A French Non Regulation Superior Officer Back Sword.
Aug 12, 2017 21:09:02 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Aug 12, 2017 21:09:02 GMT
Describing this sword in full would go something like this:
A French Non Regulation Superior Officers of the Armee d' Afrique Back Sword Hilted in the Gothic Revival Style. Quite the mouthful.
We all know the Gothic Revival style from the British P1822/27/45 Infantry sabres of which the P1845 is the most iconic. As the French were and are not really inclined to favour British taste, it was/is usually the other way around, it is quite surprising to see French sabres hilted in this quintessential British style. Petard shows some examples of Chasseur a Pied swords from the second half of the 19th century and those he classifies as ,, Sabre Phantasie'' and rightly so, as there is not much French in them. I worked through lots of his images and these two pages were the only ones I could find depicting this Revival style. L'Hoste does not mention the trend at all.
My sabre could be an early French specimen of the style as it dates from 1840.
The hilt was designed by Rouard of Paris, as can be seen at the back of the guard, for an Officer of the French Armee d"Afrique.
Note: French sabres and swords that have the vertical sword knot slot are either for the French Colonial Army or the French Navy. Since this sword dates from before the establishment of the Colonial Army, it therefore must have been made for use in the Armee d'Afrique.
A feature of the Rouard Gothic hilt is the pronounced and immobile counter guard
with a Gothic church window frame aperture cut into it.
We saw this aperture already in the second Petard picture, but then in a later context and on a Chasseur hilt. I am quite sure the hilt from that second picture was made by Prevel who was at the time the sole furbisher of Officers Chasseur phantasie hilts. I have a sword done by Prevel which I would like to introduce in a second post, right after this one.
Rouard spared no costs in the creation of the hilt of my sword. The cast is very clean and the gilding, there is still some 90% of it left, is superb. All sculptured surfaces are in high relief and finely chased.
I am out on a limb here but it may not be far off to suggest that this Rouard design was a hit amongst some Cavalry Officers from the US. I have found two examples of this design on what are said to be Civil War time Cavalry sabres and one 1850 Staff and Field Officer sabre.
Non regulation 1850 Staff and Field.
Non regulation French Colonial Army sabre.
More on the US sabres in the poinçon section.
Symbolism of the emblem in the guard.
According to l'Hoste in his book ,, Armes Blanches '', this emblem is typically found on Superior Officers hilts.
In the background we see a crown made up from a laurel branch to the left and an oak branch to the right. The laurel stands for immortality and glory. The oak branch is the conduit, the intermediary between the gods and men.
In front of the crown we see a draped lance. The lance stands for the magical weapon of the Norse gods, but is as such also a straight conduit between gods and man. The helmet is the magical helmet Athena gave to Agamemnon which renders him invisible, protects him and gives him power over mortal men.
Translated, all of this could be seen as the Superior Officer standing between the lower echelons and the sovereign, the ruler or any other governing body.
The blade.
The blade is straight and spear pointed with double fullers on both sides and with a short foible. It is the forebear of the M1845 regulation Superior Officers blade, though that one has two fullers separated by a gutter, as the French call it. ( See: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/39871/french-m1845-infantry-dofficier-result ). So, in effect it looks more like a light version of the future M1854 H.C. At 92 cm it is as long as a second tier Cavalry blade. As the blade is not as thick and wide as the M1854 Cavalry blade, it is more flexible.
Handling.
This is still a working sword, not yet turned into the steel accessory to a waxed moustache we see more and more of during the second half of the 19th century.
It is a super fast stabber and should be able to do some light cutting too.
Due to the length of the blade its reach is formidable. It can be used from the back of a horse without a hitch.
The foible should turn the spear point into some very nasty flesh cutter when sharpened.
The grip is awesome, while the basket has ample room and offers some protection too.
Work.
Cleaning the blade was a first.
The hilt was lose because of the missing washer.
Due to drying out over the decennia the buffalo horn grip had cracked on both sides and the ferule had pushed off 1.5 ribs because the grip did not rest on its underside anymore, but on the last rib. So it snapped off.
The remaining gild needed a good cleaning.
The scabbard has two deep dents. This does not affect the sheeting or drawing of the blade but the dents made the scabbard bend in two opposite directions at once. Normally I will not buy sabres with dented scabbards, but this sword is one of a kind, so I could not let it go.
The wire was missing and so was the screw for the mouth piece.
And lastly a new felt washer must be made.
Doing the job.
As I tend to work from ,, most work first'' to ,, fun to do'', polishing the blade was a first. After the polish I taped off the blade and went to
Cleaning the mercury gild hilt.
Before this operation I thought the gold was almost all gone. After the work and to my amazement it turned out that 90% of the gild was still present.
