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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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 Posted: Fri 05 Sep, 2014 6:31 am Post subject: |
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Looks good, Lin!
Nice job taking the photos. From what I can tell it looks like a very good reproduction of the PoS basket hilt. The best that Windlass has come out with so far. Mine should be arriving today, I'm anxious to see it in person.
BTW, that's a nice S-basket hilt. It appears to be an original from the 1700's.
Looking at the photos you took of the new Eglinton sword and comparing them to the photos I posted earlier of the various original examples of this type of hilt, the Windlass version appears to be closest to this original:
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Lin Robinson
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| Posted: Fri 05 Sep, 2014 6:45 am Post subject: |
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The S Hilt, which I bought in the Forum Marketplace by the way, is a Donnie Shearer piece. It is antiqued, of course, and fools a lot of folks but I always "fess up" because I don't want anyone to feel they are being conned.
I agree that the Windlass sword is a very good reproduction of the "pinch of snuff" swords. The blade is especially nice. For those who may not be aware of the "pinch of snuff" or "PoS" reference, it comes from a portrait of a Highland Officer who has his sword tucked up under his left arm while he takes a pinch of snuff. Very unusual subject matter for a portrait but to each his own.
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Fri 05 Sep, 2014 7:19 am Post subject: |
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| Lin Robinson wrote: | The S Hilt, which I bought in the Forum Marketplace by the way, is a Donnie Shearer piece. It is antiqued, of course, and fools a lot of folks but I always "fess up" because I don't want anyone to feel they are being conned.
I agree that the Windlass sword is a very good reproduction of the "pinch of snuff" swords. The blade is especially nice. For those who may not be aware of the "pinch of snuff" or "PoS" reference, it comes from a portrait of a Highland Officer who has his sword tucked up under his left arm while he takes a pinch of snuff. Very unusual subject matter for a portrait but to each his own. |
I tried to find a pic of William Delacour's 1750 painting thought to depict Ensign Malcolm Macpherson of Phoness that was large enough to see the detail of his sword in yesterday but this was the best that I could come up:
Not the only painting to show someone partaking of this once popular pleasure BTW:
Scots were quite fond of snuff which was often carried on one's person in a snuff mull made from curled cattle horn
Examples of these range from the very simple:
to the highly ornate:
Larger examples which intended for offering snuff to guests and company in social settings often included a set of tools:
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Nathan Robinson
myArmoury Admin
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| Posted: Fri 05 Sep, 2014 4:58 pm Post subject: |
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It's interesting to me that a lot of the problems with many of basket-hilts that WIndlass process do not negatively affect this particular sword.
Their basket-hilts are often really very large and oversized. This isn't as much of an issue with this sword as the type is typically on the large side, making the over-scaling much less of an issue.
They also don't get the proportions or shape correct, often making it far too rounded or football-shaped. In the case of the "pinch of snuff" type, this happens to fall within the parameters for the style and so that even works out well.
Their basket-hilts are by and large plagued by appearing to be "stamped" out of a sheet of metal rather than having bars and plates that differ in thickness. For those familiar with antique basket-hilts, this really stands out and makes the Windlass offerings really unattractive. As luck would have it, the "pinch of snuff" type of baskets are more or less created from consistently thick pieces of metal and so don't look too dissimilar to the Windlass offering!
Really, the basket-hilt shown here ins't bad at all for the price. My main issue is the large space between the grip and main knuckle-guard (or knuckle-bow). It's really positioned way out there and shows the grip being sort of in the wrong position within the basket. I've tried to illustrate my point below.
Overall, as said in this topic already, this appears to be one of the better basket-hilt offers they've offered and surely a good buy for the asking price! Nice buy.
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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 10:29 am Post subject: |
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After seeing photos of the original pinch of snuff swords both with and without the traditional scarlet melton and chamois basket liners, I thought I'd see how the Windlass sword looked with one that I had taken out of my Paul Chen basket hilt broadsword.
I rather like the look of this hilt with the red basket liner added to it:
The red cloth seems to bring out the design of the hilt better.
Here are some originals with the liner for comparison:
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Tom L.
Location: Toronto, Canada Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 12:01 pm Post subject: |
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Hi Lewis:
How did you get the liner on? Does the pommel and hilt come off on the sword?
I have a cunning plan Mr. B.
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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Tom L. wrote: | Hi Lewis:
How did you get the liner on? Does the pommel and hilt come off on the sword? |
Hi Tom,
Yes, like most swords that Windlass makes the tang it not peened to the pommel, but has a section of threaded steel rod wielded onto the end of the tang which sticks past the top of the grip and through an opening in the top of the basket, where the heavy pumpkin-shaped pommel (that serves as a counter-weight) screws onto the threaded tip of the tang.
