specific types of swords

by John Spillare
(Melbourne, Australia)

QUESTION: I am only new to swords, so I don't know much about them. I saw some swords in a medieval store and decided I would like 2 to hang on my wall. I been searching the internet but to no avail. I don't want cheap replicas, I want as close as possible to the real thing so price is not a main issue. My main criteria is:

1)- I need 2 swords, one to represent my side of the family and one for my wife's side.

2)- My side is of Austrian background and my wife is from the house of Moses of Isreal.

I don't know if there are certain swords for different parts of Austria or if certain coat of arms have specific swords. I am from the house of "Spillar". Can you help?

As far as my wife goes, I've seen swords of David and Solomon but not of Moses, can you help there?
Your help on either of these or were to go to find out more would be appreciated.

Regards John

ANSWER: Hi John,

Well, it is a little difficult to answer as the swords from both cutures have seen a lot of transitions depending on the specific time period. For example, when most people think of 'Austrian swords' they think of their sabers, but in a medieval time frame - the most common production sword is the Hanwei Hand and a Half Sword which is reviewed here on SBG.

For some local Aussie vendors, I recommend having a look in the SBG Australian vendors sub directory

As to Israeli swords, the earliest ones were made of Bronze and were largely short swords (or longish daggers depending on how you look at it). And there are, unfortunately, no production swords available.

But since you mention that price is not a huge concern, you might want to consider talking to the gentleman at Click here to post comments.