My Birthday Present: Knife for ID Please

CourseEight · 6th November 2008, 01:29 AM

Hi all!

Sorry for my delay in replying; in my absense things certainly have gone somewhere! The middle fitting on the scabbard is no longer fixed, and does slide up and down the sheath. There is a solder mark at the location in the pictures, but this could have been done much later. If any position of the lower chain attachment makes sense, it could go there.

The blade simply does not strike me as a serving piece. I'm totally with Jim on the markings, and given the period of the piece it makes sense that they would be used as was normal in that period, rather as we may see them now.

I would, however, certainly entertain the idea that this blade was re-hilted and/or re-scabbarded. The main problem with the chain is that given the weight of the handle I can't figure out a way to get it to hang right if suspended only by the chain, no matter the location of the fixed points. Maybe I'm just not sure how such a piece would actually be worn, so I can't judge. So I guess the problem may not be the chain, but the handle? Which could have surely been "upgraded" in the movement of the 1850s that Tim's article describes.

I'm enjoying the debate very much! Thanks!

--Radleigh

6th November 2008, 01:29 AM	#23
CourseEight Member Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: Coral Springs, FL Posts: 222	Hi all! Sorry for my delay in replying; in my absense things certainly have gone somewhere! The middle fitting on the scabbard is no longer fixed, and does slide up and down the sheath. There is a solder mark at the location in the pictures, but this could have been done much later. If any position of the lower chain attachment makes sense, it could go there. The blade simply does not strike me as a serving piece. I'm totally with Jim on the markings, and given the period of the piece it makes sense that they would be used as was normal in that period, rather as we may see them now. I would, however, certainly entertain the idea that this blade was re-hilted and/or re-scabbarded. The main problem with the chain is that given the weight of the handle I can't figure out a way to get it to hang right if suspended only by the chain, no matter the location of the fixed points. Maybe I'm just not sure how such a piece would actually be worn, so I can't judge. So I guess the problem may not be the chain, but the handle? Which could have surely been "upgraded" in the movement of the 1850s that Tim's article describes. I'm enjoying the debate very much! Thanks! --Radleigh