Pooley Sword

Pooley Sword
Manufacture
Industry Sword manufacture
Founded November 2005
Headquarters Shoreham Airport, Shoreham-by-Sea, England
Key people
Robert Pooley, Jane Ventris, Jane Sheridan
Website http://pooleysword.com/

Pooley Sword are a traditional cutler and provider of swords, dirks, and lances to the British armed forces and also to many Commonwealth and other overseas defence forces. Following the August 2005 closure of Wilkinson Sword's Acton works, Robert Pooley MBE, who had been commissioning swords from Wilkinson’s since 1964, purchased many of their drawings, product records, spares, and much of their tooling, including both heavy and light machinery, some dating back to the late 1800s.

Sheffield workshops

Fundamental processes, including casting and blade manufacture, take place at the Sheffield Workshops. Blanks are cut from hardened- and tempered sheet steel, then ground to shape. Fullering of the blade is then followed by polishing. The craft of working precious metals is carried out in London as well as in Sheffield.

Shoreham workshops

Craftsmen further polish, silk screen, and acid-etch the blades to traditional standards. Chasing and coin-metal plating are performed at this stage. Strike- and bend testing are followed by several stages of inspection before the sword is despatched to its new owner. The process typically requires six- to eight weeks.

Historical Services

An engineering team led by Head Cutler Peter Harmsworth, ex of Wilkinson Sword, offers refurbishment services on military- and antique swords, dirks, and lances of historical- or sentimental value.

Sword of Honour

Swords of Honour are awarded by a number of military colleges and -academies to the outstanding cadet of his- or her class. Having formerly been provided by Wilkinson Sword, Swords of Honour currently provided by Pooley Sword include:

Materials

Materials used in sword production must meet or exceed MOD specification. Blades are made from high carbon steel. The guards and back plates are made from forged mild steel and hand embellished before nickel-plating. The guards for the RAF and Royal Navy Swords are cast in brass, chased and then gold-plated.

Grips historically made of shark skin are now made with that of rays, related fish species under lesser threat. The Brown Leather Service Scabbards are hand stitched pig skin.

Bespoke Swords

While ceremonial swords are typically crafted to long-standing MOD- or regimental specification, a library of historic design elements, including military drawings, patterns and badges of regiments throughout the Commonwealth has been compiled by design technician Adam Cook. Pooley Sword services private clients, incorporating family crests, mottos, or novel blade designs such as Arabic swords and English Mamelukes. Pooley also create bespoke presentation swords for overseas national- and military commemorations.

See also

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 5/16/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.