[Michail F]

Has anybody even seen a pommel like this anywhere? It is on a purportedly authentic original sword, pictured in the Spanish sword 1492-1550 forum last week, munitions grade, crude in some ways but rather competently forged in others. The pommel is fairly skillfully forged and formed out of one piece, with the projection you see, with the rather crude hammering of blade end to hold in place as shown. If you've ever done any wrought iron smithing/forging, you'll know that it isn't all that easy to form a ball shaped piece like this, though it's nothing for skilled sword smiths I'm sure. All the bars on the swept hilt are of course hand forged too, which would require considerable blacksmithing skill if not that of an expert swordsmith I'd think? I was told by a fairly prominent auction house in Europe years ago this was probably Italian. It has a broad thin blade 45" in length, a fairly developed swept hilt, and auction house put it circa mid-late 1500s to 1600. I wonder if this could be a replacement part, a repair, though to my non-expert eye everything on sword matches as to wear, iron quality, pitting, etc. Any ideas would be welcomed. michailf

[Stephane Rabier]

Hi,
it looks like there's at least two parts : the ball itself and the top cylinder that seems to be made from a rolled plate, am I wrong?

[Michail F]

Actually, the pommel is one forged piece, pierced for blade tang, with tang hammered over. All the pitting, some of it deep, matches rest of sword.