Hi Craig & Eljay

Thanks for the input !

I just get the feeling it's just been reworked .....

I keep thinking it must have sat on something ( or something was in it ) that rusted out those areas of the saltire plates ?
Thus the need to cut out those areas to be replaced ? ( whomever just never got around to it ;-)

My guess is that the blades tip was damaged (rusted ?) which caused the shortening into the fuller .....
( let the children have their own sword built :-)

We shall probably never know for certain , but it sure is fun to speculate *g* Mac

In case any of our newer members are thinking what the heck is a "Rams Horn" ?, or "Where are the Forward Guards located "? , etc., here's are some pic's to point them out ( numbered according to Eljay's thoughts !).

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* Bottom pic: Vince Evans S-Hilt

I don't know if this is applicable here as my ownership of period armour is much higher than my ownership of period blades but one of the things i've noticed on alot of the armour i've owned ( actually the book put out about the Rhodes
collection with a large number of pieces that were made circa 1470-80 and modified in the first decade of the 16th century
to keep them servicable is kinda an example of this ) that it was modified to fit someone of different proportions than
they were originally built for . Is it possible that this piece was simply altered by another later owner to suit his needs ie.the basket was so large for the hand as to create blade control problems so it was sent out to be modified to better suit
the new owner ? Like I said i've owned far more armour than swords so it may be apples and oranges but just a thought .

Hi Allan

The thing is .... the baskets size does not get changed by only altering the saltire plates !
The main guard, sides guards, etc., would all have to be redone to change anything, size-wise !

Basically a total redo would be required ! Mac

Gotcha Mac . I can see what your talking about upon review . With armour it can often be as simple as removing a single plate or fixing a plate that was articulated into a fixed postion and the problems solved . In shrinking the basket of a gaurd
on a sword it would have to be propartionally reduced 3 dimentionally if the users hand were to small .

Hi Allan

Vince Evans has an excellent "Baskethilt Construction" photo layout, on his Picture Trail site, at this link :
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=99...uid=550150

It gives one a good understanding of how these hilts come together, and how every piece works with the next !

Mac

Relicman46 has two new antique baskethilts listed ......

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem...me=rvi:1:2

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http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem...2252101379

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Mac