What is a sabre?
A single-edged sword with a curved blade, usually 75 to 90cm long, a knuckle-bow or stirrup hilt to protect the hand, and a balance point well forward for cutting. The curve lets the edge slice as it lands rather than chop, and the single edge allows a thick, stiff spine. Sabres were primarily cavalry weapons, but light versions were carried by infantry officers, naval officers (as the cutlass) and duellists, and the fencing sabre descends from the duelling sabre.
The name has drifted a long way from the sword: Sabre is also an insurance company, a Gladiator, a butter knife, a fighter jet and a light sabre. If you are here for the sword, this is the page.
The 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre
Le Marchant's 1796 pattern was the first British cavalry sword designed by a cavalryman with a theory of swordsmanship behind it, and it was adopted across Europe: the Prussians copied it outright. The blade is around 83cm with a pronounced curve, widening towards the tip so that the weight sits where the cut lands. British light cavalry carried it for over twenty years, and the wounds it inflicted were notorious enough that the French complained about it.
We stock two versions of Cold Steel's 1796 Light Cavalry Sabre: with the steel scabbard of the regulation issue, and with a wood and leather scabbard. The blade is the same on both.
Polish and Hungarian sabres
Polish Sabre. The szabla of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the sword of the winged hussars and the sabre that the rest of Europe learned the weapon from. A deeply curved blade with a closed hilt, forged in carbon steel. "Polish sabre" is the single most searched-for sabre in the UK, and this is the one people are looking for.
Hungarian Sabre. Hungary was the route by which the sabre entered Europe, and the Hungarian hussar was the model for every light cavalryman who followed. Cold Steel's Hungarian sabre has the long, shallow curve and open stirrup hilt of the 17th and 18th-century hussar sword.
Later patterns and the duelling sabre
1830 Napoleonic Sabre. A later cavalry pattern in the French style that dominated European sword design after the Napoleonic Wars, with a full brass-style guard and a blade that trades some of the 1796's curve for reach.
Thompson Sabre. Cold Steel's own sabre pattern, a modern interpretation of the military sabre with a stiff, moderately curved blade and a protective hilt.
Italian Duelling Sabre. The 19th-century Italian schools turned sabre fencing into a science, and the duelling sabre is their weapon: lighter and straighter than a cavalry sabre, built for speed and precision on foot. The direct ancestor of the modern fencing sabre.
About The Sword Stall
UK-based, UK-stocked. Everything here is in our warehouse in Bacup, Lancashire: no dropshipping, no customs, no import delays. Free delivery on orders over £200. Every sabre on this page is a traditionally forged piece supplied with a sharpened edge, sold to over-18s only and intended for collection and display, not use. New customers provide age verification once before their first order is dispatched.
