A tale of two sabres: Osborn & Gunby vs. Cold Steel

By Jonathan Fletcher

December 15, 2005

All images by Jonathan Fletcher

A comparative study of Cold Steel's reproduction 1796 sabre against an original sword, c.1810

This is long overdue with much interest in the CS 1796 sabre throughout this forum.

A semi-custom project required a decent sabre blade and due to the favorable opinion towards the Cold Steel 1796 sabre on SFI I decided I would give it a try rather than go custom. Alas, neither CS or any of the other vendors would supply an unhilted blade and I had to buy the sword complete (not a great loss as the CS88 from Cold Steel's UK dealer isn't terribly expensive and for a decent sabre blade it was worth the money). This purchase coincided with the opportunity to finally acquire a fine original 1796 sabre care of West Street Antiques; so the idea for this 'study' was born.

This is going to be very picture heavy so I hope you all have broad band. First up I'll post the pictures for you to peruse. I forgot my notes and measurements in the rush to get to work tonight so I will post the statistics and measurements for each sword tomorrow.

First up the Cold Steel CS88

 CS88

Decent wooden cored scabbard with nice fittings and a good tight fit.

 Longshot

Not great resolution but it gives you the idea of the CS blade profile.

 Hilt & grip

as above; nicely executed hilt with a well formed grip and tidy leather wrap.

 CS88 hilt

Nice pair of shoulders and a very tight hilt.

 Peen

Cruddy resolution I am afraid; was dog tired having just finished a long night. The peen is (was) very tight and a bugger to undo. In fact, I just killed the upper grip plate with the dermal to get it off because no matter how hard I hit it was barely moving at all (and I really wanted to get to my bed!).

 Grip

As mentioned, a well-formed and comfortable grip. Very secure with the cross peen through the tang.

 Blade

Blade tip with the secondary bevel. Razor sharp to my delight when taking the hilt off; also sharpened along the first part of the back edge.

 Fuller

Just a shot of the fuller fading out; smooth and nicely ground out.

 Final CS88

Last shot of the hilt just to show the proportions of the stirrup hilt to the blade.

 Blade

Now after much swearing and several cuts....

 Tang

Well formed and one piece (i.e. no welded rods)

 Comparative tang

These are the only shots I have of an original 1796 sabre tang. The CS88 tang compares favorably and felt pretty solid despite its slim appearance.

 Original tang

Again, another shot of an original 1796 sabre tang.

 The Osborn & Gunby sword, c.1810.

Now for the original a superb O&G sabre in very nice, albeit cleaned, condition. The pictures don't do it justice and the coating of wax makes the patina appear a little dull. Needless to say, in hand this sword is no where near dull and is a very imposing piece. You can see straight away the massive blade compared to the CS88. Also, note the slight differences in the blade profile with much more flare at the COP on the original and the blunted tip.

O&G in scabbard

The first thing that struck me about the O&G sabre when it arrived in the post (very well packed by WSA) was the massive size of the sword in its scabbard. This is a big sword and the CS88 pales before it.

 Sword & scabbard

 Hilt

The grip survives in decent nick on the O&G sabre and side by side the CS88 hilt fares pretty well; give or take a couple of hundred years of wear.

 Original peen

The more I post the more I begin to realize that the best feature of the Cold Steel sword is the hilt. The blade is nice but the hilt is probably its most accurate feature. And I've destroyed it. Ah well, it'll look great with its new baskethilt.

 Tight hilt

The selling feature of the original sabre was its tight hilt. Despite all that time (and probably some restoration) this sword is still fit for service. There's no play at all in the guard and in the swing she holds up very well. The shoulders are built up to about 1/2" into the blade from where the very broad fuller starts. The scabbard meets a thick leather seating mounted in front of the guard; there's no rattling on this parade.

 Blade marks

Just some pictures of the stamped markings on the original. Thankfully my CS88 has no markings; some people have reported 'India' stamped into the blades on some of the 1796 sabres floating about (perhaps these are not true CS ones or perhaps made for a different distributor?)

 Ordnance stamp

Crown & letters stamped into the fuller near the guard

 Tip

The more spatualte tip and the fade out of the fuller c/f the Cold Steel sword (sorry for the poor focus and note the wax streaks necessary to protect my metalwork from the vile Scottish climate)

 Edge damage

The O&G sabre has some nice edge damage around the COP: some are pretty deep and look like they might have been made from the edge striking the nails that hold the melons onto the posts on the range. They are also a little ground down; presumably from salvage sharpening when the sword was cleaned. It's hard to tell how much blade might have been lost to this kind of work but looking at it I'd say not much.

