Armour Class' Scottish Basket Hilted Sword
A Scottish-style sword made by Allan Clark of Scotland

Article by Adrian Ko with Commentary by David K. Wilson

Based in Scotland, Armour Class (owned and operated by Allan Clark) focuses on arms and armor (but moreso swords) of early-17th to late-18th century Scotland. In the past, Armour Class has received awards for HRH Prince Charles and The Glasgow Incorporation of Hammermen for Outstanding Craftsmanship. In 1998, Allan Clark received a proposal Wilkinson Sword Company for 2,000 ornate basket hilted swords for the King of Saudi Arabia to give as a gift to his troops. SFMO was fortunate enough to have obtained an evaluation sword from Armour Class directly, as there is currently no dealer nor representative arm in the United States. Because of this, it is hard to get a sense of a street price for their swords, but we estimate them to be within the US$300-600 range depending on how elaborate the swords are.

Because we cannot ascribe a dollar amount to the evaluation sword, it is difficult to find a suitable competitive model to compare this against. Perhaps it is on a category of its own. In a production market where qualitative Scottish basket hilted swords are so rare, and with the majority of current models on the market being made in third world countries and of poor quality, balance and overall handling, the Armour Class sword immediately stands out a cut above the rest.

Here are the stats:

Hilt............................ 5-7/8"
Grip............................ 3.5 cm. tapering to 2.7 cm at pommel
Basket interior width........... 4.5"
Basket depth (between grip and wall where fingers would be): 1-7/8"
Ricasso Length.................. 1.5" approx

Blade length.................... 32"
Blade width at shoulder......... 1.5"
Blade width halfway............. 1-1/8"
Blade width before tip turnoff.. 7/8"

Thickness at ricasso............ 5 mm
Thickness at shouder............ 5 mm.
Thickness midway................ 4.5 mm
Thickness at turnoff............ 4mm

Point of Balance................ 3 inches fore of guard
Center of Percussion............ 11 inches from tip
Weight.......................... 3 lbs. 3 oz.

The Armour Class sword sports a mirror polished blade with three fullers running half way along the length of the blade. The sword's handling was refreshingly light and agile for a sword weighing a little over 3 lbs. The blade has only a very minor distal taper in its thickness, and its profile taper is modest. The steel basket does a good job counterbalancing the blade giving it an exceptional balance point closer towards the hilt. Unlike many third world country replicas, there is plenty of room in the basket for medium sized hands. The basket design may accomodate larged sized hands by my estimation. The grip is rayskin wrapped over with copper wire. One slight pitfall is that the wiring near the blade shoulder is loose, but in no danger of coming out. Rayskin wrap is uncomfortable to ungloved hands, but Armour Class has a version with wire-wrapoped over leather.

In terms of vibration absorbance, a medium-hard whack with the base of my hand causes vibrations that dissipate in about 3 seconds. In doing so, the hilt (basket and grip) vibrate with the impact but the shock does not hurt hand; vibration is tolerable.

The blade tolerated a 35-degree flex and returned true, though Allan Clark assures us it can flex up to 90-degrees without taking a set. The blade arrived unsharpened.

Aesthetic Evaluation

David K. Wilson (a.k.a. "Karolus") shares his impressions on the Armour Class basket hilt:

According to Allan Clark, the sword was copied from a late 17th century basket hilt, and the cup and ring markings are typical of the period. "As far as I know," says clark, "the cup and ring markings were used as decoration on lots of things in that period, especially in leatherwork."

The Basket is, on its face, deceptively simple. It is of a modified "Glasgow" style, reminiscent of the work of the Allans of Stirling (who are associated with the more flamboyant "Stirling"-style baskets, although they made baskets in both styles). The main knuckle guards do not show any pierce work, instead being engraved with circular symbols (bezants?). The hilt bears resemblance to two similar pieces illustrated in "Culloden: The Swords and the Sorrows". These Baskets date from the early 18th century.

There are no side-guards on this model, and the side guard terminals (where the "Ram's horns" would be) are vestigal. The rear quillon comes to an abrupt stop; there is no wrist-guard (the curled-up thing at the end of the rear quillon on many Scots basket hilt). There's no reason why this couldn't be considered historically correct - not all basket hilts were made with those features, and even some that had those features were "modified" or were damaged accidentally.

It also lacks the typical basket liner -- the red material (felt, leather, or other material) often found inside the basket. This liner is also missing on many original pieces. There are probably several reasons for that; either it decayed over time, or maybe it wasn't there to begin with! I personally feel this is a minor omission, anyway. (Allan Clark stated that its omission in shipping was an accident. - Editor)

The basket appears to be cleanly done - no welds or excess material showing!

The grip itself is rayskin, secured by a copper wire. This is also historically acceptable; many originals used Rayskin grips. The blade is tri-fullered, starting halfway up the ricasso. Most Scottish broadsword blades featured multiple fullers. All in all, an attractive replica of a type of Scots Basket Hilt broadsword (claidheamh mor) that could have seen action during the '45 Uprising.

Conclusion

It is hard to find a modern handmade piece in its price range so well made. In short, in terms of modern replicas, this is one of the better balanced and weighted basket hilted swords I've held. Dale Seago - author of this issue's article The Weapons and Fighting Methods of the Highland Scots (himself a scholar of Scottish swords and dirks) also enjoys the handling of the Armour Class basket hilt.

Overall, the weight and handling as well as its appearance make this sword a handsome and collectible traditional style sword short of investing in antiques priced many times more.

We were also supposed to receive a test blade for destructive testing, but one failed to ship. If and when we receive one and have data on performance and durability, we will update this article!

Updated Information

This part is added October 28, 1999. Allan Clark responds to the article and states the following: "I'd like to point out that all the swords we make are hand crafted, not production swords. We turn out about 750 - 1000 swords per year at present, with 5 members of staff. We are expanding the company and the only way to increase the volume of swords per year (and keep the hand crafted quality) is to employ more staff and train them well."

Contact Information

Armour Class
Unit 13, Block 5,
New Albion Industrial Site,
Halley Street,
Yoker, Glasgow, G13 4DJ,
Scotland
Telephone/Fax : (+44) (0) 141 951 2262
Website: http://www.armourclass.co.uk/

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