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SOS Find = Sons of Veterans Sword


SARGE
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Gents,

 

The Show of Shows (SOS) in Louisville was very good to me this year and I thought I would show an early Sons of Veterans sword that I picked up. This is one of the very early swords for this Auxiliary to the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) Union Civil War Veterans Organization.

 

This style of sword was supplanted by a new regulation sword in 1889 so it dates prior to 1890. These early swords had the intwined letters "SV" on the guard while later swords had an elaborate crest on the clamshell guard showing the new emblem of the organization. This particular sword also has a recurved crossguard rather than the so-called 1860 S&F sword style D guard. Lastly, the sword has a plain blade without etching and the scabbard is made for wear in a frog rather than having suspension rings for belt slings.

SV NCO sword.JPG

SV NCO hilt.JPG

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When the weather warms up a bit I will clean the old brasso and grunge off the sword but for right now, it is what it is conditionwise.

 

The grip is black leather and it has a plain blade and frog stud on the scabbard. This sword configuration is of a style generally worn by NCOs in the organization. The Officer style of sword would generally have a sharkskin grip and would have been worn in a scabbard with three suspension rings for slings. This sword was made by William Read & Sons in Boston and is so marked on the reverse ricasso of the blade.

 

I was happy to find this particular variation at SOS.

SV NCO maker.JPG

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  • 1 month later...

The weather finally cleared up and I was able to clean this William Read and Sons SV sword up with some ammonia. The sword had a lot of old brasso residue with no sign of any gilt finish ever being applied so it appears the original finish was simply polished brass. These early model swords are very difficult to find in any condition, particularly with the proper scabbard.

 

 

SV NCO clean.JPG

SV NCO hilt clean.JPG

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Wow! That is certainly a nice looking sword! I've wanted to add one to my collection, but I can never pull the trigger on the price. :-)

 

Kevin

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Thanks Kevin, I appreciate the kudos. I kept an eye on this sword at SOS and low and behold I picked it up for 1/2 price on the next to last day. I can always bargain better at shows as time goes by.

 

This sword is a good example of when and how much to clean up a sword (or any collectable goodie for that matter) IMHO. There was no original finish left and it never had an applied gilt finish to the brass so there was nothing to damage by removing the grime and the old hardened brasso polish. I almost always clean the blades as their original finish would have been bright or plated steel. This one was simply polished steel so again, no harm no foul to clean it back to its original bright finish. Same for the steel scabbard body. The scabbard was simply darkened with a light film of active (red) rust so some quick work with 0000 fine steel wool and oil took care of that problem. I cleaned the brass with ammonia and a soft toothbrush which removed the grime and old polish residue. I did not polish the brass in order to leave some patina that will soon darken up a bit overall.

 

The leather grip and brass wire wrap is still a predicament to me. The leather grip is all there and in nice shape requiring no work but the wire is another matter. At some point in time the twisted brass wire wrapping broke and was repaired. The one twist of remaining wire is original and is inserted into a hole at the base of the grip. It is secured on the back of the grip by ending in another hole that is hidden from the front. When repaired this single twist of wire met the remaining wire that came from the top and the repair of the broken wire was hidden from view. A clever fix that utilized most of the original wire wrap. Over time, the majority of the wire wrap failed again and was removed. I now have to decide: 1. leave it as it is, 2. repair the wire as before with two pieces of wire or 3. replace the wire with one strand of wire as it would have had originally. This is my conundrum. For the present I have decided to do no harm and leave it as it is.

 

So, the sword does not now look like a new penny but instead looks like a 100+ year old sword that is clean and presentable.

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