Hello,
Are there any makers of the 1796 British Pattern Light Cavalry sabre besides Cold Steel? Military Heritage and Tim Harris comes to mind, but are there any others who'll make accurate and good quality replicas? (must at least pass the proof test Cold Stell took for their 96's)

While we're on the topic, would WKC Soligen do 96's on request?

Also, history-wise, what happened to those cutler firms who originally made the 96's? Ie: Woolley, Osborn, etc. and if there are any active ones, would they make one on request?

One simple point of clarification to begin. Neither Cold Steel, nor Military Heritage manufacture these reproductions.
Then, that would lead to where the swords are actually being produced. A great many retailers are buying products of this type from various sources in India. One such company is www.weaponedge.com I have read of an individual communicating with them and the company seemed favorable to shipping individual swords. As this company supplies Military Heritage, it is also worth mentioning these swords are shipped blunt. It has also been related that the steel used by this company is tempered to a good springy state but that hardness is below a lot of expectations. But wait, what's that I see? A cutlass this company exports and is also in the Cold Steel line up. What gives?; might be the question next asked but then look at the trade overall. Go to www.indiamart.com and start some searches.

I believe WKC does mention on their site that they can do orders to request but contacting them would clarify ability and cost of such. That would also be true of any other producer not mentioning the sword on a website. Even if the shops in Birmingham that were producing originally were still with us (which they are not, to my knowledge) the cost involved in a truly faithful custom recreation will exceed what very nicely sound antiques cost.

One very real difference between the originals and the reproductions is the blade thickness, from hilt to point. Reproductions from these various sources are a compromise and you simply won't see thicknesses approaching 10mm at the hilt and a complex distal taper often ending with a 2mm thickness at the pointy end. Many of these old blades taper quickly from the hilt to about half the beginning thickness and then more gradually out the the end. The reproductions more often have a pretty linear distal taper (if much at all) and nowhere near as handy feeling. This is probably not an issue if one never has, or never will be interested in what an original handles like.

In the end, Cold Steel is the best immediate solution for someone that wants a sharp to play with. As I mentioned previously, having one made to order either through a custom smith or honored sword company is going to exceed the cost of sound originals. There are somewhat similar military sabres that continued use up through WWI and are only about double the Cold Steel cost via auctions and antique dealers.

What are you going to do with it?

Cheers

GC

Hello,
I thank you for the informative reply. What I'm going to do with the replica is to have it as a heirloom that could be studied closely for generations to come concerning artifacts like these (ie: weight, balance, handling), cutting, and if worse comes to worse, would be my choice in the event of an apocalypse (see http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=1299). Bearing these in mind, I could bid my time, and won't be in a search for a "quickie cutter". Cutting with an antique however... suffice to say common sense tells me not to do so unless someone convinces me otherwise.