Weaponedge - Military Heritage French Officer Sword
Mar 2, 2013 2:43:13 GMT
Post by Deleted on Mar 2, 2013 2:43:13 GMT
PART III: THE F1 SABER
This sword is not really a Napoleonic sword, rather a 1940-60’s sword made for parade and ceremonial purposes for the French Army but as a substitute for the ever hard to find repro of the Year 9, it is tempting.
So much that any re-enactment fan might be tempted to use this as a year 9 sword, would he/she be doing the wrong thing?
Historical background
The idea was to make a ceremonial sword for the French (Land) forces to replace the 1923 sword and a model directly inspired by the Year 9 sword was approved for all officers. The F1 saber is technically one of the last models of swords that were created by French Army regulations and whose creation is due to General de Gaulle’s stepson somewhere in the 1940’s.
Despite its form and origins, this sword would be carried by cavalry, artillery and infantry officers.
There are some models currently on the market: those found at Armae and Military heritage with iron scabbards and those made and sold by WKC and Chevalier d’Auvergne, who have blackened scabbards and seem to be of better quality but more expensive.
Overall shape
It's just another LCO sword with the 3 branch guard and diamond shaped langets.
The big difference is the shape of the blade which is much less curved than usual cavalry swords, it is also shorter than usual, with a 105cm overall length and 84cm blade and the hilt has a lightly curvier shape. The scabbard doesn't have a protruding brass mouth but a much simpler one.
The Blade
As stated above the blade is lightly curved and has standard fullers on each side of the blade. The spine reads Mle Officer F1. What exactly F1 means I have seriously no idea.
One thing that astounded me is the weight of the blade; it is surprisingly light and very well balanced for a sword made in India, far from being nose heavy.
The downside is that because it is a ceremonial sword, the blade might not be suitable for live fighting. Not so sure how hard the metal is and how it might suffer against contact with other blades but I’m sure that after some light sparring the blade might want to retire…
The Handle
Another surprise here, the grip is made of hard plastic or some material close to celluloid, all this wrapped by brass wire.
The 3 branches are very well done and are not too narrow for the knuckles.
These, along with the back pommel are made of brass, of course, but this time it doesn’t have that strong acid smell. Makes me think the alloy composition is slightly different because it is also lighter than usual Indian swords.
To note that WKC offers versions of handguards made with gold rather than brass. This obviously makes the sword less combat ready.
I can sense one flaw though: the grip is not super tough and you can feel it to be hollow inside as you can feel the tang bumping inside when held sideways.
The Scabbard
It is made of iron and with brass bracelets and drag. Light, well made and keeps the sword well inside, it does an excellent job and looks very Napoleonic.
The WKC / official version has a blackened iron model and a different shaped drag.
Handling
The blade is not heavy, the handle is pretty good and the balance is great as a result. This sword is surprisingly very nice to handle and doesn’t leave your arm hurting after one or two blows so points scored here. It seriously feels and handles like a good decent European cavalry sword. Unfortunate that it can’t be so good for live action though…
Conclusion
Thank God that sometimes gets out of India a sword that turns out to be very good. A breath of fresh air this.
I never expected this model to be seriously better than the usual Napoleonics but hey, it is. Because it is for ''official'' parade purposes I suspect the makers used different alloys of better quality and took more time to make something decent to handle rather than a nice looking wall decoration.
The sword is an elegant weapon to watch and a beauty to feel as well, it is rather simple in its design but very far from ugly, lastly, it is easy to control so you can play free and drill with much ease.
Of course imperfections exist : the original F1 swords were quickly criticized for their lack of quality and overall fragile nature and I think the same applies here. It feels like a fragile sword not be used roughly in combat which is a real shame because as a sword, it would have been a truly great repro even for the Napoleonic market.
The price for such a sword is not so high so you can get one for around 200$ at Armae or 250$ at Military heritage which are not bad prices at all. Just don’t expect to have a super strong sword.
Historical accuracy: 9/10
Handling: 8.5/10
Recommended: 8/10
I honestly like this sword despite its fragile nature and would recommend it if you want a sword closely resembling a good decent Napoleonic. As a sword for parade it is excellent; for killing air orcs it’s outstanding but for killing zombies surely mediocre but hey, nothing’s perfect!
