Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.

[Indianabugles]

I have recently aquired a Musicians sword, a genuine one. It is longer than my replica one, that one being.
Photos will follow.
But the really weird part is the replica one has the black leather scabbard worn, in my case on a frog, no problem.
The genuine one has a metal scabbard, longer than the sword. The same length as a NCO sword in fact. Is this a 1930 reeissue or is in fact an ACW scabbard I do not know about.
I know the M1840 sword in all variants survived as wear till WWII and wondered if this is one of those reiisue scabbards?

[Indianabugles]

Re: Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.





Here are the pics

The one in the black scabard is the Indian replica.
The other one is the confusion one.

I would be most grateful if someone could throw light on this and if t is ACW how is it meant to be worn. As can be seen I have worn the replica for many years on a frog which is Nug/Acceptable as discussed on another part of this forum. This one will not go into a frog, obviously and it will not fit in the repica scabbard either.

[tsgalloway]

Re: Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.

I own an original musician's sword with leather scabbard and have handled others. I believe your scabbard was paired with your original sword at a more recent date than the 1860s.

[Curt Schmidt]

Re: Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.

Hallo!

IIRC...

The scabbard for the NCO sword was japanned black metal, however leather was ore commonly used. The scabbard for the musician sword was identical, just four inches shorter.

(However, the way it was taught to me by collectors was that the metal scabbards were Spanish American War era. I have never seen a referecne to support that, and believe it to be Collector Lore. But I could be wrong.)

Curt

[Indianabugles]

Re: Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.

Pretty much answers the question, Either it is a Spanish/US war (1890s) or a US 20th century reissue. Either which way it is not ACW. While it is a genuine sword I now need to aquire a scabbard (leather) for it.
If anyone else has any info please throw it in, or if anyone knows of anyone who makes good scabbards please do the same.

[Anchor_Management]

Re: Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.

Several points:
1. The scabbard you have appears to be configured for use on horseback. The ringed attachments on it are nothing like what appear on regulation model 1840s.
2. There were contractors (actually, it may have just been one... sadly I can't remember the name) that produced NCO and Musician swords for the Army that had japanned steel scabbards in lieu of the more common leather ones. This being said, they still don't match yours. weird.
3. All repro musician swords that I have seen have been made about 4 inches too short. I imagine this is due to the large propensity of young reenactors (think drummer boys) buying them. Either that or some misunderstanding on the factory floor.
In any case, it is pretty difficult to obtain a repro scabbard that will fit an original musician sword. Good luck finding one!

[Robert Johnston]

Re: Metal scabbard on Musicians sword.

Emerson and Silver supplied musician and NCO swords with metal scabbards instead of leather during the Civil War.