Original Item: Only One Available. Now this is a lovely example of a Knight’s Templar ceremonial sword! The sword is a Texas regulation Templar example and is identified by the Star with T E X A S around it on the crossguard. The sword was produced by the famed Ihling Brothers Everard Company. Ihling Brothers Everard Company, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan, is one of the oldest Masonic and Fraternal Regalia manufacturers in the United States.

Most Knights Templar swords available today are ceremonial or symbolic swords. They aren’t designed for fighting or to be used as a weapon. They are also different from the swords used in the Middle Ages by the Knights Templar to protect pilgrims and fight wars during the Crusades.

Swords used by the Templars of those days were plain, and not decorated like Masonic swords of today.

Knights Templar swords are valuable and can be passed on from one generation to another.

Features of a Knights Templar Sword

Scabbard: The sheath of a Knights Templar sword could be nickel-plated or gold-plated. Nickel-plated knights templar swords traditionally belonged to Sir Knights while gold-plated sheaths are for Commanders in the United States or Preceptor in Canada. The markings on the sheath depend on the manufacturer. This one is silver plated and features the standard Masonic/Christian type of ornate designs.

Pommel of Sword: A Masonic Knights Templar sword usually have a knight’s head depicted on its pommel. This example does have the knight’s head as well as the Christian Cross on the side of it.

Grip: Most Knights Templar swords have a black or ivory grip. The grip will usually have the cross and crown emblem of the Order on it. Some will have a Christian cross or a cross and triangle. Grips can also have the initials of the sword owner on it. This one appears to be ivory and does have the silver Christian Cross on it.

Knuckle guard: The knuckle guard of some swords will have the cross and crown on them, but some will have the head of a knight. This one has a roundel type of device with a star in the center and then a red enamel cross on it with the word T E X A S around it.

Blade: Most Masonic Knights Templar swords have ornate blades with lily work and crusader scenes. The name of the owner is almost always engraved on the blade. The owner for this sword was Donald Henry Taylor and we have not been able to locate any information on him regarding his service and standing to the Knight’s Templar.

A lovely sword ready for further research and display.

Specifications:
Blade Length: 28"
Blade Style: Double Edged Spear Point
Overall length: 34 3/4“
Crossguard: 5 1/8"
Scabbard Length: 29 1/2"

The Knights Templar, full name The United Religious, Military and Masonic Orders of the Temple and of St John of Jerusalem, Palestine, Rhodes and Malta, is a fraternal order affiliated with Freemasonry. Unlike the initial degrees conferred in a regular Masonic Lodge, which (in most Regular Masonic jurisdictions) only require a belief in a Supreme Being regardless of religious affiliation, the Knights Templar is one of several additional Masonic Orders in which membership is open only to Freemasons who profess a belief in Christianity. One of the obligations entrants to the order are required to declare is to protect and defend the Christian faith. The word "United" in its full title indicates that more than one historical tradition and more than one actual order are jointly controlled within this system. The individual orders 'united' within this system are principally the Knights of the Temple (Knights Templar), the Knights of Malta, the Knights of St Paul, and only within the York Rite, the Knights of the Red Cross.

Like the Masonic Red Cross of Constantine being inspired by the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George and the Order of Malta being inspired by the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, the Masonic order of Knights Templar derives its name from the medieval Catholic military order Knights Templar. However, it does not claim any direct lineal descent from the original Templar order.

The earliest documented link between Freemasonry and the Crusades is the 1737 oration of the Chevalier Ramsay. This claimed that European Freemasonry came about from an interaction between crusader masons and the Knights Hospitaller. This is repeated in the earliest known "Moderns" ritual, the Berne manuscript, written in French between 1740 and 1744. Ramsay was initiated as a Templar by his mentor François Fénelon into the non-Masonic French Ordre du Temple with his friend Philippe II, Duke of Orleans as Grandmaster around 1710. After the death of Fenelon and the Duke of Orleans, Ramsay was initiated into Freemasonry around 1730. Since Ramsay's Templarism predated his relationship with Freemasonry by some 20 years, this is the likely source for the introduction of Templarism into Freemasonry.

In 1751 Baron Karl Gotthelf von Hund und Altengrotkau began the Order of Strict Observance, which ritual he claimed to have received from the reconstituted Templar Order in 1743 in Paris. He also claimed to have met two of the "unknown superiors" who directed all of masonry, one of whom was Prince Charles Edward Stuart. The order went into decline when he failed to produce any evidence to support his claims, and was wound up shortly after his death.

In 1779 the High Knights Templar of Ireland Lodge, Kilwinning, obtained a charter from Lodge Mother Kilwinning in Scotland. This lodge now began to grant dispensations to other lodges to confer the Knights Templar Degree. Some time around 1790 the Early Grand Encampment of Ireland was formed, which began to warrant Templar Lodges, and evolved into the Supreme Grand Encampment in 1836. The Early Grand Encampment chartered several Scottish "encampments" one of which, having been chartered in 1805 as the "Edinburgh Encampment No. 31", then became the"Grand Assembly of Knights Templar in Edinburgh". who then sought a charter from the Duke of Kent, Grand Master of the Order in England. It seems that the Templar degree had filtered into the lodges of the Antients from Ireland about 1780, and was recorded at York about the same time. In the five degree system developed by the York Masons, the Knights Templar degree sat between the Master Mason and the Sublime Degree of Royal Arch.