An NCO correcting his student's blade position.(Image removed from quote.)
So, which one is you
(Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)OK, am I the only one seeing this similarity??
This morning...Blah blah blah...What we are looking at is in fact a 1890 pattern British cavalry sabre which is the final iteration of a family of swords starting all the way back to the early 1820s. One of it's predecessors (the 1853) was the sabre being used at the famous Charge of the Light Brigade. Unfortunately this was a family of sabres that never quite seemed to hit the mark with the troopers using them and it was constantly tweaked and fiddled with to no great avail. Complaints included; too long, too short, too heavy, too brittle, too small a grip and too blunt. Initially it sounds likely that they simply wanted their 1796 light cavalry sabres back but the powers at be had decided that they wanted a straighter blade that was more orientated to giving the point. In the end the argument was settled just a few years after this pattern with the introduction of the 1908; a sword has no cutting edge whatsoever and was essentially a T-section spike with a hand guard. Blah blah blah...
Health and safety gone mad! Gareth, what a bloody marvellous thread - very entertaining! Now... put it all into a manuscript, pad it out with a few more pics including the historical stuff, and get it published - you'll rake it in!
Cheers mate. Sadly everything I know is from reading other people's books and on-line articles, there are a lot of people I know that are far better read than I am. There is a mountain of primary source research that I just couldn't be arsed to wade though.
Just wing it!
Gareth, what a wonderful wonderful thread! I remembered drilling over all the sword pix you posted in the challenge, and I rarely ventured into the collector's forum, look what I had been missing! Great posts, and I look forward to the modern ones!
There's something weird about a suit-cladded-bowler-hat-wearing man wielding a sabre...
Staying with the British military we come to my final sword (for the moment ). So in 1892 we see an introduction of yet another blade type being married to the 1822 gothic hilt. This represented the belief that the thrust was indeed completely superior to the cut (a debate started a few thousand years old when swords were made of bronze) and saw a totally straight blade with a "dumbbell" cross-section. That is; the forward edge is every bit as thick as the back edge with a wide fuller running about 2/3 up the blade and the final third being of a more conventional thick spine leading down to thinner edge. (Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)This might be the time to mention service sharpening. In essence swords were left blunt up until the owner was being deployed to active combat service. Very often when buying antique military swords the blades will be pretty bloody blunt and this gives rise to the idea that that was how they were intended to be used. What it actually means is that the sword was likely never used in anger. The 1892 blade was supposed to be sharp at the point only but I have heard of some blades still being sharpened at the top third as per the owners evident preference. Very quickly we see a change away from the old brass gothic hilt being replaced in 1895 with a very full steel hilt that was updated again in 1897 to include a slight roll in the hilt edge to, once again, protect the uniform and that's what we have to look at today. Again we have a Royal Cypher on the hilt and this one is for Geroge V. Quite poignantly George V swords are really quite common these day simply because he was the British monarch during WWI. While very few of these swords were actually used in the trenches every officer would have bought one and, tragically, the attrition rate amongst junior officers was extremely high. This particular sword was owned by someone in the Royal Engineers and we can only hope he lived to a ripe old age. (Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)
I've wondered a-times if the George sword (and I suppose the Lizzy ones, because as far as I know they didn't change the blade when she took over) were ever meant for combat at all - apparently (according to somethingpedia, I didn't bother checking the sauce) they even banned swords in combat from 1915....because the dreaded enemy was offing the toffs too easily (Shoot the smug git with a sword!)Probably all for the best, I imagine it'd be a right devil to clean blood out of all that etching and fancy floral work....
Oh they were definitely designed with combat in mind. Would have seen some use in the second Boer War and, more significantly, the Sudan campaign. The open veldt of the Boer War wasn't the ideal environment for a sword but the Sudan was much more up close and personal.
Given that that particular design has been being made for over a century - is there a particularly reliable way to differentiate stabby ones from showy ones? (for the layman, without getting chunks of metal tested for various qualities)
So most of the swords we have looked at have been purely military or at least commonly carried by military officers, they youngest of the smallswords being the only real exception. Well this next one is definitively civilian only; a Police sword. I read of these as being known short swords, hangers and cutlasses and it doesn't really seem to matter. There is also some debate as to where and when Police were issued with these. Perhaps only in times of genuine crisis, perhaps when going into the darker corners of Victorian London late at night. The exact circumstances may have varied over time and place but what seems to be universally true is that they were never a day-to-day item. Given that it really is quite a short blade (23 1/2" or 595mm) it's also interesting that there is a photograph of constables practising for use on horseback (looking at the splayed feet as if in stirrups and left hand holding reins). The exact date these came into use seems debated as well but it's very likely some time in the 1830s or so depending on where you were in the country. (Image removed from quote.)(Image removed from quote.)As I mentioned above this is a rather short but very handy sword that very nicely balanced. Lighter than either of the two military hangers we've already looked at, it still feels robust and the blade is stiff so that it would be very good with the point. Can you tell I like it? One very unusual feature of these swords is the fact they have a safety catch! (though a little delicate and broken on mine so I'll add a stock photo). When worn on the left hip there was a button that you'd need to press with your right thumb in order to release the sword from it's scabbard. Very useful to stop miscreants or thugs from stealing your sword. (Image removed from quote.)I don't know how relevant this is outside of the UK and to those of us of a certain age but I love the fact that two of these were the basis for the swords carried by Nasir in Robin of Sherwood. (Image removed from quote.)
OK, enough of the swords for the troops, lets get back to the officers. Cast your mind back to the 1822 "gothic" hilted sabre we looked at with it's rather unusual pipeback blade. If you've been paying attention you might remember I mentioned that the pipeback wasn't a huge success. Well, in 1845 a design by Henry Wilkinson was accepted as the new standard, though there would have been no expectation of existing sabres to be updated. Gone is the pipeback and a single, wide fuller with a strong spearpoint blade was the new norm. This resulted in a far stiffer blade and was widely seen as a great improvement. We also see the use of the brass "proof" slug as a supposed mark of tested quality. (Image removed from quote.)The next thing to look at on this sabre is the hilt. In 1827 the rifle regiments decided that they wanted something exclusive again and opted for a steel, rather than brass, hilt. Also they went with the tied bugle horn badge of the light infantry rather than the royal cypher. All a bit egotistical if you ask me. The service of the 1827 hilt lasts right up to today. Collectors will often combine the date of the blade along with the style of hilt to help identify the rough age of this pattern that has been around for nearly two centuries. So; 1827, 1827/45, or 1827/92. Going with this naming system we could call my sabre here an 1827/45.(Image removed from quote.)Now, as you'll see from my photos, this is not a very fine example. It's low on detail on the hilt compared to many, it's been painted at some point in it's life and the shagreen grip is all but gone. Given these are pretty common sabres why did I buy this one? Well I bought it because it, very faintly, has the title "Leith Volunteer" etched on it's blade. Leith is my home town and I couldn't miss out on a bit of local history. The Volunteer part of this I've done a little reading about but in no way do I feel qualified to say much about it. Further reading on this subject is definitely recommended though. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volunteer_Force https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/5th_Battalion,_Royal_Scots(Image removed from quote.)
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