Hi. New to the group. I have a couple of swords, but just picked this one up at an auction to have one to play with. I don't think it is anything special, but I don't know and don't want to wreck it by cleaning it up or letting people swing it around if they want to.

It has a Spain stamp on the blade and I cannot find a reference to it online.

I was hoping someone here would recognize it.

Thanks for any input.

Scott.

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It appears to be a fairly generic Spanish made tourist sword from roughly 1950s through 1970s. Almost certainly a rat-tail tang and not suitable for anything but display and light handling. Not much value to it, so you can shine it up with some Brasso or Mother's Mag polish. Put it together with a toy shield and make your kid happy with a nice display ;)

That is what I figured. After closer inspection, it is a rat-tail handle. Good to know. Thank you for your reply.

What is the blade made of? Is it low-quality steel, stainless of some flavor, or is it actually decent stuff? If the materials are actually worth half-a-hoot, it might make a fun project sword.

When I was in high school, my youth pastor had this sword (I knew we would get along the day he threatened to decorate the youth room in maille, but that is a story for another day). He used it as his costume/beater piece (including a little light sparring). I don't know who the maker is, but I do know that he bought it from a shop that dealt almost exclusively in Marto and Deepeeka items. Since Deepeeka is Indian, that leaves Marto (at the time I think they were Marto and Matespa or something like that) as the most likely candidate. They certainly don't have that piece in their catalog these days, though, so I can't verify very easily.

As for quality, I don't know real well. I recall this piece as being an odd combination of elegance and blockiness. The blade was ok, the guard was actually quite nice in thickness, but obviously has way too much height, the pommel was actually quite nice, etc. The blade is a carbon steel, but pretty soft if my memory serves me correctly (there were some noticeable nicks from the light sparring mentioned above, and that was after he had filed the worst of it out). You will not be damaging an heirloom quality piece if you clean this up or let people handle it. With some effort, you might make a nice sword out of it, but I would speculate that you would have better results using a Windlass/MRL blade as your starting point.

-- Greyson

I believe the mark is associated with the same producer as the Oscar Kolombatovitch (per Juan Perez of SFI).

The sword in hand rising from the water.

http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.p...y-the-mark

Cheers

GC

Magnet sticks well to the blade. The blade edge is in really good shape (no nicks) so I doubt it ever hit anything. I have attached a picture of the handle apart. All the pieces have a "17" stamped in them.

I think I will just clean it up and have some fun.

Glen, that does look like the mark.

Thanks again for all the input.

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The Oscar I had exhibited a very thin tang but the previous owner had put it through some pretty extreme service without fault.
It went to a young enthusiast a few years ago. Although it would not really meet today's muster, ithe sword served well if only by an example. It came to me with a nice scabbard and baldric. This one just marked Spain.

Cheers

GC

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That tang could be a lot worse - at least it's integral with the blade. If you keep your head about you when using it, it could serve for weapons drills and the like. It probably should not be used against any hard target for a sustained period of time.

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If the sword is sharp, don't recommend your kid to play with it.

Even without examining the tang, you can usually tell if a piece has a low quality judging by whether or not it has resin between the grip and the pommel. This does. Give it a polish and hang it on your wall. Just don't give it a swing unless you're prepared to explain to the police why a several inch blade was hurled through the air, destroying your neighbor's property.