It should be clarified here that although the officially approved saber blade of 1845 was officially approved and was the most common type between 1845 and 1892, some officers who were very concerned about the design of the saber ordered unregulated types of blades. The blades were of different shapes, curved and straight, wider and narrower. Simply put, these unregulated types of blades were intended to create more effective combat weapons, according to the individual officer's own preferences, and tended to either focus on striking, pricking, or in an attempt to combine chopping and stabbing blows more effectively than the blade of the 1845 model.

These unregulated sabers and the men constructing them played a role in influencing the new normative infantry swords of the 1890s, as will be described in detail below in the case of Colonel King-Harman. Some officers chose to specifically manufacture stabbing blades on their handles from the Time of the Crimean War and earlier (for example, the so-called Percy and Toledo blades offered by Wilkinson were more specialized for stabbing strikes). Some of these earlier non-adjustable blades did not differ much in function from the 1892 blade, which later became normative.

Some images of British edged weapons on our website:

The debate about slashing and cutting blows was a thing of the past. This has been discussed in fencing manuals, newspapers, and military magazines. We can see that this question was discussed in detail in English as early as George Silver's 1599 treatise. In the 18th century, small swords were fully specialized for stabbing blows, swordsmen (rapiers) retained the ability to both strike and deliver stabbing blows, and the most curved sabers actually specialized in cutting.

During the Victorian period, different people advocated cutting, chopping blows, or a combination of both, and in some cases this was different for foot and horse fighting. Brigadier General John Jacob, for example, strongly supported stabbing swords for foot fighting, and curved slashing swords for horseback battles. This was due to his own personal experience when he punched the opponent with the tip when he was on horseback, and his sword slipped out of his grip and the blade bent in the process, leaving him virtually disarmed. Sir Richard Francis Burton, writing a few decades later, suggested that this was due to a technical error by Jacob himself.

Disagreements on this topic have been widespread at all levels of the armed forces, as well as in civilian interests. Despite all the controversy, specialized slashing sabers and specialized piercing sabers continued to be successfully used by various representatives on active duty. Each of them could be successfully used in skillful hands. By World War I, the British cavalry used a completely specialized stabbing sabre (essentially an estok), while the Indian cavalry in British service mainly used a specialized chopping sabre with a blade based on an old light cavalry sabre of the 1796 model.