The British Cavalry Sword Model 1864

Hello and welcome to the channel where we discuss swords and blades and things with edged or sharp stuff and pointy things that go through the other guy. Right so for today's presentation I will do a short introduction of another British sabre and this is the trooper sword model 1864. Approved in December 1863 by a committee that was spearheaded by Major General Lawrenson two years prior, the 1864 model was an improvement to the 1853 pattern which was the first British universal sword which meant that it was used both by the light and the heavy cavalry units. The problem with the 1853 sword is that despite its best efforts it had faults to correct namely the bars of the guard which could break and the blades which were deficient because they could not thrust well or could bend easily. The 1864 kept the same type of grip and blade as its predecessor despite having criticism against it and the only thing that really changed between the two patterns was the form of the guard which in this case was reworked to give maximum protection to the hand and it is funny because it is kind of a backwards move that was towards the 1821 sabre which had a ball guard instead of the branches. However it was made bigger or at least a bit larger than the 1821 sabre and it had some new features such as for example the edges which were rolled towards the interior, the sword nut hole which was located near the back of the blade and on the back of the of the guard and lastly the front of the guard had a cutout design of a Maltese cross or something that resembled a Maltese cross. Despite the upgrades and the changes the sword did not prove to be a success. It was distributed too slowly to the units, some regiments not receiving them at all, those that did complained about the handling being heavy and unbalanced, some others complained that the guards were too narrow for the hand or that the blades could also bend and break much like the 1853 one. At first these problems were too sparse to be noted mainly because of the lack of serious military engagement so it is only during the second Afghan war of 1878 that such complaints started to be fully acknowledged by the upper echelon of the army. Another criticism was with the edge of the inner side not being smooth enough and this damaged the fabric more specifically the stripes of the trousers of the troopers. Because of these complaints new swords had thus to be designed and in 1880, so just 14 years after the 1864 was issued, it was already set to be replaced by a new batch of swords and that however would not come without its own share of problems. The sword shown here has no stamps or markings except for a vague B16 on the guard, only the scabbard has markings which is a V followed by PEI for Prince Edward Island and the number 60, so a fifth squadron of the Prince Edward Island militia unit. I have read that many swords were purchased from England-based surplus stores and these were purchased by local commanding officers in Canada for the purpose of equipping their troops with these private purchase swords. One militia report dated in from 1871 stated that 500 of these 1864 swords were purchased for Canadian use, so it is my opinion that this may be one such sword because it has no inspection stamps or unit markings on the guard. The idea of purchasing swords for Canadian use explains a bit why the 1864 sword is often more easily found here in Canada rather than in the UK where it is pretty scarce. So this concludes today's presentation, once again if have any comments about this elegant but pretty unlucky sword please drop a line in the comment section below. Many thanks for your presence today, I'll be seeing you in the next video.