The gild was covered in some hard brown goo, verde gris and red oxidation and lots of gray brown hardened dust. The brown goo is I think from handling and oxidation of the bronze where the gild was worn off. The verde gris and the red oxidation was from copper molecules from the bronze body that migrated through the porous layer of gold over the years. This often happens and is assisted by acidic body fluids like sweat and oils. Also the environment the sword is exposed to , the oil lamps, the candles, the soot from fires etc, etc, can cause this oxidation to occur, even on a gold or gilded surface.
There are several ways to tackle the cleaning problem, but never ever start polishing, not even with silver polish. You will destroy the gild. Another thing with polishing is that you cannot reach the deep crevasses anyway, not even with Q tips. The best way and the less intrusive is taking the chemical route. So. Make a mixture of 1 part vinegar and 6 parts water. Add a half teaspoon of salt. This stuff is quite aggressive on iron, so that's why you had better tape the blade. Gold does not mind it at all. In this case I held the grip in my left hand with an old towel under the part I was cleaning and with the blade up. With a small brush cover a small area with the mix. It will run off, that's why the towel. Keep the area wet and after a while dip a Q tip in the mix and start softly to attack the dirt. You will see it come off. If the dirt is too thick or too hard, just move to the next spot and work your way around the hilt. The dirt that is still visible we attack with good old baking soda. Cover the nasty spot with the soda and with the brush drip some of the vinegar salt mix on it. The soda will start to fizz and most of the times this is enough to remove even the thickest and hardest crust in a minute. Get into the deep spots and the crevasses with an old soft bristle tooth brush, Q tips or wooden toothpicks for the tiniest spots. You will see that after the use of the soda the gild loses its lustre. Go over those spots with a soft cloth soaked with the vinegar mix and all will be well again. I used the soda to great effect on the very dirty and high relief emblem. Doing an old gild hilt this way will take a couple of hours. For this complicated hilt it took 4 hours , but the results speak for themselves and the gold layer is not effected in a negative way. Also, it is fun to do and very rewarding to see that old dirty hilt start to shine again. Why be in a hurry. The best results take time. Period. If you are impatient you have no business doing this conservation and restoration work anyway. Sometimes cleaning a museum piece takes years. You do not need expensive products, designer gild cleaning foams, jewellers rouge and what not. Most of the expensive and fancy packaged stuff does not work well anyway. All that you need you have in the kitchen cupboard and the bathroom. After you are done, you could go over the hilt with a soft cloth and some toothpaste. Toothpaste, the old fashioned white stuff, not the gel, is quite harmless and even softer than jewellers rouge. Just go over the gild to brighten the higher spots a bit. When all is well, take the sabre to the kitchen sink and with the toothbrush and some soft soap clean the vinegar and the rest off under warm water. Place the sabre on a towel with the blade up and leave it to dry. Be sure you have removed all soap. Soap will darken the gild over time. You could take the hair dryer to it also of course. When the hilt is dry you could do a final wipe down with a soft silver cloth. Make sure the cloth is clean so you do not scratch the surface. The grip on this sword is made from buffalo horn so water does not affect it very much. You'll get a shiny clean grip. If however your grip is made from leather cum shagreen over wood, my advise is to tape the grip off also. At least try to keep it as dry as possible, though shagreen can be cleaned with a soft toothbrush and some hand soap like Dove, you know, non aggressive soap the ladies use to clean and protect their pink little hands. Wipe the soap and dirt off with a moist cloth and leave to dry. Do not use a blow dryer here.
EDIT: If you would like to see this sword in its uncleaned condition and with the incorrect designation I might add, see here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/42905/new-french-sabres
Wedging the lose blade.
I used this stuff Pattex Extreme to put under the blade shoulders, where originally the washer would have sat. It is some two component epoxy clay. It works very fast. Depending on temperature it hardens in about 15 minutes and after a few hours is then rock solid. It also adheres to metal after one cleans the surfaces with acetone. Excellent product. Before I used it I centered the blade in the tang slot in the guard with two copper wedges. In so doing the guard was shoved back in its original position and without any effort one can then fill up the gaps under the shoulders and all around the tang aperture. It turned out beautifully. The blade rings like a bell again and the tough filler will not drop out, like copper wedges may eventually do over time.
Restoring the missing ribs and some large cracks.
Wedging done and the blade again solid and in its right position I formed the missing ribs on the grip with DAS, an air drying kids clay. DAS is , like Playdo, used in the restoration of Bakelite radio cabinets. It does not shrink and colours can be mixed. It is ideal for work on these French buffalo horn grips. After drying one has to saturate the raw formed rib with Super Glue and I mean really saturate.
This way the clay will solidly adhere to the horn and will, after 24 hours, be hard as stone. When dry, the new rib can then be perfected with the help of diamond tipped rat tail lock smith files. You'll need the diamond tips, the stuff is so hard.
