I was looking some of the type XIIIa swords, and it struck me that this one from the Glasgow Museum might be a cool one to do a reproduction of:

http://www.myArmoury.com/view.html?features/pic_spotxiii10.jpg

I think the longish grip with the somewhat shorter blade (34 inches), along with the particularly large style 7 guard, something rarely seen on modern reproductions, would make it a fairly unusual and interesting weapon to recreate.

What do you guys think?

Edit: I can't seem to get the image to display properly, so I've posted a link instead.

I think it looks pretty ugly... I wouldn't buy it because I think the part just over the cross looks very crudely made.

The cross looks like it's 600 years old you mean :p

Looks interesting. I kind of like how it waists down towards the cross into a little ricasso. Reminds me vaguely of the AT1509.

M.

Very interesting sword to reproduce, in my opinion.

Definately something out of the ordinary, as far as reproductions go.

I would not expect very subtle handling, but maybe I'm mistaken...

Actually, it's one of two that are side-by-side in the Kelvingrove that I've been seriously contemplating for reproduction.

(sort of contemplating going into doing swordmaking professionally, creating exact replicas of the weapons using stock removal processes, and been pretty much living in the Kelvingrove, and a few other collections, studying them in detail as I collect a library of reference notes of geometries and examples...)

one of the things that intrigues me about that sword is that there is an extremely odd puddling or marking of the steel just near the cross, seems like the blade might've been broken and roughly rewelded before it went into the hall of victories - though that is a guesstimate straight out of my arse, I hasten to add. the broadening, and noticable swelling just seems a bit odd to me. I intend to get a closer look at it someday, but it's a little greedy to say "I'd like to arrange a viewing... of everything!" isnt it?


anyhow, felt you'd enjoy one of the side-on shots of that cross from last time I was there.

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I like that sword too...... and I know which ones you guys are discussing. When I examined it last time I was there I was of the opinion that the sword had at one time been repaired and the tang re-welded to the blade (or a new tang welded) which may account for the rather strange blade geometry where it meets the cross. What I am saying is that - I am not convinced the sword and tang went together that way originally or that the two are original to each other. just my $0.02 tr

Craig,
I like it and say why not. Of course I do have a soft spot for XIIIa's.

JG,
Thank you for posting closeups of the guard and the "puddling" as it were. It is very interesting to think that it might have been repaired at some point. Makes you wonder how it was damaged to this extent.

Scott

To me this is one of those great swords that screams out - I'm here to cut you in half, not to please your eye. Not meaning this as a criticism - rather that it has a certain brutal functional look to it.

The overly rounded shoulders at the guard throws me off though - I would rather have the edges stay parallel right to the guard as in 99% of medieval swords. Is it possible it was like this originally and something went wrong in the repair job? The slot in the guard certainly looks wide enough in the close-up.

Yes, it looks like the cross fell down lower on the tang than it was originally and exposed the welded tang.

Hey, Peter J, any chance we could see one like this from Albion some time in the future? ;)

What is the markings above the weld about? I can make out only "VII" on the upper right, but nothing else.

M.

I don't think it's VII as a number. It's an arabic scripture from Alexandrian armory.

Perhaps another possibility -not mutually exclusive- was that this piece was put together from parts of 2-3 damaged swords for the victory display .