'Rose' Mark on the spine of Solingen blades

[Radboud]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

I would note that the blades by Thomas Gill, who initiated the so called 'sword scandal' in 1790s was a Birmingham maker, as was James Wooley who both produced officers sabers without the blued and gilt decoration typically, and used their own blades, as far as I have known.

At the time, British cutlers were complaining about the tariffs on blades imported from Solingen. They argued that British-produced blades were sub-standard to the German ones. Thomas Gill contested this, claiming that blades produced by him were every bit, if not better than German made blades. He tried on several occasions to have his claim tested by the Ordinance board until finally, the East India Trading company agreed to conduct a test involving swords produced by him, Wooly and supplied by Runkel.

Not surprisingly (possibly because the designer of the testing machine was a close friend of his) Thomas Gill's swords came out on top with a very low failure rate. Next were Runkels' imports. Woollys swords came last, with well over half failing the test.

What followed was a lengthy exchange of letters published in the local papers between Gill and Woolly.

Of interest is the time when Runkel was caught falsifying his import documentation to reduce the duty cost. Some 5,000 blades were confiscated and bladesmiths such as Gill then petitioned to have the blades given to them as compensation.

Interestingly, these tests do not appear to have dented Woolly's reputation, as they remained one of the prominent bladesmiths of the time. Regarding the decoration, they produced blades for the government (remember that regular cavalry soldiers were still supplied their swords by the government), East India Company and private purchase officers. It's pretty common to find officer blades by Woolly that have been decorated in blue and guilt, with their logo on them.