Civil War Steels

[Tony A]

Does anyone know what types of steels (or their modern equivalents) were used in knives and swords of the civil war period?

 

[Blilious]

welcome to the forums Tony!

interesting info can be found here:

http://sites.state.pa.us/PA_Exec/Historical_Museum/civil.htm

yet another opinion can be found:

"Although the American Civil War saw the development of modern weapons such as breech-loaders, repeating rifles and machine guns primitive edged weapons were still wielded with deadly effect on the battlefield. The most widely used of these weapons was the sword, which was present in many different styles. Only in the cavalry, and generally at the beginning of the war, were swords used regularly to their full potential. Sabres became marks of rank and in the later years were abandoned in favor of more efficient weapons. Sabre charges had little chance of success in the last years of the war against veteran soldiers armed with modern weapons fighting from concealed positions. Col Mosby once remarked that the only real use for a sword was to hold a piece of meat over a fire for frying."

taken from http://myhome.shinbiro.com/~PMOADE/wpns.htm)

hope this helps some.