Hello Forum Members,
I was directed to this Forum by a very helpful and knowledgable member from another Forum, who has offered lots of very interesting comments and observations regarding this sword.
I'm what you would describe as an 'accidental newbee sword collector' while innocently studying my Scottish ancestory during the last 12 months or so. I have recently purchased 3 swords that I intended to hang on the walls of my Medieval styled cottage. One of these swords is a curiosity that I wish to find the age and origin of. It was my 1st purchase of a sword that a friend alerted me to. I hadn't even considered owning one, but this one really caught my eye! He thought it would look just right above the fireplace. The other two swords are simply hangers of no interest other than their beauty. Both equally difficult to weild due to horrendeous POB, one of which is a interpretation of the Wallace sword.
I now have had this sword for a few weeks and have been seduced by it's size,weight and balance. So much so that I take it out to the backyard late every night and use it as another form of exercise. Have now started to become quite 'handy' with it, not to mention the increase in my upper body strength. It is so easy to weild one or two handed!
A member posted on this forum about ideal POB,( Myer). This sword has a POB at about 5 fingers (4 1/2")below the cross-guard and weighs 7.62lbs or 3.46kg. It's total length is 55 1/4" or 1403mm. The cross-guard is 11 1/2" long and made of solid bronze. The handle is 13" from the hilt to the base of the pommel and 1 1/4" at it widest point, not including the grip rings.The handle is very nicely 'wasted'. The blade is double edged, and only just dull with a length of 30" to the base of the rocasso, and 1 3/4" at it widest point. The rocasso is 9 1/4" to the hilt and leather clad with no lower grip ring. The blade is tempered carbon spring steel with excellent 'memory' when flexed. If I hold the sword horizontal and tap the blade with my other hand it 'sings'quietly and continues a very small occillation for quite a period. The pommel,said to be 'continental' in style with 6 fluted segments is 3" long and 1 3/4"dia at it's widest point. The pommel is solid bronze,very heavy, and is internally threaded with a recess that covers a 7/16" nut cut with a Whitworth thread which is 1 1/4" in length and part of the tang,eg no weld. The handle appears to be 'Ash' covered in smooth leather that has been secured using animal hide glue, which has broken down slightly, as is the rocasso cover. There are two wedges either side of the tang that are very thin(1/32" tapering to roughly 1/16") and 8" long. They look to be 'Elm' ? The handle was very difficult to remove and was very dirty,gritty and smelly,( I left it that way on reassembly, though was very tempted to clean it up!).
The blade appears to have had quite a number of strikes, but most appear just over half way down the blade, more on one face than the other. The sword I and others believe, has been well used judging by the wear on the rocasso and at the base of two of the pommel segments, and of course the handle, mainly very close to the hilt (evidence of hand wear on the top shoulder of the bronze cross where a index finger would rest) and the front grip ring.
I'm not going to describe the stamps, other than to say a 'crown' is at the base of the rocasso stamped into the leather, but rather post a photo or two of them with detail notes. It has been viewed by a foundry caster and a member of a Medieval Society, both believe it is old and possibly an early re-enactment sword 'wardrobe' sword for film making.
If it turns out to be a modern fake, the maker has done a fine job! But I need to know.
If anyone here can help me identify the age and maker of this sword I would be very grateful. I thank you all in advance :)

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... this is the other side

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...the pommel

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...full length 55 1/4"

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... the hilt assembly, sorry I forgot the wedges!

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.. portion of the blade

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Hi Kerry,
First of all, nice sword! What you have here is a modern reproduction by a company in Spain. I suddenly can't remember their name, but will post when I do. The sword was probably "antiqued" by someone, either for aesthetic reasons, or possibly to unscrupulously make a buck.

One of the first things that's a giveaway is the screw on pommel, as this was not done historically on swords: The pommel would come loose during use.

This type of two handed sword, based loosely on something that one would have seen in the late 15th century or even in the Renaissance, would also unlikely have brass furniture, as brass was soft. I have never seen brass hilt furniture on anything before the 18th century, though it is possible that there are exceptions.

Also, anything in that condition from the middle ages should be viewed with a very critical eye, particularly if it cost less than multiple thousands of dollars. :)

FYI, if you ever do pick up another sword that you suspect to be an antique, please don't take the hilt apart! You could do more damage than good!

Here's a link to a new one:

http://store.yahoo.com/ironlance/wallacesword.html

Bill's correct, it's a faked up modern sword.

As Bill mentioned: the screw-on pommel is a dead giveaway all by itself. The hilt components are brass, you will never find hilt components made of brass during the middle ages. Bronze rarely, but never brass as it's far too soft for something like the guard on a large cutting sword like this. Pommels were made of latten from time to time and this is similar to brass, but never the gaurd.

There's no confusion here. No one else commented because Bill is absolutely correct.

:D

Well Chad I suppose if you want to debate semantics I'll oblige. You're right, things such as latten, copper, and bronze, were on occasion used for sword guards. I believe I pointed that out with my bronze example (my apologies for not going through the entire shopping list :D ). However, brass in it's modern metallurgical composition was never used for a sword's guard in the medieval period, or for a pommel for that matter. This sword's furniture appears to be brass from the way it has patinated or been artificially aged. This alone is a dead giveaway as to it's origin as a modern repro.

I'm aware of swords with bronze and even copper guards, if you have a source for one with a latten guard I'd like to see it. I'm also aware of the the latten/brass debate. That's why I stated that it's "similar" not exact. I do agree that my use of the term "never" isn't the best verbiage.

Shall we discuss the metallurgical composition of non-ferrous metals, and their use the the medieval context further, or shall we concentrate on whether this sword is genuine or not? :D

Also, if you observe the pattern in the corrosion/patina on the blade it appears to me that some kind of liquid solution has been used to artificially age it.

[ Linked Image ]

The edge looks awfully pristine for a blade that has taken that much damage on it's flat. If the blade had been rehoned to restore the edge you would probably expect to see some waviness to the edge.

It's not a bad looking sword, and not a bad job at artificially aging it.

Kerry,

Here's an excellent article that explains how this can be accomplished.
http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_antique.html

Looks like the blade was wrapped in a cloth soaked in the oxidizing(rusting) agent and wasn't smoothed out so there were pockets in the cloth that didn't contact the blade creating the "clean" spots. When I screwed around with this some years back I got a very similar look on my first try (I used bleach which is pretty aggressive) because I didn't make sure the rag was contacting the metal throughout.

[quote="Nathan Robinson"]

Glen A Cleeton wrote:

Bill Grandy wrote: Even the Kolombatovitch swords bear the Spain mark. Just to add my experience, though not particularly relevant to this topic ( :blush: ) -- Not one of the 20+ Kolombatovich items i've owned or the several dozen others I've seen at American Fencers (200 feet away from my house) have had a Spain mark. They all had adhesive stickers that were promptly removed though.

My older ones had "SPAIN" stamped into the base of the blade.