Short sword?

[MBMCC]

Out detecting this past weekend and dug this up!
Blade appears to be 20 1/2" from shoulder to tip.
Tang (what remains) is 4".
It was at a depth of 7", underneath a overturned decayed tree stump.
The area it came from has history from both the Rev. War & Civil War.
I'am not saying its from either....but it makes you wonder!
Any thoughts on what type of sword it may be?
no markings (that i can see) to help I.D.

Thanks

 

[Red James Cash]

I dont think its an artillery short sword.Its to short to be a cavalry saber,or any type of saber.The blade looks more like a blade to a cutless.Give it a good bath and see if you can come up with any markings on it.

 

[pkb]

Grim Reaper lose it ?

 

[TomPA]

Possibly a corn knife. 24" seems to be a common size for these. Here's an example of the style I was thinking of. Still very well may be a sword too!

[h=1]Antique Vintage "Cutsure" Signed Sword Corn Knife Style With Wood Handle[/h]

 

[WINTERBEAR]

awesome !! rev war or earlier could be a hunting sword or if you are near water alot of the period naval cutlasses seem to be shorter. Seems to sword like to me to be a corn knife and narrowerer but no expert.
Chris

 

[smokeythecat]

Could easily be an early sword. I have an English hunting sword with slightly narrower blade but about that long.

 

[MBMCC]

Thanks for the suggestions..
I agree w/ RED JAMES CASH, it doesn't seem to match up to any swords or sabers of the Civil War.

TomPa- never heard of a corn knife before .. i'll look into that, thanks for the idea.

WINTERBEAR/ smokeythecat- i was thinking early sword too.
I remember reading that Continental Infantry troops carried shorter swords like this of European design.

Hopefully an Electrolysis bath will give more clues!

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Look up "hanger sword" and "cuttoe" on Google. No idea if that is what you have - but at least the length and shape is similar to some.

 

[Red James Cash]

The tang on that corn knife is a full width tang,meaning the tang is almost as wide as the blade.You can tell because of the rivets going through it.If you did that with the type of tang on MBMs blade it would become too weak,it would snap.The tang on MBMs blade isnt a full width tang.

 

[TomPA]

Good observation Red James. However, I've found 2 corn knives that had an identical tang as his. This picture shows a corn knife (with a alternate blade shape) that has a tang similar to the one found. It still very well may be a sword, but corn knives were made this way as well.

 

[MBMCC]

Well, here it it is all cleaned up. There are no markings on it left( if there ever were any).
As you can see it is heavily pitted. Really not sure if its an early Hunting Sword or a variation of a corn knife.
The curve of the blade seems more "sword like" and for slicing. The corn knives seem to be designed for chopping.
I'm going get an opinion on it from a guy i know who builds historically correct 18th century muzzleloaders and knives.
whatever it is .. it was an exciting find and makes me want to go find more relics!