The Swedish M1825 Dragoon and Hussar Sabre. Part II.

Introduction.

This is an addendum to my first post about this sabre. See the notes for the link to Part I.
After about three years waiting in the rack the sabre is now cleaned and polished.
In addition to this, there was more information available on Deutsche Blankwaffen I want to include here.





The Swedish M1825 Dragoon and Hussar sabre.

According to the Swedish Army Museum:
In 1825, a new saber model for the Livgardet (Mounted Dragoons) and for the Hussar regiments was introduced.
The blade of this M1825 is hollow ground and the point is located at the spine.
It is 3.8 cm wide and 90 cm long. Although the saber was intended for Livgardet (Dragoons) on horseback, ,,THEY NEVER RECEIVED THE SABRE''.

According to Deutsche Blankwaffen:

The Swedish M1825 light Cavalry sabre was designed to be used by the Livgardet Mounted Dragoons and the Hussar regiments. The Mounted Dragoons of 400 men got the M1825 sabres in the winter of 1826-1827.
The 490 men strong Småland Husaren Regiment got the sabre in 1830 and the Livgarded Hussar Corps, 445 men, got the M1825 in 1832.

I tend to believe DBF here as they are very specific as to regiments, dates and numbers.
The Army Museum should update their info.





This M1825 was well made, which may sound contrary to what I found while polishing the blade,  but the fact is that after having had to endure the rigours of Cavalry life and even later,  after 1875, the service it did in the regiments of recruits, not the best place to be for any weapon, it still is rock solid and ready to go.
The wood core scabbard shows repairs at the strips forming the joints between the upper and lower section, but that is all really. Those joints were made of thin sheet steel, somewhat too thin to my taste and only held in place with a screw on either end, but it too survived the ordeal of more than 50 years of use rather well for a design already outdated in 1825.
Be warned that as these joints were often broken or missing, many of them were replaced by collectors or sellers.





The stamps.

The sabre:
PW (II ?)on the spine near the guard.
On the underside of the guard PW (II ?) and the Anchor of the Carl Gustafs stads gevärsfaktori located at Eskilstuna.

On the guillon: 24 RB. No 169. On reverse old stamps were removed. Only faint impressions remain.









The scabbard:
24 in large under the port. 24 RB. No169 on the side, near the mouth.
Makers mark: Zetterberg above the port on reverse.







24 RB. No169 on the outside of the first ring mount.






Deutsche Blankwaffen: ,,The interpretation of the unit stamps''.

Note: ,,Beväringschwadron'' is to be translated as Conscripts Squadron, a squadron of recruits.
Some translations speak of ,,guard units''. This is wrong.

For instance: The unit stamp - 7. BS. N 40. - is to be read as follows: 7. Beväringschwadron, sabre number 40.
The Swedish conscription system at the time (1690-1901) was very complicated.
There is a lot more to say about this system, but in short it was called and worked like a ,,general conscription'' and was based on the French recruiting system . The Cavalry also had conscripts units.
Some Cavalry regiments had the conscripts incorporated in the squadrons and with others the conscripts had squads of their own.
Which regiments did what is not clear and information as to why there was a 7. BS anyhow is not longer available.

The ..Beväring'' units always got obsolete weaponry. One may assume that the M1825 sabre was issued to the Beväring squadrons in 1875 as there exists an inventory of weaponry issued to the Beväring from that year including lots of old M1825's.

24 RB. No 169. - decyphers as follows:

24. Regiment, Beväring, sabre number 169.

24. Regiment - Nord Skåne Infantry regiment.

There you have another anomally of the conscription system. Several Infantry regiments got old Cavalry gear.





Here is an exerpt of a list of weaponry issued in 1875:

11. (?) M1854 sabres.

I7. 75 Sabres of the Helvigs Model. (Probably the M1807).

I8. 75 Pallasch. (M1808).

I21. 75 Sabres of the Helvigs Model. (Probably the M1807).

I23. 1 Sabre and 50 Pallasch (M1808).

I24. 200 sabres M1825.

I25. 200 sabres M1825 and 150 ,,English (?)'' Pallasch M1808.

And so on.





Work.

Cleaning was done with 180 grid.
The black spots and goo came off fairly easy.


NOTE: If you right click on the above image and choose ,,view image'', you will see the blade much larger and you can examine it in detail.

What had me worried though was the occurrence of what I thought to be delamination fractures on both sides of the blade.
In reality though it looks like there is a row, stretching the length of the blade, of small nodules of steel that was not worked enough through the ,,dough'' of the rest of the blade steel.



These nodules are of a different colour, more white than the surrounding steel and as such may be of a different composition. Harder? Softer?
The borders of these little nodules are the delamination fractures mentioned above and impossible to polish away.
In the polish they show as white lines.



I do not mind. It is rather interesting to see this phenomenon as it may tell something about the state of production at that time at Eskilstuna.
Another interesting discovery was that the blade was repaired and welded. The first section runs from the guard for about 10 cm and is of a dark colour. The blade probably broke at that point and a new blade was forge welded on which shows up much lighter in colour.