I have 11 different Scottish style basket hilt swords and all but two of them have pommels that screw onto the threaded end of the tang. The two that are actually peened were made by an unknown (to me) sword maker and they are my most prized swords even though I paid no more for them than I did for the Eglinton sword.
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Lin Robinson
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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| Nathan Robinson wrote: | It's interesting to me that a lot of the problems with many of basket-hilts that WIndlass process do not negatively affect this particular sword.
Their basket-hilts are by and large plagued by appearing to be "stamped" out of a sheet of metal rather than having bars and plates that differ in thickness. For those familiar with antique basket-hilts, this really stands out and makes the Windlass offerings really unattractive. As luck would have it, the "pinch of snuff" type of baskets are more or less created from consistently thick pieces of metal and so don't look too dissimilar to the Windlass offering!
Really, the basket-hilt shown here ins't bad at all for the price. My main issue is the large space between the grip and main knuckle-guard (or knuckle-bow). It's really positioned way out there and shows the grip being sort of in the wrong position within the basket. I've tried to illustrate my point below.
Overall, as said in this topic already, this appears to be one of the better basket-hilt offers they've offered and surely a good buy for the asking price! Nice buy. |
I agree with everything you mentioned here. I am sure this basket is also stamped or perhaps even laser cut, from a single sheet of steel. There is no evidence that I can find of welds and the material is of uniform thickness but the overall appearance is very good. The distance between the grip and the front guard does exaggerate the size of the basket even more but the grip itself is perfectly in-line with the blade and well-secured, at least for awhile. I have one fairly new sword from MR which has a loose pommel now and I suspect it is because the wood grip was either not seasoned enough or simply shrank when it spent more time in AC than it had prior. It was very tight when I first got it.
I said I liked the blade and I do but it appears to have more "waves" in it than I would expect. That, of course, is common in swords of this price range.
This is a pretty nice basket hilt for MR and I am a bit surprised I was able to obtain one so easily. I asked the sales rep about the catalog - I get them regularly but have not received one with this sword in it - and she said that everything they have is not in the catalog....
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Lin Robinson
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Lewis A. wrote: |
Hi Tom,
Yes, like most swords that Windlass makes the tang it not peened to the pommel, but has a section of threaded steel rod wielded onto the end of the tang which sticks past the top of the grip and through an opening in the top of the basket, where the heavy pumpkin-shaped pommel (that serves as a counter-weight) screws onto the threaded tip of the tang.
I have 11 different Scottish style basket hilt swords and all but two of them have pommels that screw onto the threaded end of the tang. The two that are actually peened were made by an unknown (to me) sword maker and they are my most prized swords even though I paid no more for them than I did for the Eglinton sword. |
My experience, almost. I have three basket hilts and one hand and a half which are peened, but for two of the basket hilts I paid a lot more than for the Eglinton! Even so, I am very pleased with all of them. Also, I have 11 basket hilts!
Lin Robinson
"The best thing in life is to crush your enemies, see them driven before you and hear the lamentation of their women." Conan the Barbarian, 1982
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Lewis A.
Location: United States Joined: 18 Jul 2010
Posts: 75
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 6:25 pm Post subject: |
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| Lin Robinson wrote: | | Lewis A. wrote: |
Hi Tom,
Yes, like most swords that Windlass makes the tang it not peened to the pommel, but has a section of threaded steel rod wielded onto the end of the tang which sticks past the top of the grip and through an opening in the top of the basket, where the heavy pumpkin-shaped pommel (that serves as a counter-weight) screws onto the threaded tip of the tang.
I have 11 different Scottish style basket hilt swords and all but two of them have pommels that screw onto the threaded end of the tang. The two that are actually peened were made by an unknown (to me) sword maker and they are my most prized swords even though I paid no more for them than I did for the Eglinton sword. |
My experience, almost. I have three basket hilts and one hand and a half which are peened, but for two of the basket hilts I paid a lot more than for the Eglinton! Even so, I am very pleased with all of them. Also, I have 11 basket hilts! |
Interesting.....so what will be #12????
My two hand forged and peened baskethilts are a pair that I picked up at a bargain price about 4 years ago. I wish I knew who the maker was, the swords are both marked with what looks like his initials:
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Tom L.
Location: Toronto, Canada Joined: 20 Jun 2008
Posts: 35
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| Posted: Sat 06 Sep, 2014 7:18 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you for getting back to me on the pommel construction.
I have a cunning plan Mr. B.
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