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Post by Dave Kelly on Mar 12, 2020 18:36:09 GMT
Appear to all be officer private contract swords. The HC (4bar) has an 1880 regulation blade. (1882 the HC got a 3 bar hilt) The two LCs are 1883 type blades. Production anywhere between 1883-1896. Can't read the info on the blades. Guess I should turn them right side up.
This period the major powers retained huge armies. Sword makers did great business providing custom made officer jewelry. These appear to be in pretty good condition although post Franco Prussian War the return value is rather low.
Cheers
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Post by Dave Kelly on Mar 11, 2020 13:19:24 GMT
This stuff comes up and all I can think about is the final duel in Rob Roy, where a giant with a highland broadsword takes on an expert small sword duelist and splits him in two.
I respect Matt Easton's professionalism. But when it comes to cavalry swords Matt should get a blank blank horse.
I own 16 French HC pallasche, covering the period from 1804-95. True the pallasche does not promote a fine edge, but if you cut to head on a trotting horse, with a 3 lb sword and connect, your victim will most likely be traumatized and bait for the next rider to finish off. Cavalry swords are used in massed formations, knee to knee. If the formation breaks you try to withdraw, reform and charge again.
The pallasche is balanced and tapered to the hand. It is easier to cut with than suggested by occasional users.
Half swording mounted. If you want to try let me know, so I can bring my camera.... LOL.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 24, 2020 17:19:39 GMT
Never thought about it that way. So more like a scraping or clawing motion? Instead of moving the blade up, you pull it down? Nope. Point attack is a puncture wound. Any ancilliary damage is caused by extracting the blade. Cavalry tried to teach the survival skill of short penetrations of 3-4 inches at most. Cadaver on a stick is an unhealthy predicament...
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 24, 2020 10:05:39 GMT
Saber point attack you invert the blade so the point is down. Clipping the point creates a finer point for initial penetration. ( in the case of your knife can opener pick, visualize it turned 180 degrees.)
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 24, 2020 10:00:06 GMT
Thank you Pgandy. Much appreciated, but I am just the squirrel running through the Internet woods collecting as much nuts as possible in the short time spend on polishing a particular sabre. Your comment made me think there was more to this drive to make clipped points than just lowering the tip. As you say, making a spear point would do just as well if that was the only desired outcome. Looking at image 1, what strikes me is that what we are looking at in this example is one big can opener or maybe a scythe. I go for the can opener idea though obviously they didn't yet have canned food at that time. But I have this suspicion that they knew full well about the mechanics at play. When the tip is worked in, one only has to lower the grip to yerk that can opener tip upwards to inflict a very damaging long gash. Visions of gutted stomachs here. In the image too you can see where the edge in the hollow part is filed down to the other side, so the sharp edge is not in line with the rest of the edge of the blade. See images 2 and 3. One only has to work one side of this edge to keep it sharp. The hollowed out part locks the blade in place more or less. It doesn't have to go in deep for this clipped point to do its work. Like doing maximum damage with minimal effort and penetration, which in turn may save the blade from getting stuck and/or snapping. What do you think?
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 23, 2020 16:35:31 GMT
A few comments (If I say too much, it will be biased and furious:
1. You prefer robust swords, but you luv the lil bitty French retro arty saber, which is a toy not for the cavalry (????)
2. The ANXIs are better than the 1822s. Longevity and international appeal of the 1822 LC is undisputed. The ANXI LC was superceded by the 1816LC pipeback; a fiasco, rectified by the introduction of the 1822. The 1822 montmorency blade and the British 1821 enlisted blade dominated the military saber market until the intro of the 1896 and 1908 forced intro of skewers.
3. I have never heard of a argument over the transiton of the light cavalry ANXI. The was, hovever and 80 year pissing contest over preservation of the AN XI HC, Cuirassier, blade.