The weld starts at the upwards pointing black fissure, the right one and going up from there you can see some cloudy white going up to the spine. In this polish it is rather difficult to photograph, but I hope you see what is going on.
I have never seen this done with a Solingen made troopers blade. One can say about Solingen what one wants, but troopers sabres are of good quality as far as I can tell. The only Solingen made sabre I have where a blade was forge welded on a stump and subsequently the weld covered up with nickel plate, is my Austrian Uhlan Officers sabre:

sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/59224/austrian-m1869-uhlan-officers-sabre

As I have come to believe Solingen made Officers sabres are notorious for the use of seconds and many show signs of small defects I have never encountered with their troopers blades, I accepted this as just more evidence that many a Solingen made Officers sabre is below par.
The welding of a blade on a troopers sabre of Swedish make was a surprise and together with the nodules, leaves me with the impression that the high quality we may enjoy from later Swedish production, at this point anyway, was not yet available. One may say that my conclusion is based on just one example and therefore invalid, but this blade would never have passed Solingen or Klingenthal trooper blade inspection, or in this case, re-inspection.
It may be though that the blade gave the ghost some time before or after its service with the line regiments was done and was repaired when it was issued to the conscripts regiments in about 1875.
As many of these regiments were Infantry anyway and all of them, Infantry or not, got the scraps of line regiment gear, it may be that quality standards were tossed out the window. On the other hand, why repair a sabre that is going to recruit squads anyway? An argument can be made just as well of it being repaired while in service in a line regiment. And why make a repair with a blade full of these little nodules?
Fun thing is that all this pondering is a direct result of cleaning and polishing.
In the ,,patinated'' state it was in when I bought it, all the interesting stuff was hidden under a crust of rust and dirt. Left in that state all these insights in the forging/repair process, for good or bad, would have gone unnoticed.



TIP.
When cleaning under a langet I just take a piece of sand paper of 5 cm x 10 cm and roll it tight around my trusted little stick. Grab one end of the roll and the stick and shove the other end under the langet. This roll with the stick inside stays stiff so you can poke it anywhere you want. Works very well for me.





The numbers.

Total length is 104 cm.
Blade length is 90 cm.
Blade width is 3.95 cm.
Blade is thick 10.5 mm - 6.5 - 2.5 mm.
POB is 18.5 cm or 7.3". Amazing for such a sabre.

Weight total is 2200 grams.
Weight of the sabre is 1156 grams.
Weight of the scabbard is 1044 grams.



Conclusion.

I hope more information about this interesting Swedish sabre will become available in the near future.
The people of Deutsche Blankwaffen are good and dedicated archive hunters.
As to the sabre itself: As a Swedish, albeit dipped in a heavy French sauce, answer to the Prussian M1811, the real M1811, not the M1808, the Swedes outdid themselves in laying some extra Swedish vibes on this thing. By this I mean that in typical Swedish fashion the sabre is very nose heavy and needs some getting used to, as it does not really want to engage in intricate sword play and fancy moves at first.
But once you make the connection, you have a very well made and reliable skull buster. Yes sir.


Cheers.







Notes.

A Swedish M1825 Cavalry troopers sabre: digitaltmuseum.se/011024401253/sabel-m-1825

The M1825 explained. Hans Högman:

Bewaffnung und Ausrüstung der schwedischen Kavallerie: www.schweden-kavallerie.de/

Sabel M1825 fur Leibregiment und Hussaren: www.deutsches-blankwaffenforum.de/topic.php?id=3776&s=bc738ba4976ee2ef032c90d52458a548

Swedish M1825. Deutsche Blankwaffen: www.deutsches-blankwaffenforum.de/topic.php?id=1235&s=bc738ba4976ee2ef032c90d52458a548

List of Swedish regiments - Wikipedia: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Swedish_regiments

Swedish Military - Hans Högman: www.hhogman.se/regiments_cavalry-1.htm

The Organization of the Swedish Cavalry: 1773 - 1814: www.napoleon-series.org/military/organization/Sweden/Cavalry/c_swedecav.html

The Rapier of Gustav Vasa, King of Sweden: myarmoury.com/feature_vasa.html

A very brief history of Swedish Arms manufacturing: www.gotavapen.se/gota/sverige/history_se.htm

The history of Swedish steel industry - Jernkontoret: www.jernkontoret.se/en/the-steel-industry/the-history-of-swedish-steel-industry/

Scharrekoppaeum, virtual arms and armour museum: carlkop.home.xs4all.nl/armsandarmour/

Hjälm m/1823 för manskap vid Livregementets dragoner (K 2): sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hj%C3%A4lm_m/1823

A Swedish M1825 Enlisted Hussar Sabre. Part I: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/47251/swedish-m1825-enlisted-hussar-sabre

Swedish uniforms through the ages. PDF: www.sfhm.se/contentassets/84a6e4f1b2ce4e2b96c4ba578a41c503/sfhm-skriftserie_svenska-armens-uniformer-del1-kavalleriet.pdf

Crown Prince's Hussar Regiment: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crown_Prince%27s_Hussar_Regiment