Is that a saber I see before me?

Hey, sounds like fun there Kreigschwert! (hehe - nothing like severing arms and legs in a single blow, though I wonder how that would be accomplished - hmm, the only thing I can thing of is that they were doing yoga or something and were attached while stretching their legs and holding their toes - that would do it, though a little unsporting!)

Look forward to seeing the review!

Kreigschwert,

I have had one of the cold Steel 1796 Light Cavalry sabers for about 6 months. I never though about doing a review of it. But now you piqued my interest, and reminded me that I also have two real military issue sabers from that same period.

Hey Paul, should there be an area on the top board for "sabers" or maybe "modern military swords" or something like that? If not, where do you see discussion threads on sabers like this fitting into the forum?

Or leave the medeival word section as ONLY dark ages and medieval, creating a "complex hilt" forum as well. Only problem would be...not all sabres and such were complex hilted. Some were pretty simple.

Besides the Cold Steel 1796 I have this Austrian Model 1831 Artillery Saber



and this German Saxon Model 1828 (I think?) Cavalry Saber.



The German Saxon saber is nice, but the Austrian saber handles like an extension of my hand. It's about 2.5 lbs. but it handles like it's made of air! That is one awesomely nice handling sword.

Well, I've moved this thread and created a new 'hybrid' one based on the input received here called 'Post Renaissance and Military Swords' which I think should be broad enough.

Enjoy! ;D

I would like hear any ideas people have here regarding the use of sabers. I have not done much research regarding the fighting styles of sabers. From what I have read, I gather that they were used to slash from horseback as the horse passed by its target. It is is clear that one needs to be a well trained in horsemanship but does anyone know if there is any technique to the cut? or is this a simple swing?

I have read that Hungarian Dragoons favoried the saber very much. They had sabers that where sharpened 3/4 of the way up on the backside too. The made double cuts on their passes in a charge. First with the backside and then with the front side (or is that the other way around?). Interesting enough some of them also used Tucks. These where rod like thrusting swords with no cutting blade at all. I don't see how they could use a Tuck from a horse and be able to retrieve their blade after a thrust.


What about fighting with saber on foot? I did some clasical saber fencing, the simulator handles nothing like a real saber. Did people ever actualy duel with sabers? Any reason why someone might prefer to duel with a saber rather then a rapier or smallsword?

I read some interesting information some time back (don't remeber where), it said that of the over 700,000 men killed in the American Civil War, less then 700 were attributed to sabers. It stated that the officers that did carry sabers barely had any training in their use. It further said that the saber was more a status symbol used to lead men into battle. I read somewhere else that Napolians men carried more curved sabers and inflicted nasty but non-leathal cuts. British men who fought them, had more straigth bladed sabers that inflicted less gastly but more leathal thrusts.

Do you guys have any other thoughts or information regarding sabers use in war.

Tsafa,

Here is a link to an interesting piece of info. George S. Patton was the last American general to have a passion for sabers in combat. He is a very interesting character, and reading about him covers a lot of saber-related information. Here is the last U.S. Army Saber Manual, written by Patton in 1914 for use with the saber he designed. www.pattonhq.com/pdffiles/saberexercise.pdf

Over the 1700-1900 timeframe, the on-going debate in military circles centered around whether the straight thrusting saber or the curved cutting saber was the better and more effective weapon for cavalry use.

BTW, during the Napoleonic wars the English cavalry had the new Model 1796 Light Cavalry Saber and the French used a more straight thrust-oriented saber. The oft circulated myth was that the French complained that the heavy English saber was overly brutal and not "gentlemanly" for use on European battlefields. There's no certain record of this, but there are letters written by French Dragoon officers commenting about how severe the cuts were that resulted from its use in battle.

Yeah, George Patton was strongly in the "thrust is a must" camp.

personally I foun both the patton sabre AND the indian sabre (from AC/MRL) to be incredibly unnappealing designs. Looked to me like they took a shoddy rapier blade and melted some child's plastic swords down to make an ugly green hilt. The scabbard was clunky and, frankly, very ugly.


I don't like plastic ;D


Seriously, I find that earlier sabres (sweizersabbel to civil war designs) are very sleek and wonderful designs.

Speaking of sabers...gus trim's medieval sabres are quite interesting designs! I believe they are sweizersabels.