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Post by dc on Sept 15, 2019 18:49:39 GMT
By the time Scottish Broadsword was a thing almost all European sword blades were made in factories, which were predominantly located in Germany, Northern England, and probably a few other locales.
Scotland had a predominantly agricultural economy with little if any heavy industry and (so far as we know) no sword blade factories. It was probably cheaper to import mass produced blades than to make them one at time by hand locally.
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Sept 15, 2019 19:59:19 GMT
Making good sword blades was no easy task and it was common for a few known makers to make blades for export. I think England was capable of blade making as was an area in Germany known as Solingen that did an huge export business just with their blades. The US was capable of making blades for their military but elsewhere in the Americans either swords or blades where imported. Blades were imported in many countries to be finished locally. As for Andrew Ferrara: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Ferrara
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Post by victoriansword on Sept 15, 2019 22:43:42 GMT
This is the first time I’ve seen the name written as “Andrew”. I’ve never seen a blade stamped or engraved with that name. Just “Andrea”.
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Post by juster on Sept 15, 2019 23:07:16 GMT
The Disarming Act of 1716 specifically made broadsword possession illegal. Before that, the Scots probably knew it was coming some day and it would be logical to decentralize sword production well in advance of this. So this would allow a cottage industry of hilt fitting for imported blades. Before the Act, the English would be raiding larger forges whenever they suspected the Scots were up to something. Which they usually were.
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