This sword is not really a Napoleonic sword, rather a 1940-60’s sword made for parade and ceremonial purposes for the French Army but as a substitute for the ever hard to find repro of the Year 9, it is tempting.
So much that any re-enactment fan might be tempted to use this as a year 9 sword, would he/she be doing the wrong thing?
Historical background
The idea was to make a ceremonial sword for the French (Land) forces to replace the 1923 sword and a model directly inspired by the Year 9 sword was approved for all officers. The F1 saber is technically one of the last models of swords that were created by French Army regulations and whose creation is due to General de Gaulle’s stepson somewhere in the 1940’s.
Despite its form and origins, this sword would be carried by cavalry, artillery and infantry officers.
There are some models currently on the market: those found at Armae and Military heritage with iron scabbards and those made and sold by WKC and Chevalier d’Auvergne, who have blackened scabbards and seem to be of better quality but more expensive.
Overall shape
It's just another LCO sword with the 3 branch guard and diamond shaped langets.
The big difference is the shape of the blade which is much less curved than usual cavalry swords, it is also shorter than usual, with a 105cm overall length and 84cm blade and the hilt has a lightly curvier shape. The scabbard doesn't have a protruding brass mouth but a much simpler one.
The Blade
As stated above the blade is lightly curved and has standard fullers on each side of the blade. The spine reads Mle Officer F1. What exactly F1 means I have seriously no idea.
One thing that astounded me is the weight of the blade; it is surprisingly light and very well balanced for a sword made in India, far from being nose heavy.
The downside is that because it is a ceremonial sword, the blade might not be suitable for live fighting. Not so sure how hard the metal is and how it might suffer against contact with other blades but I’m sure that after some light sparring the blade might want to retire…
The Handle
Another surprise here, the grip is made of hard plastic or some material close to celluloid, all this wrapped by brass wire.
The 3 branches are very well done and are not too narrow for the knuckles.
These, along with the back pommel are made of brass, of course, but this time it doesn’t have that strong acid smell. Makes me think the alloy composition is slightly different because it is also lighter than usual Indian swords.
To note that WKC offers versions of handguards made with gold rather than brass. This obviously makes the sword less combat ready.
I can sense one flaw though: the grip is not super tough and you can feel it to be hollow inside as you can feel the tang bumping inside when held sideways.
The Scabbard
It is made of iron and with brass bracelets and drag. Light, well made and keeps the sword well inside, it does an excellent job and looks very Napoleonic.
The WKC / official version has a blackened iron model and a different shaped drag.
Handling
The blade is not heavy, the handle is pretty good and the balance is great as a result. This sword is surprisingly very nice to handle and doesn’t leave your arm hurting after one or two blows so points scored here. It seriously feels and handles like a good decent European cavalry sword. Unfortunate that it can’t be so good for live action though…
Conclusion
Thank God that sometimes gets out of India a sword that turns out to be very good. A breath of fresh air this.
I never expected this model to be seriously better than the usual Napoleonics but hey, it is. Because it is for ''official'' parade purposes I suspect the makers used different alloys of better quality and took more time to make something decent to handle rather than a nice looking wall decoration.
The sword is an elegant weapon to watch and a beauty to feel as well, it is rather simple in its design but very far from ugly, lastly, it is easy to control so you can play free and drill with much ease.
Of course imperfections exist : the original F1 swords were quickly criticized for their lack of quality and overall fragile nature and I think the same applies here. It feels like a fragile sword not be used roughly in combat which is a real shame because as a sword, it would have been a truly great repro even for the Napoleonic market.
The price for such a sword is not so high so you can get one for around 200$ at Armae or 250$ at Military heritage which are not bad prices at all. Just don’t expect to have a super strong sword.
Historical accuracy: 9/10
Handling: 8.5/10
Recommended: 8/10
I honestly like this sword despite its fragile nature and would recommend it if you want a sword closely resembling a good decent Napoleonic. As a sword for parade it is excellent; for killing air orcs it’s outstanding but for killing zombies surely mediocre but hey, nothing’s perfect!