Hi all! my first posting to the forum, I hope you can help!

I bought this as a bit of an impulse buy and want to check it out as i'm just getting into Scottish Sword Collecting. It was described to me as a scottish broadsword circa 1740. It has sharskin handle (apparently) and there are marks on each side of the blade that say 'I M I H I N I'.

I've done a bit of googling and i think it may be of probably of English manufacture. Its distinctive heart-shaped cut-outs identify it as being like those used by the Royal Horseguards from 1750 to 1775.

Also it looks like has been roughly cut on the basket, not sure if this was somones attempt to clean it but regardless its not a finely made sword, so guess it was just a foot soldiers basic version?

so what do the experts thing?

Cheers Mike

Hi Mike and welcome to the Forum.

Thanks very much for the excellent photos of your sword. Often a member will ask for assistance without supplying an adequate likeness which makes it very difficult to determine anything.

Unfortunately I am stumped. There are basketheads out there who are a lot more knowledgeable than I who will hopefully respond with some information. It does look like a horseman's style sword and I would guess that it is early to mid-18th c. Someone certainly treated it roughly prior to your acquiring it, which is too bad. Minimal cleaning is the best way to handle any antique weapon.

The ball pommel with which your sword is equipped is found on early swords as well as some made much later so I am afraid that doesn't help much in dating. Nor do the markings on the blade. Andria Farara, in various spellings, is found on swords of Scottish and English provenance with both early and late origins. The markings on yours are totally unknown to me.

Again, someone else will reply but it is Super Bowl Sunday in the US and a lot of us here, at least, are or will be glued to our TVs very soon.

Thanks for showing us your sword. You will surely hear from someone about it soon.

Lin

Thanks forthe honest reply! Yes I agree I like to see lots of pictures it really helps! I would say its pretty crudely made so doubt it was a regimental sword BUT I really dont know, still waiting for my first book to arrive!!

Look forward to some honest discussions about the sword as I have 'full refund' if it turns out to be something other than 1740's Scottish as its to go with my Grant targe!

Mike

Is the Grant targe you mentioned the Laird's of Grant targe? I am about to make a replica.

Although its a nice targe its not the one. The one I am thinking of is in "Scottish Arms and Armour" by Fergus Cannan p. 74.

Looks as if it has been recently ground. That bright steel looks strange. Looks aged for certain, but interfered with.

Hmm, no takers!? I guess this must be a pretty rare or unique sword? :eek:

Cheers Mike

Hi Mike,

Well, the things that I don't know about basket hilts would fill volumes so I'm clearly not the guy to ask but there ARE people here whose knowledge is truly encyclopedic about basket hilts, targs, lochabar axes and implements of mayhem and destruction that I'm probably happier not knowing about! Just kidding!

My totally unasked for advice is don't give up. Someone here knows something about your sword or knows someone who does or knows someone who wrote a book about baskethilts, etc.etc.

In the meantime, welcome, hang around, learn, have fun!

I really hate to make this guess, but this looks a whole lot like a Hanwei sword that has been soaked in saltwater and burried in someones back yard for a month or two. There may have been some work done on it, but I have to say it just doesn't look authentic to me. Sorry. Just my two cents!

On Mike's sword the pommel looks like it is peened over the pommel button and the way basket is attached to the pommel looks pretty much historical. Modern cheap replicas like Hanwei usually don't have that kind of features. It is either a good forgery or an original. I really don't think it is regular lower or mid range replica aged to look old.

It is not a Hanwei sword. I have both and this one doesn't resemble either. It could be a modern made sword which has been "antiqued" - make that abused - but I am not so sure. The jury is still out Mike but you are beginning to get some interest so there may be a succint answer coming. Hang in there.

How could the metal be so shot and the shagreen look so good? Relatively. The only two differences between the Hanwei and this sword are the wider guards on the basket and the pommel but neither one would be that hard to alter.

The blade also can't be Hanwei because of a different fuller. And there are more details on the basket which don't match.

The more I look at the basket the more i see differences, and not differences that could be changed by file work.

In top picture the two small holes between the "hearts" on the side plate. The centers form a line that is oblique to the top of the basket while the centers of the corresponding holes on the Hanwei form a line that is parallel to the top. So unless they filled in and re-drilled the holes. Plus there are a few other places where the original has more metal than the Hanwei (and vice versa)

Not sure what that means but they do like quite similiar (copies of the same sword perhaps or it just a common pattern) My knowlege of baskets is a little lacking