Swords

hso said:

No opinion any longer since the sale of the company and I have no experience with the new.

I'm not sure they even have swords available any longer. That whole category seems to be out of stock on their site.

Their katana used to be kinda heavy toward the end of the Lynn Thompson era.

I'd check out Sword Buyer's Guide for reviews these days.

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Midway USA has them in stock.

Ok, I'll play. Including the obligatory military blanket.



Top to bottom:
Cold Steel bokken.
Ten Ryu 'build a katana' off walmart.com. Decent for the price.
An extra's sword from Robin Hood; Men in Tights I picked up at Sportsman's Guide many years ago. It is very heavy. I carried it at the MN Renaissance Festival for years.
A cheap "Viking sword" I got off walmart.com.
A Deepaka M1831 Short Artillery Sword, bought at Sportsman's Guide. My g-g-grandfather carried one of these in the Civil War, along with an 1858 Remington. The frog is handmade with deer leather.
Cold Steel Wakizashi machete. Just because. Eventually I will get one to match my katana.
Daggers, etc:
Cheap gun show wire wrapped handled dagger, also carried at RenFest. I made the sheath when I was 18, when I bought the knife.
Even cheaper gun show dagger I also carried at RenFest.
Cold Steel's less expensive Recon Tanto.
Swiss AMT bayonet.

The first is my first try at making a dagger, I did cheat and used a french bayonet as the blade, the scabbard is mahogany with blackend brass fittings the handle is Coriain the cross guard is blued steel and the pommel is blackened brass.
The second is a Wilkinson sword I have had for over 55 years. My brother did write Wilkinson in the early 60's and got information from them on it's history. I am looking for the letter now.

I just found the letter from Wilkinson dated 12/28/62.The sword #5038x was sold to R.L. Dumville on 1/03/1916. It is a Grenadiers Guard sword with battle Honours.
No other info available

JShirley said:

I've actually seen those bayonets, and thought they'd be neat with the right handle. I don't often "gush" about knives, but I love it!

How deep into the handle does the tang go?

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It goes in about 2+", the cross guard goes right thru the blade at the small hole used to secure it in the rifle.

JShirley said:

That should be plenty strong. Have you considered making more?

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I haven't been able to find one of those bayonets since (I made this about 15 years ago). it's rare to find one by itself.

I think the last one I saw for sale alone was north of $50.00.
This is a display piece so strength is not an issue, I don't think I will be doing any cloak and dagger work soon.

The Katana is around 350 years old. I used it in Ken Jitsu and Iaido.

The rest, my dad brought back from WWII.

Just ran across a pair of the Swiss AMT bayonets this weekend…. probably messed up not buying at least one at $60.

Older guy with unrecognizable European accent (older than my 68 years) had several European military swords on his table I have not seen here and my phone was near dead. Sorry.

-kBob

I've got an old Cavalry saber. I believe it is an Ames Mfg. Co. 1860 model. It is in fairly good shape. I do not have the scabbard. The Gladius is a home made decorative piece of junk. I am pretty sure mine is a 1860 model because it is identical to the one I am holding in the picture, which has been identified as a 1860 model. It belonged to Gen. John Buford, one of the hero's of Gettysburg. It is inscribed with the words "Maj. Gen. John Buford." Which is interesting, because Buford was a Brig. General at the time of the battle. He was promoted on his death bead. He was a Major General for about four hours. I asked the Museum director if the sword was real. Indeed it is. The inscription was added after his death.

The saber will be on display again, after the Museum re-opens, hopefully in the spring of next year.

Before someone screams “Hey, kBob, no wall hangers!” Let me say this is not a wall hanger. This is the same model of this sword ordered from the same supplier as swords actually in use… by the three drum majors of UCF’s Marching Knights Band. This past year the two assistants actually fought “duels” with them in the Bounce House at home games.

My daughter felt the need for one and spent her own money on this one, which is admittedly only an hour after these pictures were taken …. hanging on the wall of her bedroom at home as she is home for summer.

Got my home season tickets to see the sword fights.

-kBob

I really like Albion's "Next Generation" swords. The top tier weapons of the line are the Viceroy (which cuts through space and time anywhere along the blade while being an excellent stabber) and the Principe. The Crecy is a great general purpose sword. However, if you can get only one, get the Viceroy (Type XXa).

