The Espada Ancha

[Jim McDougall]

Attached is the PDF for the paper:
"The Espada Ancha or Machete of Northern Mexican Frontiers and Spanish Southwest from 18th Through 19th Centuries".
This was published last year in the Swedish Arms Society in Stockholm in their centennial yearbook, and is republished here through kind permission of Staffan Kinman, director, as well as the painstaking work of Lee Jones in reformatting.

I sincerely hope this article (which now appears along with Lee Jones' outstanding article on these in our archives), will encourage interest in the history of these intriguing swords as well as bringing forth examples for further study and discussion. The variations on these are boundless as they were virtually created by local blacksmiths using often many components and blades from many sources, as well as their own decorative creativity.

As always, I welcome your valuable critique and comments, with hopes of advancing our collective knowledge of these swords. While I have collected and studied them for over four decades, I am profoundly still learning, which is what makes them such an exciting field of study.

I would add here my apologies regarding the original posting of this article in the manner of presentation, and the rather off putting copyright notices on pages illustrated from a draft, and the other notices. Here the PDF is fully downloadable, and in the manner of presentation originally intended, and not in the commercialized demeanor which came across.