of these are shown in "Cut and Thrust Weapons" (E.Wagner, Prague, 1967, pl.30, #2,3) and the braided quillons into figure eight are similar to #3, while the central multichannel blade is very much like #2. Wagner cites as his reference, "Waffensammlung Dreger", E.H.Max Dreger, Berlin-Leipzig, 1926, pl.66.
These examples suggest your sword must date from 1520-1550, and after this time, the hilts began to develop with upward branches into the early form of the basket type hilt.
The hilt on these is shown in "The Rapier and Smallsword 1460-1820" by A.V.B. Norman, as hilt #3, German, 1520-1550, and of course noted that it is included despite not being a rapier, because of its importance in the development of more complex hilts.

These were the references found so far, and I look forward to the opinions and observations of the others here. These don't come up too often, and this looks like a great example so thank you again for posting!!

All the best,
Jim

[valkenburg]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Hi Valkenburg,
and welcome to our forum!
Thank you for posting this most interesting example of the Landsknecht arming sword, the katzbalger.
It is always difficult to assess authenticity on weapons from photos, and it looks like your example is quite structurally sound, though extremely cleaned. By its form it appears correct, and elements are consistant with known examples of these.
Several of these are shown in "Cut and Thrust Weapons" (E.Wagner, Prague, 1967, pl.30, #2,3) and the braided quillons into figure eight are similar to #3, while the central multichannel blade is very much like #2. Wagner cites as his reference, "Waffensammlung Dreger", E.H.Max Dreger, Berlin-Leipzig, 1926, pl.66.
These examples suggest your sword must date from 1520-1550, and after this time, the hilts began to develop with upward branches into the early form of the basket type hilt.
The hilt on these is shown in "The Rapier and Smallsword 1460-1820" by A.V.B. Norman, as hilt #3, German, 1520-1550, and of course noted that it is included despite not being a rapier, because of its importance in the development of more complex hilts.

These were the references found so far, and I look forward to the opinions and observations of the others here. These don't come up too often, and this looks like a great example so thank you again for posting!!

All the best,
Jim

Thanks! It's great to be part of this forum. Always nice to discuss arms and armor with other enthusiasts.
And many thanks for the info and book references on the sword!
Yes, the sword has been cleaned. It was heavily corroded and all the corrosion was removed by a professional archaeologist/restorer. It took him over 2 weeks to do the job.

[celtan]

Very nice acquisition. Gotta be careful, though. There were lots of high quality cat-skinners made during Hitler's era. Some of the things to look for are weight, and point of balance...

Best

M

[valkenburg]

Originally Posted by celtan

Very nice acquisition. Gotta be careful, though. There were lots of high quality cat-skinners made during Hitler's era. Some of the things to look for are weight, and point of balance...

Best

M

Thanks! It was way too corroded to be only 60 years old, but tell me some more about the weight. How much should a 16 th century one weigh? The lenght of the sword is about 84.5 cm.

[valkenburg]

and another photo:

[celtan]

All I know is that Nazi replicas were much heavier...

Best

M

Originally Posted by valkenburg

Thanks! It was way too corroded to be only 60 years old, but tell me some more about the weight. How much should a 16 th century one weigh? The lenght of the sword is about 84.5 cm.