Hi. New guy here.

I originally joined to ask about the origins of a sword that I picked up recently. However, a bit of poking around on this site's SEARCH function revealed the maker was Kirby Wise. This led me to his webpage, and then to my emailing him. His wife, Laurie, was kind enough to answer my questions in detail.

So much of my immediate reason for joining have been answered, but I thought some folks might still like to see the sword anyway. According to Laurie, Kirby made this pattern of sword in the early 1970s, fairly early in his swordmaking career, so its been kicking around for awhile. The etched motto was added at some point after it left Kirby's hands, and the scabbard is original.

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Interesting to see such an early example of a swordmaker's work. I suspect it's much better than I could manage!

By the way, as I'm sure everyone will tell you here, medieval swords actually weren't called "broadswords". The term is Victorian in origin, and inaccurate. Medieval people simply would have called the weapon a sword. Later single handed swords were sometimes called arming swords, but that's more in the 15th century. Broadsword actually refers to a type of weapon that appears in the 16th and 17th centuries.

Welcome Craig D!

Thank you for posting this photograph. It's fun to look at early work of accomplished craftsmen in order to appreciate their exponential progress.