A Bavarian M1826 Chevauleger Trooper sabre and Officer Sword
May 28, 2017 14:23:08 GMT
Post by Uhlan on May 28, 2017 14:23:08 GMT
The Battle of Borodino. The Bavarian Cavalry on the attack. Detail of the panorama.
The Bavarian M1826 has the Rumford M1788 as a direct ancestor,
though it is nice to see diverse design ques from the M1811 also incorporated.
The heavy scabbard of the Troopers has the flat spine of the Blücher scabbard.
The Officers sabre has the Blücher ring mounts and the Blücher drag.
The Troopers sabre is quite heavy, which would not be a problem if ergonomics were better. As the sabre suffers from a bad grip and dove head pommel combination it becomes almost unmanageable when wielded with any force.
Though the Schleswig - Holstein Mounted Artillery and Cavalry sabre is in the same league ( See: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/50584/schleswig-holstein-mounted-artillery-sabre ) and there is really not much difference in the blades, the Schleswig blows this Bavarian to smithereens.
Why? Because of the Schleswig grip with that nice bulge in the middle.
That is all it takes to make or break a sabre. Both have that dove head pommel, but the bulging grip of the Schleswig provides optimal control in whatever hand position you may prefer at any given moment. The straight grip of the Bavarian makes one feel the sabre could slip out of the hand very easely and then that smooth dove head pommel does not stop the slipping. The thumb rest is solely there for show,
because the only way to get a, albeit it, feeble, grip on this sabre, is when holding it in the hammer grip.The finger strap on the Bavarian is solely there to make sure the sabre does not fly reeling and wheeling off into the crowd. You have to hang on to the sabre and that finger strap is all you have. Very bad. As for build quality: the thing is build like a tank as can be surmised from the extreme long service life these sabres had. They were still in use after 1918.
Bavarian Train Trooper with his M1826. After 1900.
My Trooper is stamped on the guard and scabbard with:
I checked this out at Deutsche Blankwaffen and it says:
2 Reserve Cavallerie, 2 esquadron, Waffe nummer 18. The 85 is a remnant of an old and partially removed earlier designation.
Since only a Stuck number from the forge ( Gebruder Weyersberg 1787-1883 ) is stamped on the spine ( 832 ) and not the year of acceptance and first letter of the monarchs name, my sabre dates from before 1849. A nicety is that all M1826's made by Weyersberg have a slightly more downward curve to the guillon. The Abnahme stamp is L on the guillon head. The scabbard drag is also stamped with 832, also a typical Weyersberg thing.
I will give you the list of all changes, courtesy of Deutsche Blankwaffen: ( Lucky me that my sabre survived intact! )
1829. Regiments stamp.
1849. Year and first letter of reigning monarch on spine.
1872. Name of branch. (cavalry, Infantry etc).
1893. The sabres go to Train Regiments.
1905. The second ring + mount is removed.
1909. All hilts and scabbards are to be browned.
1911. Shortening of the blades to 82.5 cm.
1912. Telegraph Cable units get the M1826.
The Officers sword.
I say sword but mean that to be translated to Spadroon, because that is what this is. Why the Officer who ordered it thought this type of blade to be a good choice will always be an enigma. At least he did not suffer from any acute fashion sense. Not that the blade is particularly bad. No. For a Spadroon it is not bad at all. But as a fighting blade and that is what this is supposed to be, looking at the numbers, it suffers from all the shortcomings of that old sword type.
Research shows that the regulation M1826 is just Troopers light as can be seen in the following picture, though the scabbard is not a standard one. The absence of ring mounts harkens back to the Napoleonic past.
But, as always, dread Officers creep got hold of those young and impressionable minds and all sorts of private designs can be found, even with pipe back blades.
It looks like the Bavarian Chevauleger Officer did enjoy some leeway and then some.
This Spadroon handles just like one should expect. The long blade is too heavy for the rather undernourished hilt. That hilt sits there like the small headed pea brain on an iron pumping ,, dude ''. You may have come across the type. Venice Beach LA. was full of them when I visited. What a freak show! But let's not digress.
The blade is somewhat stiffer than the regular Spadroon, so it will punch a hole a bit. Cutting it will not, although a draw cut might work.
The blade does not have any marks, nada. Only the very faint Guss Stahl logo sits on the ricasso.
Work.
Both sabres needed quite some effort to get them into an acceptable state.
The Troopers:
The old brown was in a bad state, so I re-browned the sabre and scabbard with a mix of 1 part Eau d'Uhlan, 8 parts of Hydrogen Peroxide and a table spoon of salt.
This worked out well, though I made the resulting brown somewhat deeper by going over it with Selenium Dioxide or gun blue after cleaning off the powdery orange top layer.
The grip needed some glue since the cord and leather had come partially lose from the wood core.
Also a new washer and finger strap had to be made.
The blade needed a polish.
A sword knot was added after a long look at pictures from the period.
This typical Bavarian Chevauleger knot was in use from at least the Napoleonic times up to 1875 there abouts as can be seen here:
The Officers:
The blade looked like it just came from the forge and was confiscated while in transit to the polisher. All polishing still had to be done. It was covered in tool marks. It was quite awful.
