This handsome sidesword is inspired by an original from the Grandmaster's Palace Armoury in Valletta, Malta, and was made for the assistant curator of the collection! As such, we were kindly permitted to visit the original in the palace itself, and take detailed notes and photographs. This gave us a precise notion of the sword's dimensions, handling, and historical methods of manufacture.
Inspired by the visit, Chris took a new approach to creating a fencing-safe sibling sword. Instead of stock removal, Chris forged out the blade from scratch, and hot fullered it using historical techniques. Likewise, the hilt bars are all forged close to their final shape, and the pommel features a hot-forged central void.
The result is a characterful yet versatile sword, which is a little lighter than the original as per our client's request. It has an authoritative weight, but moves with an imposing grace characteristic of the period. It excels at both cutting and thrusting actions in the middle fight, easily able to deal with shorter blades at closer measure. Overall, this is a fine tool for imposing will and authority over a fight.
Chris took particular care over the sword's brass wire-wrapped grip, which is a close replica of the original. During our time in the Grandmaster's Palace Armoury, Chris noted a number of original swords with the same distinctive carved grooves. He spent time researching and replicating this design using historical techniques, and gaining an understanding of why it was such a common feature.
The sword was named by our client, and makes reference to the symbol of the Order of Malta and the Knights Hospitaller, whose martial and cultural legacy is central to the Grandmaster's Palace and its splendid collection of arms and armour. The blade bears an engraved Maltese cross in reference to this, and to the similar marks found on blades in the Palace Armoury.
Please see our pricing structure for an idea of what a similar sword would cost.
∴ Specs ∴
Total length: 112.3cm
Blade length: 97cm
Blade width at base: 3.8cm
Blade stock: custom-forged
Grip length: 8.5cm
Grip and pommel: 14.5cm
Grip to guard: 5.5cm
Quillon span: 26cm
Weight: 1360g
Point of Balance: 13.5cm
Right handed
Blunt edges
Rounded tip
Fencing flex
∴ Notes ∴
The hand-forged and heat-treated guard and pommel are blackened to a matte finish. The guard is formed of round-section bars with decorative swellings to the terminals and centres. The quillons are straight, and the knuckleguard joins the sweeping top bar of the guard.
The tapered barrel section pommel is part-hollow, giving nuance to the balance, and the constuction is finished with a faceted steel nut. The waisted oak grip is carved with four deep grooves running lengthwise, and wrapped in a mix of brass and steel wire, finished to top and bottom with Turk's head knots.
The hand-forged blade features a deep central fuller, a stepped ricasso, and an engraved Maltese cross.
∴ Gallery ∴
∴ A Knight's Honour ∴
The great green doors of the Grandmaster's Palace loom at the end of the wooden-balconied row: a walled garden at the city's heart, bastion of both delight and sobriety. As you stride resolutely toward it, time seems to slow.
Today you will be bestowed with a sword - one worthy of a Knight. Your mind races with fragmented memories of the finely-crafted weapon you glimpsed but once in the armoury, a veteran of battles before you were born. You think of the sweeping black bars adorned with decorative swellings, the twinkling brass wire of its grooved grip, and the wide, wieldy blade with the cross of your order carved into the steel.
How you have longed for this day, for this honour - and yet how sombre you feel as the guards pull back the doors. This sword is not only a gift to mark your valour in battles past. It is a grim reminder of your place in battles to come. You are a Knight now, and to die by the sword is your duty.
With pride and trepidation, you step into the orange-blossom-scented courtyard, the heavy wooden doors closing behind you with a thud.