Sometime ago I was told I needed to add some swords to my collection.  At the time I had one 1812 era sword passed on to me by my Mother-in-Law.  While I’ve been looking at Civil War era Ames Swords, this one was found at a near-by Antique Fair, and after some negotiation I picked it up at a good price (for me).  While I didn’t know much about the Ames 1906 sword, a search on this forum turned up a decent amount of information (approximately 18,000 delivered in an order of 20,000 after Congress had authorized some additional Cavalry Regiments, and older swords were not available).

This one came with the scabbard and a more recent harness (?) that doesn’t seem quite right.  Overall in nice condition, handle is tight, iron guard is solid and unbent, scabbard has a couple of small dings, and the blade is pretty clean.  The handle is worn but the wire is tight and in good shape.  There are some strange marks on the scabbard, the number 70 at the top of the scabbard, and some numbers (rack numbers maybe) on the toe.  Any help on those would be appreciated.

I’ve had a half dozen of these and none had the numbers on the throat, but they look like assembly numbers sometimes found on commercial sabers.

 

The mess on the drag looks like a rack number that has been stamped over to “erase” it and a new number stamped on the other side of the drag.

Yes, these 1906 iron hilt swords came from Ames with a scabbard that had two iron rings placed close together.  Your Cavalry sword did not come from the factory with this scabbard.  So, a mis-matched scabbard from somewhere with odd numbers.

 

I hope this is helpful.

 

 

Would the scabbard be from an early version of the Ames?  Or would it be from another manufacturer?  And what could the correct era be for the scabbard?

Thanks in advance.

It’s not an Ames scabbard.  Throats on Ames M1860 scabbards were press-fit, not fastened with a screw.  Your scabbard is probably an import.

 

Normally one might suppose it was part of a Civil War-era contract, but I’ve just never seen a military M1860 scabbard with what looks an awful lot like assembly numbers on the throat.  

 

There were no post-war contracts for M1860 scabbards that I’m aware of, but there were commercial fraternal versions of the M1860…

 

my 1906 sword and scabbard look exactly like the one posted by Sarge above. two rings close together and a screw at the throat. the trail is marked to a NG cav unit.

42 minutes ago, Marchville1918 said:

my 1906 sword and scabbard look exactly like the one posted by Sarge above. two rings close together and a screw at the throat. the trail is marked to a NG cav unit.

 

Sarge’s M1906 saber and scabbard are correct.  

Thanks for the help.  I paid $250 for the sword and scabbard, I hope that wasn't too much.