Medieval sword - opinions needed

[Lee]

Originally Posted by fernando

...it takes a lot of guts to risk buying these things...

Indeed it does and the terrain is much more treacherous now than when I started collecting such things 40 years ago this month. I believe it has been more than a decade now since I have indulged.

Originally Posted by AHorsa

Is there any scientific way to get such a piece checked? E.g. material analysis or so?

Non-destructively, XRF (X-Ray Fluorescence) will report elemental composition of the surface for all but the lightest elements. The "devil is in the details" of interpreting the results. Sometimes one can 'denounce' a piece as a modern forgery on the basis of XRF, but the opposite of confirming authenticity is not possible, with "not inconsistent with an authentic antique" being about the best you can hope for.

Destructively, a small sample may be taken for metallographic examination. With a sword like Ahorsa's with a loose crossguard, a small sample from the blade shoulder may be taken without spoiling the appearance. Once I bought a sword from photographs, upon arrival it was clearly wrong. To satisfy the return requirement I had to get a museum to denounce it. Very fortunately I had a contact able to arrange for an archeometallurgist to take and examine such a specimen. It was clearly "post-Bessemer" or modern steel and the dealer graciously accepted the return. Once again, however, there are bladesmiths exploring making bloomery iron in the old ways and so, once again, "not inconsistent with an authentic antique" is about the best you can hope for. Fortunately, most forgers will not go to the trouble to avoid modern technology.

The aspiring medieval sword collector needs to see and handle as many known, reliably provenanced examples as possible and a few known forgeries as well to 'train' their eyes and brain. The overall form and decoration must be carefully considered as well as the patina.

I am cautiously optimistic towards Ahorsa's recent acquisition, and that is about the best I can do from images.