For you fans of early colonial-era arms, here's a contemporary illustration of John Smith's adventures in Virginia. I love this falchion, but haven't seen anything similar in museums. The falchion shown in the photo from the myArmoury.com albums is as close as I've seen. Has anybody seen this weapon?--clipped point, wide fuller, ball pommel, simple recurved quillons?
I'd love to see a flesh & blood example of this type. By the way, archaeologist Ivor Noel Hume has suggested that Smith might have supervised the illustrations for his writing. So, his weapon might be accurately rendered here.

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Gee, I didn't realize that this John Smith was a Texan! ;o)

Seriously though, there are lots of interesting illustrations from the 17th and early 18th Centuries showing clip-point swords of this type, such as the engravings from Daniel Defoe's book on pirates "History of the most notorious Pyrates" including one of Ned Teach (Blackbeard) himself. Strange that such a beast would be so common in illustrations but so rare in collections: perhaps it became a 'literary figure of speech" as it were, engraver's shorthand for "this is a sword for doing close, ugly work" or some such. Seems as though Thomas Tew's Jolly Roger had such a sword emblazoned on it too.

At any rate, this is something that has intrigued me as well for some time, perhaps someone has some solid information on these rather rare beasts.

Gordon Frye

Exactly! Peterson's Arms & Armor of Colonial America shows two such pirate illustrations as well as the badly corroded remains of an excavated example of the weapon type they're shown holding. That weapon is of the more familiar shell-guard form, but is otherwise very similar to Smith's. The blades of those weapons might not be quite as wide as Smith's falchion. I haven't seen much light shed on the difference, if any, between a cutlass, hanger or falchion of the era in question. E.B. Erickson and I were comiserating last week about the dearth of sword replicas for this period. Rapiers abound, of course. But where are the military/utilitarian cutting swords of 1600-1700? MRL's Badelaire and German Falchion are good candidates for DIY updating to 17th c. form (especially the Badelaire--see below). Alchem sells a 1.75" steel ball pommel for around $16. Might be too small for that weapon, though.

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Grab a biography on Smith: you'll be surprised at how much use he got out of choppers like that...

Him and many other early colonists! Makes sense. Cheap, sturdy, short--the sword, I mean, not Smith (although....). Frankly, I don't quite understand why rapiers were so popular in the early colonies, and why so few falchions/hangers/cutlasses have turned up in the archaeological record. Maybe they were so sturdy that they continued in use and gradually were honed down to nothing, shortened or reshaped for agricultural use or butchery. Those colonists were resourceful recyclers when they chose to be. I'm bursting to say more on this subject but can't at the moment.....

Sean, I suspect that you are on the money with the idea that the choppers like Smith's were simply used and reused until there just wasn't anything left of them. As a rancher friend of mine said, if something doesn't live at least three different lives on the ranch, it was a bad investment (he was speaking of shotgun barrels turned into fence-posts, and about to be turned into something else). I should think that the falchions would make dandy scythes, frankly. Or plowshares for that matter.

It really seems as though such short swords were popular throughout the period from the late Middle Ages through to the end of cold steel as a useful battlefield implement. There is an interesting wood-cut from around 1600 showing muskets and swords being issued out to Dutch troops after their being listed and attested. Along with the rapiers, there are also large numbers of what I should refer to as Dusack's shown too. Makes perfect sense to me, actually, since using a rapier takes a certain amount of training and skill, while a chopper is just what it is, here, go to work! Just like the cutlass of the later period, really.

Could it be that the reason more rapier parts are seen in dumps is that they were more likely to be tossed into them, where as the shorter weapons could find other uses? Interesting points to discuss...

Gordon Frye

Maybe the falchions all got used up as they would make good cane knives, machetes, kindling cutters, froes, and kids toys. They're also better weapons for fighting Indians. The rapiers probably just sat in a corner until some good story about grandpa being heroic got attached to them.

I was recently in west Africa, where (once you get out into the country) you see machetes everywhere. although most of them seem to start life as with same (now mass-produced) wide blade about a foot and a half or more long, many of them were worn down to the size of steak knives and still being used for everything from butching livestock to chopping open coconuts. I also read Chinua Achebe's great book "Things Fall Apart" which is set in what is now Nigeria around the time white men started to make contact with inland tribespeople. although the book is by no means a historical work, it describes the machete as a weapon and a tool. men wear it to war and to the field. although I got off subject a little there, I think the west african example parallels the use of short, wide, curved blades as versatile tools and effective weapons.
Cheers
Dan

[quote="Sean Flynt"] . E.B. Erickson and I were comiserating last week about the dearth of sword replicas for this period. Rapiers abound, of course. But where are the military/utilitarian cutting swords of 1600-1700? MRL's Badelaire and German Falchion are good candidates for DIY updating to 17th c. form quote]


Hey Sean,

Mortuary's,proto-mortuary's,& more mortuary's! Sorry, couldn't help myself there Agreed, I'd also love to see more replica's of this time period. And as far as the Falchion goes, Von Sussen Enterprises makes model similar to the MRL, quillons and pommel are a bit different. I guess some hangers & the schiavona's can be put into this time zone.

Bill

Even *modern* militaries are begining to come around to the idea of well-made ancient weapons.
Rangers, as many of you have no doubt heard, have been recently issued tomahawks as part of their personal kits, after word of their extreme usefulness filtered back through the command chain. Army brass is still skeptical, but the troops are enthusiastic.
Machetes have long been recognized as useful tools and weapons, but are often poorly balanced and have bad blade geometry -the soldiers just say they're hard to use. Yet, an entire Special Forces team ordered Cold Steel Kukris and sent back grateful reviews about their utility. Ditch the machete, design a falchion. I've used both, and I'll tell you which one is more useful in a heartbeat! Every solder or marine that I've convinced to try one agrees with me immediately. ;)

I really love the look of MRL's thorpe falchion and would love to see it reproduced by someone of quality. The Lutel one is ok. Albions upcoming one is sexy too but $1,000 is more than I can justify at this point.

The MRL falchion may be better than you'd think. If you haven't already seen my review of this replica, it's here:
http://www.myArmoury.com/review_mrl_falc.html

It's good to see that so many folks are interested in 17th c. edged weapons. Maybe somebody out there is listening!

I had a similar experience to Dan Tucker's when I was in Ghana several years ago. It wasn't unusual to see large kitchen knives that had been ground from machetes. There origins were evident in the stamped grooves on the blade (too shallow to call fullers) and in their grips. Here machetes were such a staple that all large knives seemed to have been ground from old machetes. The fact that machetes are called cutlasses there and in India supports the theory that falchions were often used up as wood knives.

As to Zach's observations on machetes and kukris, I have found kukris too be every bit as varied in there form and performance as machetes if not more so. Some are useless while others are among the most efficient choppers I have ever encountered. The original Blackjack/Reinhardt kukri and AC's Assam Rifles kukris fit the latter category.

Mmmm...love the hilt. Hate the blade. Looks like the pommel is discoidal. That may actually be what we're looking at in the Smith illustration. Thanks for the image!

Ever since Sean posted it last week, the engraving of Smith's falchion has been ringing faint bells, and I think I remember where I saw something similar.

In the Wallace collection catalogs, they have a couple of Italian falchions/sabers from the early 1600s that are close to what is shown in the engraving. If I remember correctly, one has a rounded pommel with a spiral design and countercurved quillons, but I don't recall a clipped point to the blade.

Anyone have a copy of the catalogs handy to check it out?

--ElJay

Very interesting...I wondered if it might have been something he picked up on the Continent.

Hi Patrick,
I think you've got it! Any chance of a scan?

--ElJay