During polishing I noticed the dreaded ,, measles '' ( see: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/48091/sabre-measles ) and look and behold I found traces of the Guss Stahl logo. Just like the sabre discussed in the above SBG thread, my Bavarian must have been an early product of this, then, new steel production process. The evidence only shows in close up. It will stand the 1 foot test.
I could see the machine marks breaking at about 6-7 cm under the guard and I took that as the length of the counter polish.
The hilt was pitted, so I took some of the pitting out, not too much mind, since there is not much meat on these Officers hilts to begin with.
I also made a new but ,, antiqued '' red felt washer.
The scabbard was covered in tool marks too, so I polished it up to a nice sheen.
The whole combo looks rather nice now and since Dave, when he sold me his Swiss M1867, included a silver and blue Pakistani made sword knot, I antiqued that one too. It now looks like it was part of the package since day one. Blue stripes on a silver or gold back ground are typical for Bavaria, so: Thank you Dave!
The numbers.
.......The Trooper.................................................The Officer.
Total length: 109 cm...................................................101 cm.
Length of sabre: 104.5 cm........................................100 cm.
Blade length: 90.5 cm............................................. .....87 cm.
Thickness blade: 9.5 - 5 - 3 mm.....................9 - 5.5 - 3 mm.
Blade width: 35 mm......................................................30 mm.
Weight total: 2128 grams....................................1220 grams.
Weight of sabre: 1097 grams...............................767 grams.
POB: 14.5 cm.................................................................19 cm.
To compare the Bavarian Trooper with the Schleswig follow the above link please.
Conclusion.
I am glad I have these two. The Bavarians thought highly of the M1826 and saw the sabre as a worthy descendant of the Prussian M1811.
I do not see things that way, though after all the negatives I spouted above, I must say that seen as historical relics the sabres are greatly appealing to me. I did not pay too much, had a nice time jacking them up to my standard and researching these two was fun as always. They may not be much as weapons in my opinion, but it is with these lesser ones we learn to understand and appreciate the finer points of their betters.
Cheers.
Notes.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1st_Royal_Bavarian_Chevau-l%C3%A9gers_%22Emperor_Nicholas_of_Russia%22
2nd Royal Bavarian Chevau-légers "Taxis": en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2nd_Royal_Bavarian_Chevau-l%C3%A9gers_%22Taxis%22
www.bayern-buergerwehr.de/doc/2016/20160526_Einladung%20Eggmuehl_franzoesisch.pdf
The Cavalry of the Bavarian Army 1809 - 1813: the Uniform Plates of Johann Cantler:
www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Bavaria/Cantler/c_cantler3.html
usacac.army.mil/cac2/CGSC/CARL/nafziger/812IXA.pdf www.bayerischewaffen.de/daten/trstemp.pdf
Bavarian Soldiers in Greece, 1832-1862: Introductory Text • Essays • Making War, Mapping Europe:
www.mwme.eu/essays/bavarian-greece/Haggenmueller_Intro/
Chevauleger Waffenrock: www.kaisersbunker.com/gtp/New/chev0.htm
History of the 2 Reg. CL. Taxis: www.maquetland.com/article-phototheque/4977-1792-baviere-chevauleger-casque-a-la-rumford
Bayerische Armee 1813 - 1814: www.napoleon-online.de/html/1813bayern.html
knötel: www.grosser-generalstab.de/tafeln/knoetel.html
Bavarian Army Chevauleger Regiment Taxis uniforms: dare.paradise.net.nz/hoffmann.htm
Nice old prints from the Knotel books: www.klittich-pfankuch.de/inter%2014.htm
Postcards Artist - Hoffmann, Anton | akpool.co.uk: www.akpool.co.uk/categories/33240-postcards-artist-hoffmann-anton
Geschichte: www.chevauleger-regiment.de/index.php/verein/darstellung/kavalerie/geschichte
Full text of "Schematismus für das kaiserliche und königliche Heer und für die kaiserliche und königliche ...": archive.org/stream/schematismusfrd00kriegoog/schematismusfrd00kriegoog_djvu.txt
Category:Military of Bavaria - Wikimedia Commons: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Military_of_Bavaria
A Bibliography of Eyewitness Accounts of the Retreat from Moscow (1812) | Jonathan North:
www.jpnorth.co.uk/research/napoleon-in-russia/a-bibliography-of-eyewitness-accounts-of-the-retreat-from-moscow-1812/
Chevauleger: de.academic.ru/dic.nsf/dewiki/252958
Königlich Bayerisches 2. Chevaulegers-Regiment „Taxis“ – Wikipedia: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%B6niglich_Bayerisches_2._Chevaulegers-Regiment_%E2%80%9ETaxis%E2%80%9C
Bayern - Kaiserreich & Weimarer Rep.: Uniformen,Kopfbedeckungen,Stahlhelme etc. - Militaria / Helmut Weitze: www.weitze.net/militaria/Bayern_38.html
Thurn und Taxis – Wikipedia: de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thurn_und_Taxis
www.deutsches-blankwaffenforum.de/Literatur/Blankwaffen.html historische Literatur -
Google Translate: Bavarian Army during the Franco - Prussian war: translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Flagrandeguerre.cultureforum.net%2Ft62117-l-armee-bavaroise-1870&edit-text=&act=url
