Is anyone willing to hazard a guess for the earliest -in-use dates of the hilt types exhibited on Albion's Stamford and Reeve models?

I know that spike-hilts in general appear to originate in the second half of the tenth century, but I was wondering if anyone could shed light on the particular dating of hilts styled like those of these two Albion models.

I like both, but am really looking for a high-quality weapon to represent the second half of the 10th century, in general.
So, from 950 to 1000 AD/CE.

Dear all

I would like to bring up again these postings started by John Cooksey. I´m also interest to know whether the Albion Reeve would fit in the period from 950 to 1000 AD/CE or not. Every helpful comment from the experts is highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance Stephan

Dear Patrick

Thanks for your instant comments regarding my request. Since serveral weeks I`m the proud owner of a Reeve with dark brown grip sold to me by a forums member. It is a beautiful, simple but very very impressive cutting sword.

I would like to ask two complementary questions:

1. Do you (or others) have an idea around what time period these swords of type Xa blades combined with brazil-nut pommels started to see duty on the early medivial battlefields?

2. Were these swords also a common sword type seen at the territory of the East-Frankish Kingdom during the time of Heinrich I. and Otto I. ?

Sorry to bother you all with my questions. At the moment I´m looking for some good books to do some self studies.

Thanks in advance !

Stephan

Stephan,

As Jeremiah has already stated: according to Petersens typology and Ian Peirce in his book Swords of the Viking Age (highly recommended) these swords are in use by the early 10th century. So yes, I think this style of sword would have been seen during the period of Heinrich I. When using typologies, whether it's Oakeshotts, Geibigs, etc., we need to remember these are only broad guidelines not absolutes. There will always be swords that don't fit neatly into a typologies structure.

Dear all,
thanks a lot for all of your input and the patience you showed with me. The given informations are very helpful for me and I´m happy that the Reeve fits so perfect into the “timeframe” I ´m interested.
I will go for some of the recommended books to educate myself a little bit more.

Regarding my Reeve: At the moment I´m going for a scabard. I already made the wood core with an inlay of goatskin. As it now comes to the leather work and as I have never dealt with this I gave the wood core to an experienced craftman here in Germany who is in medieval leathers works.

Cheers Stephan

I found the below on the webpage of Wallace Collection. As I assume that the below shown sword from Wallace Collection is a German sword with Type X blade and brazil-nut pommel the given timeframe from you guys was absolutly correct - Thanks again !

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The Albion Europe site gives a date range for the Reeve of 1080-1150. There's been a good bit of discussion in this thread that would favour an earlier "start date" for this sword, but has anyone seen justification for an end date as late as 1150?

Thanks in advance!

I think AE’s is the right chronology.

The Reeve has an Oakeshott Type X blade. This type was in use between 900-1130 more or less.

Its guard is a Style 1, common from the Viking Age to the Renaissance.

There are earlier types of brazil-nut pommels, but the one the Reeve has is the Geibig Variante 15-II. It was used between 1100-1200.

So we have a gap of 30 years, 1100-1130, where everything is fine. Give and take 20 years to that date for good measure and we have the 1080-1150 time period.

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Thanks lads -- less than 24 hours later and I have two high-quality answers to my query. Much appreciated! :D