The British Sword – From 1600 to the Present Day – An Illustrated History – 884 pages
12,000 Full Colour Images
The definitive, illustrated history of British Swords from the 17th to the 21st Centuries.
AN IMPORTANT AND SUBSTANTIAL NEW BOOK ON THE HISTORY OF BRITISH SWORDS
Here is an excerpt from this book:
BRITISH 1804/14 NAVAL SEAMAN’S CUTLASS
IN 1804, AN OFFICIAL PATTERN OF CUTLASS was ordered by the Board of Ordnance. This was the famous “figure-of-eight” or double disc-hilted cutlass, and is probably the cutlass most commonly associated with Royal Navy seaman during the Napoleonic Wars. The cutlass was designed by Henry Osborn of Birmingham and initially cost 4 shillings and tenpence each (the cost of adding a leather and brass-mounted scabbard was 2/3d). According to Annis and May (Swords for Sea Service, page 79), the Board of Ordnance later claimed that the design of the sword had been a joint venture between Osborn and Lord Horatio Nelson but subsequent research has indicated that they had confused the name with a certain R.A. Nelson who was Secretary to the Navy Board at that time. Henry Osborn had the lion’s share of the initial order with 3,000 ordered from the Birmingham sword cutler with equal orders of 1,750 each shared between the following sword makers – Woolley and Co., Craven and Co., Thomas Hadley and Samuel Dawes.
Subsequent orders were placed in 1808, 1810 and in 1814, the Board of Ordnance approached the London sword maker, Tatham and Egg, and asked them to provide two new pattern cutlasses. The changes required consisted of alterations to the guard, curvature of the blade and the replacement of a rounded back to the blade with a flatback profile. It does not appear that these new patterns of cutlasses went much further than the developmental stage and the Board of Ordnance were not happy about the prices quoted by the makers so few found their way into service.
© Harvey Withers Military Publishing, 2024
Taken from The British Sword – From 1600 to the Present Day – An Illustrated History by Harvey J S Withers – 12,000 full colour photographs – 884 pages
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