I'll start posting photos as I edit them in photoshop. Yet another from a fine lady I know who is trying to sell off the "decorations" in her house.

Notice the writing in the groove. I haven't done anything about rust on this yet and I hesitate to. But out in the Southern California sunshine I could start to make out what looks like the beginnings of roman numerals on both sides.

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More...

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And the last few... Measurements to come.

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Interesting...

Here's my 2 cents.
It's a cut steel smallsword (or just in that style?). I won't guess at the date, I'll leave that to Stephen. Looks very rusty but salvagable. Careful cleaning and oiling to get rid of the active rust (be careful cleaning the fullers to avoid losing the engraving). It also looks as though the tip was broken off? Grip wrapped in alternating steel/iron and copper(bronze?) wire over a leather spiral wrap.

A maker's mark would be helpful in determining more as would the engraving.

This should be a fun one :D

Cheers,

well its obviously a small sword, but more to who and when is going to be interesting as it gets cleadned up.

Cute though, plan on selling once done?

That must have been a beauty when it was new. There is a feature that helps identify your smallsword, the blade. It is 'clearly' visible that the blade is marked X TOLEDO XX in your second picture. In the 18th century, many Italian & Spainsh smallswords retained a blade similar to that found on cup-hilt rapiers (but shorter), the blade being thin in width, & thick, containing a short fuller which terminates, making the rest of the blade have a diamond cross section. These blades are often stamped with their country of origin, ex. "Toledo" or "Solingen." Judging by the pommel shape & general decoration of the hilt, I would place this smallsword somewhere in the second half of the 18th century.

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blades samples

Hi Keith,
Neat smallsword, and it looks like it has the original grip, although missing one of the ferrules. The green-tinted wire could be copper or brass, the wide band may be silver, although I'd expect a darker, blacker color to it if it was, so maybe it's steel or iron.

--ElJay

Thanks for the feedback, guys. I think I'd like to clean the blade portion up a bit to try to show the inscription better. I'll routinely use Noxon (a liquid ammonia based oxide neutralizing stuff) to help remove the outer layer of gunk. Is that okay on something like this? I don't know the "protocols" for working on non-Japanese stuff so I'd rather not do any damage.

The guard and handle on this, however, I"ll leave for someone else. Talk about elaborate work... That's going to be a bear to clean up for someone.