Nimcha, literally

[Jim McDougall]

The Solingen phenomenon was a fascinating dynamic in the fabrication of swords that requires a great deal of detective work with trying to accurately identify many swords. As can be seen, thier products, and certainly in some cases, influences, spread far and wide. Ironically, the marks and spurious inscriptions and names of the makers in other countries, especially Spain, that were applied by Solingen makers often ended up being copied by artisans in other cultures.

The commercial concepts employed by Solingen interestingly very much resemble situations of present times. Not only did the makers of Solingen produce blades tailored to specific clientele, but in many cases, the makers went to other regions where they carried out thier trade. I believe that in passim I have seen references suggesting them going to Sweden, Russia, Netherlands and of course in one of the most famed cases, to England.
In England, the Hounslow group of makers followed by by the Shotley Bridge group were Solingen smiths who originally went there to produce weapons by invitation. While thier work clearly carried the Solingen character, including marks such as the running wolf, it was of course produced in England.
The French factories such as Klingenthal also were greatly influenced by Solingen.

The Berber sabres mentioned by Mark are truly an anomaly, with the distinctly profiled blade tips, the blades typically British M1796 light cavalry sabres. I think the jury is still out on these, but they would indeed have proven very effective in use by Barbary pirates who were more like Marines, fighting on land and sea both.

The cabalistic markings are intriguing as they add the profound element of mystery to compound that already inherently imbued in the fascinating weapons they are found upon. Many of the symbols had allegorical association to occult and arcane esoterica.In many cases numeric symbols were applied, according to Blackmore ("Hunting Weapons", Howard Blackmore, 1971) these originated on hunting swords in Germany.

Teodor, I dont think there should be such concern on hijacking a thread. As can be seen these topics are typically so closely related that one never knows in what medium clues will arise. The trademarks thread and pirate weapons thread, seem both to entwine often. I can recall reading through resources on firearms and on many occasions finding important clues that distinctly pertained to swords I was researching, and as has recently been discussed, even material on coins and other collectibles contain such data.

All very best regards,
Jim