British 1822 Light Cavalry Saber – Universal Swords

This was the iconic blade borne defiantly aloft during the fabled Charge of the Light Brigade whose heedless gallop into waiting heavy guns during the Battle of Balaclava earned them the penning of one of Lord Tennysons most famous poems of the Crimean War. Historians have argued that an accident of miscommunication caused the Light Cavalry to be sent into a frontal assault on Russian artillery batteries with an excellent field of fire, as opposed to harassing and flanking gunners to prevent their retreat. The cavalrymen themselves knew the charge to be undertaken was suicidal, yet they did their duty without complaint and were upheld as paragons of Victorian soldierly virtue because of it. Of the 670 men who spurred their mounts into gallop that day, 270 would be felled by mechanistic Russian artillery.

The steel that flashed in the sights of the Russian gunners during the charge was the British 1822 Light Cavalry saber. This reproduction sword is made from unsharpened, tempered high carbon steel. The blade is well-embossed with leafwork, the British crown and the marking of John Prosser, sword manufacturer in Charing Cross, London. The gothic-style hilt is of steel and the grip is of hardened black leather with twisted copper wire inlaid into the grip. The scabbard is of steel with steel hanging rings.