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[Jaylow]

i bought it when i was 8 year old in spane on some market in barcelona from some gipsys
now  i have it for like 16 year lying around and i started to wonder what kind of sword it was
it says on the side: something something toledo 189something (somewhere in 1890's)

i just was wondering if it was militarie and for what rank if its is not just some crapy sword
i remember hitting a lot of Hogweed with it

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^^here it says toledo  but its a big picture couse otherwise its not visible

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i hope there are some people that know something about sowrds here

[Zrk2]

Looks like a rapier. It probably belonged to an officer of some description because by the 1890s most armies had stopped issuing swords to every grunt. But it could be a knock off because you got it from some random guy in Spain (they are poorer than the rest of Europe in Spain, and gypsies are notoriously poor)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roma_(Romani_subgroup)

[Jaylow]

what i know  from the market i was on
was that it was an antike market where my father whent from the 70's to buy antike stuff
lots of nice stuff was on the markt for not to much money
and also lots of stole stuff  the market stil exists but now its with a lot of new  stuff and  not to intresting
and the gypsies where always nice and had  also lots of nice stuff  that they proebly found somewhere

if its a knock off  its a good knock of couse i just hit hard on a piece of wood and nothing happen only my hand hurts
i had a  fake katana ones and did the same and it broke right away
i am already happy that i know its a rapier

[Zrk2]

Ok, you must have nicer gypsies in Spain, my friend went to Poland and they spat on him.

[MaximumZero]

I dunno about the rapier appraisal. Rapiers tend to be straight and thin, with little to no cutting edge. That looks more like a Sabre to me. (But what do I know?)

[Jaylow]

i live in poland (not from here) but wel i think that you friend got spit on by a polish person
couse there are allmost no gypsies here

anyway maximumzero you say it can be a sabre
intresting i cant find anything that looks like this rapier/sabre  on the interweb
mostly i find  rapiers/sabres that look 10x nicer  in how they are made 
mabye this rapier/saber misses something  but nothing looks broken on it

[Zrk2]

Good point, the extent of my knowledge of swords comes from extensive fantasy reading and generic info absorbed from the world, yeah sabre makes sense. But aren't they usually thicker?

And it is possible that it was some random guy, but apparently it was a kid after he didn't give them money

[Il Palazzo]

i live in poland (not from here) but wel i think that you friend got spit on by a polish person
couse there are allmost no gypsies here

Depends on where you live in. Try Wrocław.

O.K., so I've got this huge compendium on my lap(Boris Trubnikov; "The Great Lexicon of Arms and Armour"; Kurpisz Publishing - in case you'd want to get one for yourself), so I can pretend to be knowledgeable.

Rapier it certainly isn't, as those are thrusting weapons, have a diamond-like cross-section, large cross, and often an elaborate handguard.

If not for the inconvenient point of origin(i.e. not eastern Europe), this would look almost like a Shashka(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashka) or a Szabla(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Szabla), providing the tip of the blade is double-edged, which I can't discern from the pictures.

Most generally speaking, it's a backsword. To be more specific, it's some Spanish variant of a sabre(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre), even though the handguard is too simple to fit the specific meaning of the word. Most likely a cavalry weapon, as these kinds of swords were standard issue for cavalrymen worldwide, since Napoleonic Wars, up 'till the IWW. The infantry generally switched to bayonets or large knives around the half of the 19th century.
Unfortunately, the lexicon was written by a Russian, so it's got all the variants of swords of Russian armies, but fails to be equally informtive about the Spanish military.

Still, unless you're going to talk to an expert, or a geek, a sabre should be an accurate enough description.

edit: gah, typos.

[Phmcw]

I couldn't find any Spanish military guard-less sword. A wild guess  : it could be a masonic sword.

[Cheese]

Type 'info sword'.

[KaguroDraven]

It's a sword, keep the sharp end away from yourself.


Non-jokeingly, I would have to agree it's some varient of a sabre, perhaps one meant just for show or ceremonial use rather than actuil battle.

[RedKing]

Yeah, that's definitely not a rapier. More of a shamshir, although the construction of the grip and tang are almost like a Chinese sword.

Not a cavalry sabre -- there's no handguard. Virtually all European cavalry sabres either had a bellguard or D-hilt. And the pommel design is rather interesting.

The blade inscription looks to read "Fabrica de Toledo", the manufacturer mark for the Toledo weapons factory which supplied the Spanish Crown with most of its swords for hundreds of years. But the design doesn't seem to match anything I can find as far as standard issue military swords for the period. And by the 1890's, they were pretty much only making officer swords.

My guess is maybe the blade is authentic from an officer's saber or cavalry saber, but was then rehilted to what looks almost like a Chinese daoji.

Or the blade was an excess blank sold to another manufacturer who finished the completed sword?

If you can post some close-up shots of the pommel (the backend below the handle that looks like two snakes), I might have a better idea.

[MaximumZero]

Maybe the handle or guard broke at some point and it was fitted with a new handle? Or it was custom made?

[Jaylow]

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i looked around the internet for the lst 2 days i did not see anyting like it
i joint the international sword forum but i still cant post there untile some admin accept me.....
it could be that the handle is  from something els then the blade
but i dont know

hope those nerds at the sword forum will know ones i post there
or mabye some one here is quicker

my hope is on that it was custom made for some general or the king of that time

[Omegastick]

A general or a king is rather unlikely, I'm afraid. It looks like the whole thing is made from iron or something similar, and a king or general would have gold decorations on the sword. My guess is that a low-ranking officer would have used it as part of his ceremonial dress.