4. I personally do not like the grip space on the ANXI LC. It is not adequate room for open handed point work. You wind up doing funny hand position trying to align the blade. The 1822 solved that. Better than most countries.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 12, 2020 13:46:33 GMT
Hello I am new on here and live the idea to be able to finaly get some help identifying my weapons. I have been a collector since I was a kid and recently had a few back surgeries they whent horribly bad and waiting on my next one. I am honestly needing to sell some of my pieces to get by through these hard times long story short I will be posting weapons I have in my possession and anything you can tell me about them would be awesome also pricing would be a cheery on the top. Thanks in an advance also if you have pieces you need help identifying I'm here to help I have alot of knowledge as well. Always fun to see what someone else is sandbaggin. Won't know if we can help til we see some picks ;)
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 10, 2020 2:33:35 GMT
Looks like a late 19th Century Victorian replica of a 16th Century sidesword/rapier. Guessing as there are no marks. These get on ebay once and a while.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Feb 6, 2020 4:37:20 GMT
French Model 1822 had two basic types: A light cavalry sabre with officer and enlisted styles and a Cav du ligne, Heavy Cavalry sabre. Standard blade for the light was 36x1.25 inches. The heavy was 38.5x1.12 inches. Note the light has a 3 bar half basket and the Heavy has 4. These are well crafted sabers with a light handling character due to precision tapering of the blade. The first generation swords 1822-1850 are the best. Over time French handling acquired some Germanic percussive nose heaviness that slowed the handling a bit. The 1822 heavy never caught on. The Cuirassiers were married to their ancient pallasche swords. The sabre was dumped on the Dragoons. The blade of the heavy was in fact the same used by Napoleon's Imperial Guards heavy cavalry. I need to tranfer some hilt picks to to imgur. Photobucket says I have exhausted my bandwidth allocation. Do that tomorrow. There is a write up online for the Model by N Vasse oldswords.com/articles/FRENCH%20LIGHT%20CAVALRY%20SWORD%201822%20MODEL%20-%20A%20classical%20Taste.pdf
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Post by Dave Kelly on Jan 28, 2020 2:01:59 GMT
If the price is too good to be true either the seller is dumb or selling junk. Usually the later. You did the right thing by asking before you pay. If you're new to sales it can take a couple of years to get a feel for the market. I spent thousands are rookie mistakes. Consider myself lucky to get burned so little having turned to antiques for a lot of things.
Having an exotic curio that strikes your fancy is fine. Doesn't have to be an antique, as long as you know the difference.
Welcome aboard.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Jan 10, 2020 10:52:53 GMT
Today I had the privilege of seeing Mr. Kelly's collection in person. It's rather overwhelming once you're actually among it; my eyes didn't know where to go, but my hands stayed in my pockets (I can try the whole "self control" thing, you know) until he started handing me things. So many things. Most of them complete with a history of not only their development and introduction to service, but also of how (and from whom/where) he acquired each. Absolutely fantastic time. Thanks again for having me over. :) Your welcome. Random brought a very interesting medley of Kyber and Algerian knives and some Oriental pieces. Appreciated the sharing. Made for an all too very fast 2.5 hours. Truth to tell I got tied up the previous night packing out a purchase that didn't want to leave. Got to bed late and pissed off. Didn't sleep well. By 1500, I was out of form. Apologies for that. Time slips too quickly. By all means, feel free to come on back at your convenience.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Dec 4, 2019 19:06:02 GMT
Not on sale, but I did finally find a nice Argentine 1898. I hope that all the US folks had a great Thanksgiving, and that everyone had a nice week. Perfect! Welcome to the club!
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Post by Dave Kelly on Dec 4, 2019 19:02:00 GMT
Now would be a good time for a laser sword...
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Post by Dave Kelly on Dec 2, 2019 2:40:55 GMT
Gee I wass behaving myself so nicely. It's Christmas...
1. My Valiant Armory Custom Crecy type XV bladed sword is in production and might make Christmas.
2. Bought a DelTin type XVIII.a from KoA.
3. Bought a Cold Steel Thompson Saber from Midway Sports.
4. Back to KoA, stumbled into an in stock advert for an Albion Earl. Posting hadn't made the front page yet. I grabbed it. Got a phonecall and message from KoA stock manager. The posting was a mistake. The sword was already spoken for. Told me there was another due in end of the month. If I wanted to wait for it, they would guarantee it would be shipped to me.
5. Meantime, bought a munitions grade Hanwei Ren sidesword.
6 Ebay this morning closed on a Gebruder Weyersburg M1822/40 US Saber and a French ANXIII Cuirassier with a fall 1814 blade date, meaning an interregnum Louis XVIII pallasche.
Bought as many as I've sold.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Nov 17, 2019 22:10:05 GMT
Thanks to a favorable review by Dave Kelly, I went on to acquire a Windlass Sword of the Thirty Years War. I’d call this a sidesword, and while these in general aren’t my favorite style of swords, I really like this piece – even more than my Rheinfelden, which I’ve gabbled a bit about here:
It has a heavier blade than the Rheinfelden, and also a heavier pommel, and while the blade is moved just a tad less quickly, this makes for more presence and "snap" during a cut. I’m also a big fan of the long quillons, which serve to control resp. protect in many positions. The bars on the inside of the guard may be a bit too thin to reliably stop full-on blows to the inside. But this is not to be expected to happen too often with the style of fencing this sword was designed for – a blade sliding down towards the hand in a bind may occur more frequently. The grip is rather round, perhaps that could lead to bad edge alignment and the blade turning during cutting. The grip’s cross-section could easily be changed to more oval with a file if one was tempted to do so (I think Dave had his grip redone – don’t know if he changed the grip shape, too). The blade flexes nicely and is not too whippy. A very fun to handle sword, all in all very nice at the price point. Definitely recommended.
