Description
Above is a photo of our Sinclair half basket hilt. According to Oakeshott, in his European Weapons And Armour, this form of hilt first appeared in Germany at the end of the 16th century. It was originally mounted on estoc or falchion blades, as in the photo below, but was later adapted to cutlass and broadsword blades. The name “Sinclair” was applied to this type of hilt by 19th century collectors. It is now known as a Sinclair type 1 hilt to distinguish it from another form. Colonel George Sinclair was a commander who led an army of mercenary Scots across Norway in 1612. Supposedly his men used swords of this type. The example shown is mounted on an Alchem flat tang blade. It may be ordered mounted on a threaded rod or flat tang blade with a standard ball pommel. Our design is basically a scaled up version of our main gauche dagger hilt with a heavier pommel and an added knuckle guard. A dagger with matching hilt may be ordered by following this link to our Main Gauche Dagger page.