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Post by Kilted Cossack on Mar 16, 2011 4:27:38 GMT
While over at myArmoury.com, bettering myself, I ran across a new vendor for the French soldier swords of the French-Indian Wars in the 18th century. www.theroyalsword.com/soldier-swords.htmlGee, I wonder how one of these would look in Dave Kelly's gauntlet? |
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Post by Kilted Cossack on Mar 17, 2011 12:56:48 GMT
In the spirit of inquiry, I e-mailed David Ledoyen at The Royal Sword, inquiring as to the steel type and distal taper of the blade, measured just above the guard, at midpoint, and two inches below the point. Mr. Ledoyen responded (within a day) with the following information: About the distal taper, here is what I got with my calipers on my FDL-03: 0.23” - 0.17” - 0.11” Steel is 1075. (Now it's me again.) I'm pretty interested in these swords. My main interest, as I have puzzled it out, seems to be for military swords of the 16th to 19th century, when gunpowder increasingly relegated the sword to a secondary (but still important) weapon. I have never, however, focussed much on French swords, but these are, as I say, pretty interesting. In terms of replicas, I'm almost a "one note Johnny" regarding good distal taper. I don't know how much there ought to be, but I know there ought to be some (at least!). Ledoyen's numbers also seem to indicate that the swords don't start out as a slab of 3/16" stock, and that there is over 50 percent distal taper. Both of those imply to me that these soldier swords should feel fairly agile and light. Nearly everything I know about this type of sword came from a post at MyArmoury.com www.myarmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=22144&start=60&postdays=0&postorder=asc&highlight= |
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Post by Dave Kelly on Mar 18, 2011 0:37:02 GMT
Really, I applaud your endeavor here, but I'm afraid you're on your own when it comes to providing all with a glimpse of this period and style of "short arms". I bought an 1880 Swedish Infantry Officer's saber recently. It is perched with my three Cav Sabers. It looks rediculously puny with it's 28 inch blade amongst a forrest of long sabers. I need a seperate wing for such. No more room unless I start ditching books  . Interesting find. Thanx for sharing. |
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Post by Kilted Cossack on Mar 18, 2011 13:56:00 GMT
I hasten to point out that I'm always happy to encourage other people to spend money on projects I find interesting!
Actually, I'm continuing correspondence with M. Ledoyen, to suss out issues of weight, temper and sharpness, in the hopes that his wares do in fact fall under the SBG formula of "Sub-$300 functional swords." If so, I will probably pick one up. (In the spirit of, if on a lesser scale, your Weaponedge explorations.)
My main problem is that I really have no experience with 18th century French swords, and doubt my ability to compare with an original. I was hoping more to pick your brain than your pocket!
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Post by Dave Kelly on Mar 18, 2011 21:05:24 GMT
Unfortunately, I have any number of French Saber books by Petard et al; but have yet to delve into the other service volumnes for infantry sidearms. Spent a little more time at the site, and I'm warming to the later version, spadroon blade with the wire handle. The taper measurements you posted are in fact quite excellent and formulaic to Gallic preferences for a good, "fencible" blade balanced to the hand. Workmanship looks good visually, and the price is very good if the craft is as indicated. I may have to find a spot for it after all.  |
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Post by Kilted Cossack on Mar 19, 2011 3:44:48 GMT
That's VERY encouraging!
Although my hopes might be getting the better of me, this sounds like what I was looking for when I got the Hanwei Renaissance Side Sword. I think Morgan Butler, in a myArmoury.com thread, mentioned that his original was a dream to handle, very fast but with nice blade presence, and well suited to the cut. I have e-mailed M. Ledoyen again about tempering and sharpness.
I am similarly a sucker for the wire handled version.
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