Some other renaissance repros for comparison, pics show both sides of the swords. Sorry for the bad quality, there's no light to be found anywhere. Liked it enough to have Sonny Suttles customize it...
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Post by Dave Kelly on Nov 17, 2019 14:38:06 GMT
I'd like to thank both of you gentlemen for your generous offers of financial aide in these hard times. Now, if I were to do the math, which I would't cause it is said math is hard, I would be working for about 10 $ cents per hour. Given that our regular gang of junkies what comes to our doors each morning asking for 1 Euro make about 10 Euro per head in 15 minutes flat, apart from the appels and oranges and cigarettes and cups of really awfull coffee we buy them from the coffee lady who schleps around her cart on the market and sells her slop for 1 Euro 50 the cup, said math tells me that I'd be making even less than a standard junkie or homeless person does in this town. Also I would like to ask you saintly generous gents to go stand in a bucket of ice water for four hours on a stretch cause that's how it feels at the moment in my attic cum workshop for a grand total of 40 $ cents paid per Paypal of course so I have to wait for weeks to get at this virtual treasure? No? I thought so. You lazy bunch of softies and anarchic Trotsky loving Stalinist bearded cheese ball munchin' hippies prefer the comfort of your airco offices while figuring out schemas to squeeze the last drop of life out of this hard working common worker while a manicure lady from lands far away hunkers under your desk doing your toe nails. Revolution I say! To the guillotines!! :) Very early in my collecting mania I won an ebay British guards saber from some dealer in England. 800.00 USD. Confident in the manners of the British, I sent the saber directly to Sussex Swords and asked for an estimate for a few problems. Their answer was delayed twice due to "summer holiday". They ran me past the old ebay six week deadline to report a problem. Got an email about 9 weeks into the process (which I will translate into American English). Dear moron. Got some bad news dickweed: you bought a fake. It isn't just a fake its a SLO fake. But never fear; we here at Sussex can remake this piece of sh it into one of the nicest pieces of sh it in all of hillbilly heaven. It will cost you 2400.00 USD to do so, but for that we will stamp our mark on the da mn thing in eight different places so you can show the other morons you're movin to the east side. Oh: and a shame we burned up your claim date so you can't recover your losses. Let us know if you want to take this to the next level of pain and abuse. Cheers I thanked them for the lesson in sword trade. Don't bother sending me the piece of sh it. Dispose of it as you see fit. Shove it up your aspidistra if you please. I was distressed to hear that Sussex sword went tits up about a year later. (Pigs a ss I was.) Visions of yourself laboring the thousand stairs,up to your laboratory. Putting on your Arctic parka and mucklucs. Then entering the portal of hell, to work for hours under a large magnifying glass with a tinsey weensy roll of sand paper. Pay you what you deserve? Can't afford that. Will just have to do my own scraping, inferior as it might be.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Nov 17, 2019 13:21:12 GMT
The "bureaucrats" of the Austrian empire had other problems, given there were 5 different army divisions to deal with. Austria and Hungary maintained separate forces. There were separate militias and separate Guards. All clamoring for distinctive weapons.
The 1850 Cav Saber is relished as a 36in HC sword, but it was also ground down to 33 in for the LC. (I have a shorty).
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Post by Dave Kelly on Nov 16, 2019 22:27:31 GMT
Now I know where you've been hiding for three weeks, Dr Frankenstein. Wonderful as usual. Hey, I got a great idea! Whatda ya say, I send you my set n 20 bucks and a new pair of rubber gloves? You can get them back to me for Christmas. I just luvs Christmas presents! (gollum)
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Post by Dave Kelly on Nov 14, 2019 22:58:07 GMT
Late for the party. M1816 it is. Officers on the top and right. This is the one and only experiment with a pipeback like design. Like so many pipibacks, the balance wasn't right. You can see the transitional design of the hilt, heading towards a bigger roomy hilt and a sleek 36 inch long Montmorency blade for the 1822LC.
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Post by Dave Kelly on Nov 7, 2019 3:17:20 GMT
Thanks.
Damn Consignments are us! You would think there would be a movement to get them banned, but the so b's do mix the duds in with some real antiques.
Catch them moving INdia swords for french all the time.
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