Pattern 1827 Naval Officer's sword

[lawrence_n]

I've got me a bit of head-scratcher here. It's an English Pat.1827 naval sword, for the most part, but has a "hybrid" blade and I've not been able to find another one like it in my research. It was retailed by John Symons, Devonport (1823-1850) so it could be William IV or more probably Queen Victoria's era. It's not a true pipe-back blade with the quill point, nor the Wilkinson style fullered blade. It still has it's sword knot, though it's in pretty rough shape, and the top locket is loose on the scabbard (easy fix). In one pic, you'll see what it looked like when I got it. In removing all the old polish residue I had to clean it up a bit but I didn't want to really polish the guard. On a very positive note, the grips are in excellent shape with the wire and fish skin all intact and still nice and tight. Some time ago, someone really spent time sanding or abrading the blade so there's only a very faint trace of the engraving left if you look very closely. Perhaps removing corrosion or rust? Oddly, there's no slug or writing on the ricasso. So, for you blade lovers, check it out. Neat, eh?

Information

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[browningautorifle]

someone really spent time sanding or abrading the blade

The weapons shop would do this as a maintenance plan when officers surrendered their blades for work or if the swords were held by stores and issued on requirement...they held a stock. There was a man that did the maintenance of swords and would remove rust or corrosion, straighten blades and undent scabbards... He of course didn't care about acid etch or finery. Just do the job. Possible it was that far back.

[lawrence_n]

The weapons shop would do this as a maintenance plan when officers surrendered their blades for work or if the swords were held by stores and issued on requirement...they held a stock. There was a man that did the maintenance of swords and would remove rust or corrosion, straighten blades and undent scabbards... He of course didn't care about acid etch or finery. Just do the job. Possible it was that far back.

Thank you for that bit of information. Now that is something I didn't know and given the age of the sword, that's entirely possible.

[browningautorifle]

We had a shop here in Victoria's dockyard that did that very job. He had mandrells for scabbards and new parts and equipment for repair. I should think the ex armorers UK here should be able to tell us the same thing...sort of.