I have the Albion Castellan. I really like it for its history. The design was in the sheathes of knights all over Europe during the Hundred Years War.

The top one is the Castellan. The bottom is their Ringeck.

It was found in use from the early 1300's for over 200 years into the 16th Century. Its triangular shape was made for heavy armored fighting. The knight would drive it with one hand and control it by placing his hand on the blade. The point would be worked into the gaps in the armor. The triangular shape would be used to penetrate the rings of maille, padding and flesh. Three inches is that that was needed to kill a man. It can cut but is mediocre at best. The triangular blade lacks the body for good cutting near the point. The result is that the user must strike the target almost in the center of the blade (the center differentiates the two parts of the blade: "strong", which is the half closer to the cross, and the "weak", which is the half toward the point.) The problem with this is that the user has to get closer to the target. Many swords are built for cutting with the last few inches of the blade, but not this one. It is very fast in the hand and the "fish tail" pommel locks in the hand.

Keep in mind these designs changed over time in response to changes in armor and fighting techniques. All of them; however, work great for stabbing your enemies through the face and the point coming out the back of their head or neck.

I dislike the Ringeck. It is very "whippy" and swings weird until you get used to it. It's more of a general purpose sword that can be used for armored and unarmored fighting.

Here is some guy showing the proportions of the Principe. A friend of mine uses his in cutting competition and he says it's like cheating. Though it looks heavy, it is not. It is nimble in the hand and the wide blade gives it some interesting cutting attributes. The ancient masters knew what they were doing when they designed this sword.

One trick to improve your cutting with any European sword is to wire wrap the bottom half of the hilt. It locks your hand in. This feature is expensive and adds to the price, but it's like adding night sights to your EDC.

"Katana vs European sword" is the sword nerd's equivalent of 9mm vs 45 ACP. They always argue back and forth about which was better. Such arguments are pointless since both types of swords were developed in the context of their respective types of warfare against armor designed at the time.

If you just look at the katana, it loses half the techniques available to double edged blades. This probably doesn't matter in the course of use by an expert swordsman. Japanese swordsmen treated their swords very differently due to the low quality of materials. This is borderline religious reverence. Conversely, in Europe where iron and steel were common, a sword of war was treated as a tool to be used up unless it had some sort of sentimental value. You'll see this reflected in techniques; the Japanese never met edge to edge while the techniques of Fiore, Liechtenaur, etc, including "winding" which would notch the edges. But, this gives the wielder access to techniques to control the opponent's sword while stabbing.

Targeting is very interesting with the katana. Since its curved shape makes it an amazing cutter, targeting seems to be more oriented toward that. Obviously, stabbing does occur as the katana has a point. But the martial arts side of it targeted eyes, palms of the hands, leather straps on the armor, arm pits, inside the elbow and so forth. I noticed the targets are very small and require precision to hit.

Contrast with Europeans: they take the fighting in close with a hand on the blade for control and a hand on the hilt for power. Perhaps JSA did this too; it's very hard on the sword. The techniques are very interesting and I'm sure there's overlap in the Japanese Sword Arts (after all, everyone has the same body more-or-less so the techniques will revolve around that). I've never witnessed a demonstration of JSA sword fighting in armor, but both styles will have Ju-Jitsu like moves.

I started my love of swords when watching Zorro as a boy, then the old cavalry westerns and Errol Flynn/Basil Rathbone pirate and Robin Hood movies with Dad.

First sword I ever got, Grandma bought me in an Army-Navy Surplus store in Detroit when I was about nine or ten -- a real 1860 cavalry saber, in fine condition. I was the hero of my neighborhood for quite a while.

In college I fenced a bit. I love the rapier. My Cold Steel colichemarde reproduction is a pretty worthy sword (in my opinion). Being former Navy, I have a couple real naval cutlasses. Got a few wall-hangers, but a couple can be used, if need be, for real should someone break into the wrong rec room...

I'll have to take some pictures. Only sword pic I have for now:

Japan was so metal-poor that they would confiscate any foreign ships that they could and then burn them for the metals within.
That was the favored source for Japanese weapon steel.
Not coincidentally, Japanese armor almost never contained any significant amount of metal.
This greatly influenced the efficacy of Japanese bladed weapons... .