I have an 1800's German Solingen Calvary sword that has never been sharpened. Is there anyone who performs this function and if so what does the price usually run?

Also, anyone know of a website that I could look up maker's marks/proof marks on?

Thanks
Walter

Would be a pretty damn fast way of lowering the collectability and worth of the piece. I personally suggest against it.

But if you're steadfast in your desire to cut with it, sharpening isn't a hugely difficult process for anything but Japanese swords which require delicate polishing.

There should be how-to's on sharpening within the forums. Simply use the search function.

I agree if it's an original sword from 1800 I would leave it as is and preserve it in it's original condition: It's not just loss of value in a dollar sense but it's sort of ruining a piece that managed to get to today " unaltered " from hand to hand over two centuries and it seems that it's a responsibility to past it on to the future in as good shape as possible.

Now, if it had been sharpened in period and needed a very light resharpening it might be O.K. but even then probably not.

I'm not well informed about the period sabres but I think many were not sharpened past the " butter Knife " degree as they could do ample damage with what we would consider a very dull edge.

Also, I think that many sabres were issued unsharpened and sharpened by the troops and deliberately dulled again when
" decommissioned " due to some countries laws or rules about military equipment or civilian weapons laws ?

( The last might vary greatly from country to country and at different times. Also, I read some of this recently in a previous post on " myArmoury "dealing with sabres of the 18th to 19th century: So this should be taken as second hand information that could be wrong in part or in whole i.e. should be fact checked before taken as certain ).

The best thing would be to buy an inexpensive reproduction of period sabres that would be close in handling and use that one for cutting practice: I can understand the " frustration " of having an unshapened sabre when one wants to have a sharp !

At the very least make sure you know how valuable, rare or common is your sabre before doing anything drastic to it.
( If it is very common and of low value then " maybe "sharpening would be less problematic, although this is how common stuff becomes rare because too many people have done things to them so that "pristine "versions eventually become rare ).

Thanks for the thoughts on sharpening. Appreciate the advise.

BTW, any idea what this sword is? Pics at: http://waltermccracken.wetpaint.com/

Thanks again
Walter

Well, the inscription means it was made in Solingen, Germany (or at least the blade was) - literally it means something like "Solingen made me". Can't help on identifying the hilt though, not my expertise.

That is correct. The first word inscribed does indeed translate to something like "made me". I have seen that inscription on a number of blades in museums in Europe especially in Germany. I also have an old blade with the MEFECIT inscription followed by another inscription WIIRA. You blade may be older than the 1800s as all of the blades I saw with that inscription on were medieval ones. While I wouldn't say that that is a medieval blade the hilt furniture looks to be more late 1600 early 1700s. The mark on the back is most likely a makers or guild mark.

Walter-it strikes me as a heavy cavary sword of the 1600 -1700 's. I nay be out in left field, but the sabre hadn't come into common use yet because armour was just going out of use. A hesvy thrusting sword would be ideal.

Here's another sword from the collection.
Pics at:


http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/788/baskethiltswords009fw4.jpg

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/5841/baske...008qy4.jpg

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/8941/baske...007al8.jpg

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/2528/baske...006pv2.jpg

http://img379.imageshack.us/img379/5640/baske...005bk4.jpg