Horstmann & Sons practice schlager
length: 41"
Really bitchin' practice cavalry saber made by Horstmann & Sons,
Philadelpha, makers of some of the finest War-Between-the-States era
fighting swords. Horstmann was in business from 1817-1954, I'm betting that
this sword is definetly from the earliest years of their business. 1800's
American and European sabers have not been among my areas of specialization
up until now, but you'd better believe I'm currently doing my web research
and have ordered a bunch of American and German sword identification books
from Amazon. I'll post more exact information on this sword's manufacture as
soon as I find out.
While this sword was up for auction on eBay, I was asked to further describe the markings and condition:
The only markings are on the forte of the blade, which is stamped "Horstmann
& Sons Philadelphia" on one side. There's a partially visible manufacturer's
mark on the other side of the forte, not recognizable on this sword but the
matching one clearly shows a long-haired man wearing a crown - by comparing
the two blades you can see that the mark on this sword is also the
crowned man.
Bruce Bazelon's 1997 book "Horstmanns: The enterprise of military equipage"
shows that the phrase "Horstmann & Sons" was used on Horstmann goods between
1843 and 1893. The crowned head trademark is from the Weyersberg family of
swordmakers in Solingen, Germany, and was in use from 1787-1883.
When I received the swords I gave them a light rub-down with WD40 to catch
any live rust, then applied a light coating of oil. Other than that, they
don't look to have been "restored" - the patina is dark and even.
blade: 32"
blade width: 13/16"
grip: 5 1/2"
grip ricasso: 1 1/4"
bell guard: 5 1/2"
The blade is in beautiful condition, 5 1/6" thick at the base, tapering down
to a flat edge past the fuller. Immaculate flex and temper. The bell guard,
crossbars, and D-guard are quite solid, and there's a ricasso space above the
crossbars for looping a finger over to solidify grip and control. The grip
is hard wood, may have originally been spiral wrapped with leather and wire
- I'll let you know when I find out. Totally sweet, and yes, I could supply
a pair of them.
"I saw your item-Horstmann training cavalry saber--and was hoping that you
could give me a little more information about it before the auction closes.
Can you please tell me: is it marked? if so, can you provide information
about the marking ( location, numbers, dates, text, etc.); has the item been
"cleaned" or restored recently? Any other information about this item would
be greatly appeciated. Thanks." 
5/23/01