Wallace Sword The Wallace Sword is an antique claymore purported to have belonged to William Wallace ( 1272 – 1305 ) , a Scottish knight who led a resistance to the English occupation of Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence . It is said to have been used by William Wallace at the Battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297 and the Battle of Falkirk ( 1298 ) . The shaft of the sword measures in length and including the hilt . The breadth of the blade varies from at the guard to before the point . The sword weighs . History . It has been alleged that after William Wallace ' s execution in 1305 , Sir John de Menteith , governor of Dumbarton Castle received the sword in August of that year . But there are no records to that effect . Two hundred years later , in 1505 , accounts survive which state that at the command of King James IV of Scotland , the sum of 26 shillings was paid to an armourer for the " binding of Wallace ' s sword with cords of silk " and providing it with " a new hilt and plomet " and also with a " new scabbard and a new belt " . This repair would have been necessary because , according to legend , Wallace ' s original scabbard , hilt and belt were said to have been made from the dried skin of Hugh Cressingham , one of the English commanders at the Battle of Stirling Bridge . No other written records of the sword are found for a further three centuries . In 1875 a letter from the War Office informed that the sword , in 1825 was sent to the Tower of London to be repaired . At that time it was submitted to a Dr Samuel Meyrick by the Duke of Wellington for examination . Dr Meyrick was an authority on ancient swords , but he estimated the age of the sword by examining the mountings only , which as we know were replaced early in the 16th century . Thus he concluded that the sword could not date from earlier than the 15th century . However , he did not take account of the blade , which must have been of some importance for James IV to have it bound in silk and give it a new scabbard , hilt and belt , and it was also described then as the " Wallas sword " . The sword was recovered from Dumbarton by Charles Rogers , author of " The Book of Wallace " . Rogers , on 15 October 1888 , renewed a correspondence with the Secretary of State for War , with the result that the Major General commanding forces in North Britain was authorised to deliver the weapon to his care for preservation in the Wallace Monument . Historical accuracy . There is good reason to believe that this sword as it is now did not belong to William Wallace . The blade does not possess a fuller — a near - universal feature of blades with this type of cross - section ( lenticular ) except in processional swords of the Renaissance . The blade in its original state would have likely been Oakeshott type XIIIa ( also known as Espee de Guerrel or Grete war sword ) , which became common by the mid - 13th century . Such swords would have a long , wide blade with parallel edges , ending in a rounded or spatulate tip . The grip , longer than in the earlier Scottish swords , typically some 15 cm ( almost 6 inches ) , allows good two - handed use . The cross - guards were probably down - sloping ( in the later highland style ) or straight , and the pommel either regularly Brazil - nut or disk - shaped but this case perhaps a lobed pommel inspired by the Viking style . Close inspection reveals that it may be made up from pieces of different swords fitted together . Part of this could have come from a late - 13th - century sword . David Caldwell , writes that " Apart from the reshaping of the guard , this sword does not appear untypical of the two - handed swords in use in the lowlands of Scotland in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth centuries . ” ( page 174 ) and that the blade has a ricasso , which is not a medieval feature . However , the blade appears to be made of 3 separate pieces hammer welded together . The bottommost piece has a flattened diamond cross - section , and so perhaps might be a 13th - century sword , and therefore there is some hope for those who think that Wallace ' s sword is there .