To celebrate Presidents day here are some awesome pics and links about the sword collection of George Washington. If you're interested in similar swords that we make please check out this previous post "Smallswords: Yep, Light and Fast" in which we examine a bunch of original swords from The Oakeshott Institute collection and share pics of a bunch of custom smallswords we've done over the years, most of which are based on our stock smallsword, pictured below.
The pics below come from the collection of arms that belonged to George Washington at Mount Vernon. Ranging from the mid to late 18th century they include civilian smallswords, and military swords such as a broadsword, and a hanger or cuttoe.
Washington's 1753 smallsword, forged in New York and carried by the future president prior to the Revolutionary War.
A broadsword gifted to Washington in 1793 by Solingen based sword maker Theophilus Alte
A cuttoe or hanger owned by Washington during the Revolutionary War.
For more in-depth information about Washington and his swords check out this fantastic information from the Mount Vernon museum which includes parts of an interview with Dr. Eric Goldstein, author of "The Swords of George Washington", and links to high quality pics of the weapons.
Here are some similar swords we have crafted over the years.
Smallswords customized.
Nathan Clough, Ph.D. is Vice President of Arms and Armor and a member of the governing board of The Oakeshott Institute. He is a historical martial artist and a former university professor of cultural geography. He has given presentations on historical arms at events including Longpoint and Combatcon, and presented scholarly papers at, among others, The International Congress on Medieval Studies.
Craig Johnson is the Production Manager of Arms and Armor and Secretary of The Oakeshott Institute. He has taught and published on the history of arms, armor and western martial arts for over 30 years. He has lectured at several schools and Universities, WMAW, HEMAC, 4W, and ICMS at Kalamazoo. His experiences include iron smelting, jousting, theatrical combat instruction and choreography, historical research, European martial arts and crafting weapons and armor since 1985