OK. I am familiar with the "Spanish notch" found on some large knives. However, while I admit that I am not as familiar with Bowie knives as I might be, what examples of this notch I have don't look anything like this one. This one is quite spikey (and delicate!) whereas the originals I have pictures of are much less dramatic and rounded over, like so:
Also, i don't recall seeing an old sword with a Spanish notch, not even colonial Spanish or Mexican frontier-made swords (and they did make quite a number of swords). They'd be pretty useless, as a matter of fact, as I don't think that the geometry would work out in such a way that trapping an opponents blade would be likely, and if you managed to actually trap an opponents sword you would immobilize your own at the same time - much better to block or deflect and riposte immediately. I've seen a picture of a sword-trapping
dagger before, but the notches were of a different design and along the back of the blade, and since it was intended to be used in the off-hand in conjunction with a sword one could use it to trap an opponent's blade without tying up one's own sword in the process.
Spanish Espada Anchas, of the 19th century single edged variety:
Beyond that, the overall shape of the blade is wrong for a 18th or early 19th century blade - it looks like a curved leaf blade. While you do find curved blades that widen towards the tip, referred to as a hatchet tip, the flare is is rather more subtle than this one, and the edge of the sword is a simple upward sweep with any break in the line on the top profile, not the bottom. See the British 1796 Light Cavalry Saber (or Sabre!) for an example:
Nor is the shape of the blade due to sharpening. A heavily used knife may wear like that, but swords typically don't (there are exceptions, but I think those were used as tools as well), as swords aren't routinely resharpened the way a utility knife is nor is wear concentrated near the handle.. Also, the handle on this sword is placed too high on the blade - it is pretty unusual to have the tang higher than the centerline of the blade on an 18th or 19th century Western sword, the single exception I can recall being here:
https://th.bing.com/th/id/Rc1241735b0c670d0f7b138f9e26c8332?rik=VoAK8zHOeCt89A&riu=http%3a%2f%2fwww.historicalimagebank.com%2fgallery%2fd%2f18000-4%2fRWe5ds%2b-%2bAmerican%2bRevolutionary%2bWar%2bCavalry%2bSaber%2bmade%2bat%2bRappahanock%2bForge%2bVirginia&ehk=mbJkEWz5x4h0iY3pH%2brW%2fNcDhVSHDul4DkJ%2fR06AXHg%3d&risl=&pid=ImgRawWhich leads to the final point, the question of a backwoods smith doing his own thing. I don't think that is the case here. First of all, forging a sword is a pretty big job that is usually left to specialists for a reason, and I don't think that there were many smiths making swords along the frontier. Most of the American-made swords from the Revolutionary period are assembled around European-made blades, Rappahannock Forge and James Potter's weapons being notable exceptions. Those that do seem to have been made by non-specialists are usually very crude, without fullers, and have an irregular curve to the blade being very straight close to the hilt and swooping up towards the tip. This one, while it lacks fullers, is otherwise very nicely made with evident attention to getting flowing lines.
All said, the blade would be very odd for a genuine 18th or early 19th century piece. However, the overall shape, widening towards the tip with a bit of a curve s-curve in the edge, and/or a dropped heel, is very typical of a genre of modern fantasy blades. Even the Spanish notch on this example is reminiscent of the concave ricasso area that is pretty popular today. Weta Workshop's design for Aragorn hunting knife in Lord of the Rings is a pretty good example of this genre:
While I think that Ed's sword is a lot more graceful than Weta's design (and Weta's design is itself among the prettier of this type), I think you all will see that stylistically it is closer to the movie blade than it is to the historical examples posted above.
In sum, I'm pretty confident that the blade at least is fairly modern, though I will allow the possibility that it is a rework of something else, as the tip is a lot closer to what I'd expect to see on an original sword than on a modern fantasy style. The location of the tang though....the hilt and grip might be genuinely old, though, though the guard is rather exaggerated in shape.
I don't pretend to know a great deal about swords of this era, but I wasted a considerable portion of my youth looking at pictures of swords from all eras and nations. I've noticed that historic sword blades, designed for actual use, tend to be fairly straightforward designs, with rather subtle changes in outline contour and a minimum of fuss, whereas modern swords tend to be a lot more dramatic and "busy," being design for visual impact and distinctiveness rather than ease of manufacture, carry, and wielding. When the old time cutlers wanted something dramatic and different, they worked on the hilt rather than the blade, as a general rule.
I need to wrap this up, but hopefully some of the above makes sense! I am enjoying talking about swords of the longrifle age here - they seem to show up surprisingly often in the 18th century accounts of frontier life in the hands of both whites and natives, but seldom get much attention.