 Scabbard throat

The steel scabbard throat: a nice good fit with no rattle. Kills the edge of course!

 finale

Okay that's the pictures and the anecdotal stuff for now. Some similarities and differences can be clearly seen already but I will post the measurements tonight so the real differences are highlighted.

If anyone has any pictures of their original sabres then I would be interested to see them to know if my Osborn & Gunby sabre is 'typical' of the type and to get a better reflection of the accuracy of the Cold Steel sword. Needless to say my first impressions are actually very good: accurate hilt, well built, good fit & finish, lovely scabbard. However, the blade is a tad weedy compared to 'the beast' and the weight is right out (more of that tonight.....).

 Sabre measurements

Thanks for the positive feedback. On reflection some of the photographs have suffered in shrinkage to fit onto the forum; some are just plain unsharpened, so for that I am sorry.

Here are the vital statistics on the CS88 compared to the O&G sabre in bold print. A mix of metric and imperial units. The 'swell' is the widest part of the blade where the damage is done; visible on the longshot photos of each sword (and more pronounced on the O&G sabre). The COB is the best approximation as I found that this is harder to measure in a sabre blade.

Weight 2lb 7.5oz. 2lb 1.5oz.
Centre of balance c. 8-9" c. 6.5-7.5"

Blade length 33.5" 32.5"
Maximum deviation 2.5" 2&3/8"

Blade width at shoulders 35.2mm 43mm
Blade thickness at shoulders 7.3mm 9.7mm

Fuller length c.25" c.26"
Fuller width 1" 1&1/8"
Blade width @ end of fuller 36.5mm 41.5mm
Blade thickness @ end of fuller 4.3mm 1.8mm

Blade width at swell 36mm 43.3mm
Blade thickness at swell 3.6mm 1.6mm

Blade width 1" from tip 5/8" 27mm
Blade thickness 1" from tip 2.7mm 1.9mm

Hilt length (excluding langets) 4&3/4" 4&7/8"
Grip length 3&3/4" 3&5/8"
Cross width 5&1/16" 5&1/4"
Width of stirrup (widest part) 4&1/16" 4"

Damned fool me I forgot to weigh the bare blade!

From these measurements the fist striking difference is the weight; the CS88 being a massive 6 oz. heavier. The hilt on the CS88 is pretty close to the original sword and will only add a similar amount of mass to the overall figure. One can also observe the smaller profile of the CS blade evident in the dimensions above and the side by side photograph on page one. Therefore, the extra weight noted results directly from the CS88's blade thickness and distal taper.

As can be seen the O&G sword has a massively thick blade at the shoulders that dramatically tapers almost immediately in a non-linear fashion. The CS88 starts with smaller stock yet tapers in a more linear style and never achieves the slim/thin dimensions of the original: The CS88 blade is more than twice as thick as the O&G sword at the business end where that famous/feared cutting power is achieved.

For the same reasons the COB falls forward of the mark and on this forum some observers report that the CS88 feels heavy in the hand. Even though the O&G sabre is a brutal troopers' sword it handles beautifully and is incredibly fast. I have no idea about Cold Steel's heat treatment but with it's thicker blade I reckon it will struggle to do the work as well as an original sword. From watching original 1796 sabres in action, one of the most beautiful sights is seeing how much the blade flexes in the cut without breaking; achieved by the broad and thin yet flexible blade.

The original 1796 is regarded as the second best sword the British army ever adopted for its horse: It is a pure cutter with no attempt to compromise on that ability. The CS88 through design or inaccuracy has a stiffer blade with a sharper point (sharpened to 4.5" along the back edge) which would make it a poorer cutter I am sure but maybe a half decent infantry sabre.

Despite the apparent failings the CS88 is well worth the money with a high quality fit and finish and a nice wooden cored scabbard (alas it still has the blunting metal throat so don't be fooled into thinking the blade will survive any better in it). The blade DOES make a good sabre and the sword DOES handle well; just not as well as the originals. Mine is now in Glasgow where she will be reborn with a Sterling hilt (Words and pictures to follow....)