Does anybody have further information or photos of this German longsword in the Wallace Collection?
It would be especially helpful to know if the length given here is overall or blade-only. Seems short to be OA.

# Longsword
# Ulrich Diefstetter (active between: 1555 - 1589)
# Munich, Germany
# probably 3rd quarter of 16th century
# Iron or steel, wood and fish-skin, blackened
# Length: 107 cm
Width: 3.3 cm
Weight: 1.59 kg
# Maker's mark: Including the crossed flails of Diefstetter and the shield of Bavaria
# A480
# European Armoury I

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I'm betting that's the overall length. Since the blade is only 1 1/3" wide it probably looks longer than it is. If you figure about 7" of grip and pommel that would leave roughly 36" for blade.

That makes sense, especially since the grip proper is sized for one hand only (the pommel could be held as needed).

The 1924 and 1962 catalogues both use 42 1/8 inches/107 cm as the length. In those catalogues, when they only list the blade measurement, they typically mark it as such. So the assumption can be made that it's the overall length.

I guess all you could do to confirm it would be to measure the image and see what the ratio of the blade width to overall length is for the image. Then apply that ratio to 3.3 cm and see if you get 107 as the overall length. Of course, this only works on straight-on non-distorted shots. :)

I've just received a blade from a Windlass Steelcrafts German Backsword that I think, with some work, could be a reasonable blade for a hilt of this style. Maybe I can get in Eljay's que again for the hilt. :D

Mainly, I'll need to add the long false edge and sharpen the very blunt edge. Might have to take a bit of the ricasso to accomodate the long pommel, but I won't know until I model the hilt in clay. It might work as-is because the overall length of the assembled Windlass sword was 111 cm (compared to A480's 107 cm). The Windlass blade is 1/8" wider and the weight of both pieces (including the original Windlass hilt) is a bit over 3 lbs. The Windlass blade is massive--thick and stiff--so this should be a formidable weapon with the addition of a hilt in the style of A480.

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Hi Sean,

could you post some pics of the german backsword hilt?

Gabriele

I had looked at that backsword for a few months while it was being clearanced. It looks like a decent deal for those discounted prices. Someone mentioned it feeling heavy in the hand but we are looking at a long single hander here and not a two hander backyarder.

Oh well, I bought a cheap cutlass and another book instead.

I look forward to your work on it and I think you found a great base to work with.

Cheers

GC