Scottish Ribbon Hilt Sword. Maker info

Jim McDougall · 2nd January 2014, 05:34 AM

Interesting to see this one come up again, and though I could not locate this maker as noted in my 2012 soliloquy, it seems that since then I have seen this maker among listed Solingen smiths, and it does seem the name was Knaupf. I'll have to look again.

It is well established, as I had mentioned in 2012, that blades for Scotland were invariably German produced. It was claimed that Scots often prized Spanish blades, but the examples I have seen on Scottish basket hilts with such blades were also German with spuriously placed Spanish names and marks.
Indeed the Scots were well represented among the colonists here through the 18th century (mine did not arrive in North America until the 1860s then through Canada) . As Mark Eley and I have often noted, it was a Highlander who ended Blackbeard in North Carolina with his trusty broadsword in 1718.

There has been considerable speculation on potential symbology and nuanced motif in these Scottish hilts, but as stated in Scottish parlance, most remain 'unproven'. In a 1997 article by Howard Mesnard ("Early Scottish Edged Weapons and Related Militaria", p.178), the author well notes, "...there is no evidence that the 'S stood for Stirling, Scotland, Stuart or anything else", claiming that the recurved piece was simply a structural spacer in the hilt design.
This seems quite logical as obviously 'Scotland' would be categorically redundant on these distinctive Scottish hilt forms; in many if not most cases Stuart or Jacobite allegiances were signaled in many secret symbols or signs and most of the Stirling made hilts I have seen have varying geometric patterns and designs, mostly without any 'S'.

2nd January 2014, 05:34 AM	#1
Jim McDougall Arms Historian Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: Route 66 Posts: 10,281	Interesting to see this one come up again, and though I could not locate this maker as noted in my 2012 soliloquy, it seems that since then I have seen this maker among listed Solingen smiths, and it does seem the name was Knaupf. I'll have to look again. It is well established, as I had mentioned in 2012, that blades for Scotland were invariably German produced. It was claimed that Scots often prized Spanish blades, but the examples I have seen on Scottish basket hilts with such blades were also German with spuriously placed Spanish names and marks. Indeed the Scots were well represented among the colonists here through the 18th century (mine did not arrive in North America until the 1860s then through Canada) . As Mark Eley and I have often noted, it was a Highlander who ended Blackbeard in North Carolina with his trusty broadsword in 1718. There has been considerable speculation on potential symbology and nuanced motif in these Scottish hilts, but as stated in Scottish parlance, most remain 'unproven'. In a 1997 article by Howard Mesnard ("Early Scottish Edged Weapons and Related Militaria", p.178), the author well notes, "...there is no evidence that the 'S stood for Stirling, Scotland, Stuart or anything else", claiming that the recurved piece was simply a structural spacer in the hilt design. This seems quite logical as obviously 'Scotland' would be categorically redundant on these distinctive Scottish hilt forms; in many if not most cases Stuart or Jacobite allegiances were signaled in many secret symbols or signs and most of the Stirling made hilts I have seen have varying geometric patterns and designs, mostly without any 'S'.