G. Gedney Godwin "budget line" swords

I've never heard of these guys. Got a link? I've had too much Google for one day already.

atlanta cutlerys 1860 naval cutlass is made by windlass ($159.00)
are you looking for a certain period or look?

Well, when I inquired, I told them (as I believe I mentioned above), that I do not want to buy non-functional "decorator weapons", guns or otherwise,and that I was looking for a real, honest-to-goodness useable sword. Their reply was that (a) they are fully functional, (b) they aren't as highly finished as the Windlass swords (presumably their higher priced stuff?), but (c) they're not complete garbage. They also said that if I wasn't satisfied that they'd give me a full refund. I went ahead and ordered one of the late 18th century American naval cutlasses, with iron mounts and an iron hilt. I actually rather like the simple, brutal, no-nonsense look of this sword, and I like the straighter blade better than the curved blades I've seen on later cutlasses (the Ames-made U.S. model 1841 excepted, but that's just a "navalized" version of the heavy, clumsy, and impractical "foot artillery sword" of the same period). Plus, I figure it can't be much worse than some of the original cutlasses of the same time period ( I read somewhere that a few of them actually had iron, rather than steel, blades, since iron was cheaper, and that during the Revolution American sailors would sometimes discard their domestically made cutlasses in favor of British ones). These, at least, have steel blades.

I second! Please give a review of some sort.

Well, I got my sword today, and this is what i got for $100 (+ $12 or so for shipping). It is very much a no-frills sword, typical of late 18th century naval cutlasses. The blade is fullered and has a false edge that extends to about 5" back from the tip, and is straight rather than having the curve one usually thinks of when someone says "cutlass". It is about 1.2" wide at its widest point (at the hilt), and the cutting part of the edge ends about 1.6" from the hilt (probably for parrying purposes). The hilt itself is wood, covered with a simple smooth iron cylinder. The handguard is a sort of primitive half-basket with a rather large disk-shape (about 4" across) at the junction of blade and hilt, and the knuckle guard is a strap that starts at the pommel, swells into another disk about 3" across (bent at the sides towards the hand) and then finally joins the larger disk at the blade junction. There is also a short, wide quillion. The entire knuckle/handguard assembly is a single piece of heavy sheet iron - again, typical of many late 18th-early 19th century naval weapons. The hilt and guard are painted flat black, and the whole is held together with a threaded nut on the end of the tang, filed into a roughly round shape (rather than being peened, as I had expected - not disappointed there, actually!). The scabbard is made from heavy leather, with a brass tip that ends in a ball-like finial, and a brass throat with a stud to help hold it into a leather belt frog. Tip and throat are held onto the scabbard with brass staples. The brass is polished, though there are still hammer and file marks here and there.
Overall finish is rather crude. The blade is not perfectly flat, though it doesn't have a huge amount of curvature in it. It was not ground evenly, and the narrow fullers are not perfectly straight. Typical of many India-made swords, it has a 1mm dull edge (a bit thicker than that near the point). The blade is about 5/32" thick at the hilt. It does seem to be at least somewhat tempered, as I can flex it by hand about 4" from true and it returns without taking any obvious set (a bit hard to tell without the blade being perfectly straight in the first place, but it does seem to have a reasonable amount of "spring" to it). Don't know what its cutting capabilities are, as I don't have it sharp yet and anyway, it's too cold outside in the "Great White North" to do any cutting tests, at least until springtime. Not sure what a weapon this size should weigh, and I don't have a scale, but it feels like it weighs about 1.5, maybe 2 pounds. I don't have any prior experience with better quality swords, so I can't judge how good (or bad) the balance is. I know I can swing it without feeling like it won't stop when I want it to. Insofar as I can judge, I'd say for $100 this will probably be a decent beater.

I will post pictures as soon as I take some, and as soon as someone can tell me how to post them.

OK, just how DO you post pictures to this forum? Is it possible to upload them directly from my hard drive?

I'll take the "or not". It takes forever to upload the pics via dial-up connection, and unfortunately cable/DSL is not available where I live. Satellite is WAY too expensive. Any other ideas?

Birdman's pics:

My pleasure! Would you like me to post the pics of the originals you emailed to me?