Because I did not want to take the sword apart, I had to do the work in situ, which was not easy and a good alibi for lots of swearing and moaning. It was great fun.
Note that after all the filing, specially when restoring cracks, the grip should be lacquered again. All these horn grips were lacquered a shiny black. The horn itself has an uneven and dull dark brown colour. My lacquer mix is made up of a teaspoon of pure Ivory Black powder pigment, 2 teaspoons of bookbinders glue, a drop of water based SATIN varnish and a drop of water to make it flow better and lastly a drop of good old wood glue to make it really tough and stick to the horn like nothing else and also to make it impregnable to perspiration and skin oils. Satin varnish buffs up to a nice antique sheen very well and does not look like plastic as high gloss water based varnishes do.
Worked with a small flat artists brush the result is a nice even coat. Let it dry for the night and later on buff the grip up some with Ren wax.
The wire.
I had some o.4 mm gild wire left and so, after measuring what I needed, I twisted two strands with the help of my good old drill. It has a stepless speed dial and on slow speed this works very well. I used to do this by hand. During the wiring there was again good reason for much swearing and moaning, as the lose strands of the twisted wire act much like stubborn springs and the room to work in was very confined.
The scabbard.
The nice deep browned scabbard has two quite nasty carriage dents. The result of all this denting was that the liners were removed at some time to make sheathing of the sword at all possible. And also that the scabbard was bend in two opposing directions at once. The vice and some muscle took care of the bending, but now I had to replace the liners. Due to the dents I had to cut two narrow liners. Much narrower than the originals or else the blade would be caught by them. To find the correct width of the liners took some time, but after some sheathing, taking it out again, cutting off some excess wood and so on and on, it was possible to install the new liners. Dents be damned. The sword sheaths comfortably now and there are no rattles, nor does the blade stick.
This done, I repaired some scuff marks with gun blue and waxed the scabbard.
I also replaced the missing screw that holds the mouthpiece. I had to file down a new screw, clean it with acetone, blue it and glue it in place. Soldering was out of the question due to the mouthpiece being very crummy.
The numbers.
The spine is signed: Coulaux ainé & Cie à Klingenthal. This formula stands for only one year, 1840.
Poinçons: B under Crown in circle is the mark of contrôleur Louis Constant Balaran and G in circle is the mark of Victor Joseph Guidonet, Directeur. It must be said that the B under Crown stamp is not the regular Balaran stamp. The version on my blade gets a special mentioning on page 235 of ,, Armes Blanches '' by L'Hoste and Buigne. It is the small picture to the right at the top of the page.
The drag is stamped C&C over A and has also another Balaran stamp:
The text implies that this version of the crowned B was only in use in the year 1840. I'd like to mention that as far as I can see the version of the Balaran stamp used to mark the blade and hilt of a non regulation American Gothic hilt Staff Officers sword, an export sword from the Coulaux Commercial line, is the regular Balaran stamp in use to about 1860. The sabre carries an S in shield stamp that is unknown in the Klingenthal lists.
This might be, according to Dave Kelly, the poinçon of some unknown inspector of the Coulaux Commercial line. But Dave Kelly also told me that Jean Bick suggests that it may be a Belgian stamp. It is known that commercial line sabres were shipped on the sly to Belgium and from there to America during the Civil War.
Probably we will never know how things really went down.
Weight with scabbard: 1377 gram.
Weight of the sabre: 939 gram.
Length of the sabre in scabbard: 109.5 cm.
Length of the sabre: 107 cm.
Length of the blade: 92 cm.
Length of the foible: 12 cm.
Thickness of the blade: 8 - 5 - 3 mm.
Width of the blade: 27.5 mm.
POB: 10.5 cm from the guard..
The blade tapers to 6 mm in the first quarter of its length.
So, the distal taper is not very aggressive, but rather gradual.
Rouart was active from at least 1825 and had two sons who were in the same business but in Arras in 1855. There is no further information. (Courtesy of l'Hoste and Buigne).
Conclusion.
This is a very well made and superbly handling no kidding de luxe fighting sword.
It is hard to tell whether this is a one of a kind or whether there are more of them around in the French context. Later on, when I will do my Prussian IODs I hope to be able to compare them with this blade.
For now I have had a lot of fun restoring this French sword and I hope you picked up some useful tips from this post.
Cheers.
Notes.
Gothic Revival: www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Gothic_Revival
Frankenstein: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein
Gothic hilted British Infantry sabres: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_hilted_British_infantry_swords_%281822,_1827,_1845,_1854_and_1892_patterns%29
Timeline of French history: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_French_history
Non Regulation US M1850 Staff and Field sabre: www.americanswords.com/non-regulation-m1850-staff--field.html
Army of Africa: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_of_Africa_%28France%29