I am compiling this web page and others to demonstrate my findings to others who will listen and to help an author/editor, who is revising an already published book on American swords and sabers. Books should be used as a reference, not held as the word of God. People do the research for the books many value so highly, and people make mistakes.

Some may ask why I don't "restore" swords. Its not that I can't, its simply because I don't. I find swords have history to tell. They speak loud and clear to me in their original state. They are old soldiers with stories to share. Their scars speak volumes if one only listens. How many dented saber scabbards have been restored? Do you even know why many were dented by their original owners? This is a question whose answer can tell if you really know anything about military swords. Not the statistics that can be found in a book written by someone with a passing fancy and paying little attention to details. Many a cavalry and mounted artillery saber have dented scabbards because these were the tools of the real soldiers, not some faunning fop who sat in the shade on a hill sipping either a mint julip or a snifter of brandy, while others gave their lives for their beliefs and principles.

Every nick in each blade has to be translated, was this a brush with death in the heat of battle. Or simply a childhood near miss of a trip to the emergency room for stitches? Each dent in each scabbard tells of near cataclysm from musket ball, saber blow, sharpnel strike or of happy childhood play in days long gone by.

I may sound like a hypocrite, since I sell supplies to those who restore swords, but I am a realist. If someone is going to restore a sword, I may as well help them do it right.

Sword Wire