[Brandon Abbott]

Hello, I'm new here but I was hoping someone could give me more information on an antique sword I've acquired and started working on.

Before and after doing some work on an antique sword (not finished yet). You can see just how much rust came off, (before pictures from the auction listing) and it's actually gotten a lot shinier than I was aiming for just from cleaning and sanding. I'd love to learn more about his blade. The seller claimed it was a Belgium Garde Civil sword, but I've never seen any like that attributed to them (I've actually never seen this layout of Briquet hilt and spadroon blade). Still, the location of the seller backs this up. If it was from that militia, it cannot date later than 1890 something. I'll have to find out what maker has the symbol 'crown over J and L'. Thinking more about it, and looking to Google for some confirmation, if this is a sword from that area of the Garde Civil, the crown over the letters is probably the royal mark, which would be Ludwig II who was king from 1864 until his death in 1886, but it could have also been Ludwig III, which puts the date up to about 1918.

Also, you can see that there was engraving on the blade that was not visible until I cleaned it off. Very light, but very cool!

Damn I want to make swords. Any information or feedback would be appreciated.

Overall Length: 81.5 cm / 32.25 inches
Blade Length: 69.5 cm / 27.3 inches
Thickness at base: 7mm tapering to 4mm by halfway up (basically an even taper the entire way up till 5cm before the tip where it's about 2.5/3 mm)

I don't have weight because I can't find my scales.