Reddit reviews The British Cavalry Sword From 1600

So now we start a discussion on things totally not connected to the show, but possibly just as interesting. So Black Jack was an officer of the Dragoons, which were really heavy cavalry. In the 1740s the colonel of the regiment would determine what the dress and equipment of the regiment was, so even though an officer would have bought his own equipment, looked after the care of his horse and gear, etc, the type of weapon used was determined by the commandant. Cavalry officers would typically use a sword (or sabre) with both a thrusting edge and a cutting edge. While a thrusting point was almost a necessity when fighting against armored infantry, by the 1740s the cavalry would be fighting against unarmored infantry and a blade with a slashing edge would be more efficient from horseback, especially since a thrusting blade was more likely to get embedded in the target and possibly wrenched from the hands of the horseman. Plus the cutting edge provides a larger impact area, making an effective stroke more likely, particularly in a charge (and yes cavalry was still charging, and always did, even into WWII).

British Ordnance factories were turning out a variety of blades by the 1740s, even though standard cavalry swords probably arrived just a bit later, the most famous patterns being the 1796 heavy and light cavalry swords. The spadroon, by the way was more often an infantry sword, and BJR was definitely not an infantry officer.

By the 1740s the common cavalry officers sword started off using a modified Walloon hilt, which used a double shell guard, tapering down to a single bar. But the influence of various basket hilts also started appearing about the mid 18th century, and had a broad multi-bar knuckle guard with side finials, making it look almost like a basket hilt. With Army deployments in Scotland the influences of the Scottish basket hilt began making their way into English cavalry swords, leading to something that looked like a sort of bastardized basket hilt. The officers swords being more ornate probably resembled a basket hilt more closely, while the swords used by troopers had more open grills on the hilt.

Haven't seen the episode yet, and the hilt may be wrong, but I would take objection to the cutting/thrusting edge argument.

BTW here's a Horse Grenadier Officers Sword from around that era.

https://imgur.com/oJlc7HM

And a great book for sword enthusiasts:

https://www.amazon.com/British-Cavalry-Sword-1600-ebook/dp/B00KDJLW9Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1506282751&sr=8-1&keywords=The+British+Cavalry+Sword+From+1600+martyn

But we digress from the woes of Frank and Claire. ;)

Robson, "Swords of the British Army", http://www.amazon.com/Swords-British-Army-Regulation-Patterns/dp/1845749170 Only covers the regulation patterns, so you need to look elsewhere for early 18th century; perhaps https://www.amazon.com/British-Cavalry-Sword-1600-ebook/dp/B00KDJLW9Q/