Question regarding ore used

[Jim McDougall]

Originally Posted by Triarii

On Koln, I've read that the 'Sachgum / Sachgvm' often found on so-called Walloon swords - quite often found alongside a 'Solingen' wolf, was a sign of blades made specifically for the Dutch to export. Supposedly the hilts were added in Koln, wherever the blades were from, but a number of examples have Amsterdam control marks (3 X's under a crown) which is partially obscured by the hilt. It wouldn't make much sense to dismantle a sword to add this, so I assume that either the mark was added by some form of Dutch QA guy in Koln, or that the hilts were added in Amsterdam, after the blade was stamped. Maybe Koln just happened to be where the blades were traded through... perhaps...

Well noted! and thats a great insight, any chance you might recall the source? Sahagum was of course one of the Toledo greats, so in the convention of German smiths spuriously using those names and marks it fits.
This falls in with the well known VOC swords of the Dutch East India Co.
It has been suggested that these blades were produced either in Solingen, or more likely in shops with probably Solingen smiths in Netherlands. I have yet to find more definitive on that but it seems reasonable.

The blades coming out of Solingen were exported through Amsterdam or more commonly Rotterdam in the 17th c. so again these connections seem logical.