Unmarked P1796 L.C. Troopers Sabre

[bvieira]

Originally Posted by Jim McDougall

Excellent illustration Fernando! Interesting to see one of these in gold metal!

To the subject of the quantities, tenure and other uses of the M1796 sabers, in this case, the blades.

In india, there were mountain artillery units in c. 1840 which handled the 'screw guns' and light cannon. Apparently they issued the gunners a brass hilted short sword, but its description is unclear. These were disbanded but begun again 1851 and 1853 in Hazara and Peshawar , and active in the Northwest Frontier.

It is noted in Robson (1985) that a sword resembling the coast guard 'cutlasses' with cast iron ribbed grip and brass hilt, in fact many were possibly from stocks of these coast guard swords.

This brass hilt sword with ribbed grip seems to be mounted with a M1796 blade, but does not correspond to the swords issued to these mountain units but it seems likely this might be one.

I have one of these.

[kronckew]

...and I have one of these: Indian 1910 IWM pattern.

[scinde]

Originally Posted by kronckew

...and I have one of these: Indian 1910 IWM pattern.

Hi,

Does your sword have any markings? Do you have a photo that shows the back-piece and pommel?

[kronckew]

Originally Posted by scinde

Hi,

Does your sword have any markings? Do you have a photo that shows the back-piece and pommel?

Yup, it's rather badly pitted, crusted and blackened with rust, no markings I can see, tho there may be some under the crust. The blade is also pretty much black but unmarked, and in a lot better condition, only a few small shallow pits, the black rust is mostly surface only. Sharp as heck too. Sadly, no scabbard.

Below it is a similar shot of my British 1821 pipe-back sabre for comparison. The guard and blade were plated at some point, and it's flaking off, again guard's unplated areas are black, but not pitted. The blade, not shown, also plated has dark, but no red rust, blobs all over it where the plating has come off. I've scrubbed off the loose bits, and it looks blotchy. Scabbard for it was painted silver by a previous owner over a fairly uniform rough, presumeably rusted, but intact (no holes) surface .

[fernando]

I like the contrast with the pristine sword knot .

[kronckew]

The original 19c yellow and navy blue nylon paracord sword knot (portapee), for display and combat purposes only. There is a blue ranger bead slider knot for tightening it on the wrist just above where the knot is dropped thru the guard which was slid further up for the earlier photo.

I did unwrap it and pushed it aside for the photo above, but I did leave it on in the slot in the knuckle guard to better contrast the pommel bit.

[fernando]

An artistic touch .

[scinde]

Originally Posted by kronckew

The original 19c yellow and navy blue nylon paracord sword knot (portapee), for display and combat purposes only. There is a blue ranger bead slider knot for tightening it on the wrist just above where the knot is dropped thru the guard which was slid further up for the earlier photo.

I did unwrap it and pushed it aside for the photo above, but I did leave it on in the slot in the knuckle guard to better contrast the pommel bit.

Thanks very much for posting the photos, and from what I can see, the bottom of the pommel cap where if meets the end of the grip is sloped (if looked at from the side); this feature is characteristic of other Indian Army hilts I've seen. Another feature which is not so obvious, is that the thumb-guard bar-work in the inside of the guard, is broader and flatter and not so fine as on some other light cavalry pattern hilts associated with the Indian Army.

Although difficult to tell from a photo, I assume that the blade would be around 30 1/2" inches, measured in a straight line from the face of guard at shoulder, to the tip of point; width at shoulder about 1 1/2" inches. Having said that, some blades may have lost metal owing to repeated sharpening, or even the very tip broken off the point , which I have seen on the odd example.