07-16-2003, 09:06 AM | #21 |
Galvatron
Join Date: January 10, 2002
Location: Upstate NY
Age: 56
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That Swordmace is aaahh... amazing an umm... work of... well, it's kindof, aaahhh hmmmm. [img]smile.gif[/img]
I'd tend to perfer something more along these lines: http://www.angelsword.com/Avatar%20A..._gallery2.html specifically some of the simple guard designs of this guy are really clean, the blades are light wootz, and based on pricing and apparent quality I'd at least HOPE they'd be fairly balanced (they look to have substantial pommels, guards and grips), they look like as close to functional as I've seen on the net... although you'd have to replace the fancy wood grips with something that wouldn't get slippery when covered with blood and sweat if you were really going to go back in time with one [img]smile.gif[/img] . [ 07-16-2003, 09:08 AM: Message edited by: Thoran ] |
07-16-2003, 04:38 PM | #22 | |
Manshoon
Join Date: July 1, 2003
Location: Hawaii
Age: 39
Posts: 173
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Quote:
Now as for the blades at angel, the longsword seems to be way to heavy for its size, a longsword shouldn't get heavier than 2 pounds five ounces, anything heavier than that and still a longsword is either poorly made or way to gaudy, guess it must be the granite grip. Also when your looking for guards its usually best to stay away from softer metals like copper. Looks to me like angel armouries sells wallhangers and other decorative stuff more than functional blades, not to say of course that they're useless, just I'd rather have my cresset in a battle than a 3 pound avaatar longsword. The bright knight swords aren't bad though i avoid those useless ultra curved crossguards and tend to stick with the steel crucibus instead. Nice swords but way overpriced in my opinion and for my needs of course as well. (I ain't test cutting with a 6,000 dollar sword heh.)
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07-16-2003, 05:10 PM | #23 | |
Manshoon
Join Date: July 1, 2003
Location: Hawaii
Age: 39
Posts: 173
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Quote:
Now as for the blades at angel, the longsword seems to be way to heavy for its size, a longsword shouldn't get heavier than 2 pounds five ounces, anything heavier than that and still a longsword is either poorly made or way to gaudy, guess it must be the granite grip. Also when your looking for guards its usually best to stay away from softer metals like copper. Looks to me like angel armouries sells wallhangers and other decorative stuff more than functional blades, not to say of course that they're useless, just I'd rather have my cresset in a battle than a 3 pound avaatar longsword. The bright knight swords aren't bad though i avoid those useless ultra curved crossguards and tend to stick with the steel crucibus instead. Nice swords but way overpriced in my opinion and for my needs of course as well. (I ain't test cutting with a 6,000 dollar sword heh.)
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The Democrats bash the Republicans and the Republicans bash the democrats, now everyones got mud in their eyes and they can\'t see what matters.<br />Check out this site: [url]\"http://www.thehaca.com/about.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.thehaca.com/about.htm</a> |
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07-17-2003, 09:53 AM | #24 |
Galvatron
Join Date: January 10, 2002
Location: Upstate NY
Age: 56
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2lb 6 oz. seems a tad light to me for a period accurate piece... to my knowledge midieval swords typically weighed on average 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 pounds (or more), I think those blades from the Museum store look great, and probably the light weight is due to taking advantage of modern metals and heat treating techniques (which far surpass even the mytical Damascus when it comes right down to it). Certainly if I spent 5 g's on a blade I wouldn't be wacking things with it [img]smile.gif[/img] , but I think the wootz blades look to have at least the potential to realistically represent the type of blades available during that era, made with period material and possibly techniques (further exploration of their techniquest would be required to figure that out). I would also add that it appears that period weapons, being in the realm of the aristocracy, tended to be more ornate than the good functional blades produced today... the craftsmanship combined with a functional blade is why I was impressed by the angelsword site (although I'd never spend that kind of cash on a blade purchased site unseen over the net). Seems these days you either get a garbage blade gaudily decorated or a functional blade that's too plain to actually look like a true period blade (and made using steels that are far beyond the capabilities of the day).
As far as the handle material... I think a wire wound or leather wound grip will typically perform much better than a smooth grip, simply because when friction drops from sweat (or blood in the olden days), you still have a mechanical bind between grip and glove leather provided by the voids in the wrap. I agree with you that the angelsword products are obviously intended to be wall hangers... but if I had the cash I'd love to test one out and see what it could do properly configured. |
07-17-2003, 07:03 PM | #25 | |
Manshoon
Join Date: July 1, 2003
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The Democrats bash the Republicans and the Republicans bash the democrats, now everyones got mud in their eyes and they can\'t see what matters.<br />Check out this site: [url]\"http://www.thehaca.com/about.htm\" target=\"_blank\">http://www.thehaca.com/about.htm</a> |
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07-17-2003, 08:38 PM | #26 |
Galvatron
Join Date: January 10, 2002
Location: Upstate NY
Age: 56
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I know Damascus is just another way of processing iron into steel... and as I said, todays steels are well beyond the capabilities of Damascus anyway. Maybe I didn't look into the museum store data enough but it seemed they were using some off the shelf steels in their blades... and until the advent of the Bessemer process such purity was unattainable (and I seem to recall that's why so much folding was needed... to force out the impurities), the lifespan of the long sword was well before the advent of Bessemer. I'm sure the good quality functional blades made today using off the shelf steels are superior in every way to the most radical period blades (except perhaps in geometry unless the new blade is patterened exactly after a period blade).
It appears there may be some disagreement regarding weight, I've seen a couple references to the L.S. historic weight being in the 3# range... but perhaps it's not so cut and dried. Certainly the later long sword designs would have been lighter given their taper, perhaps that's part of the discrepancy. As far as swinging even a 2 1/2 pound blade... I can only imagine what a couple hours of that would be like, because I could never do it. Of course the guys back then were swinging blades from childhood, and I imagine someone will get used to any reasonably weighted and balanced blade (although it may take a while). FWIW... Here's another site, Del Tin... these guys have some nice looking stuff, and their stuff appears to hover in the 2.5-3 lb range. http://www.deltin.it/swords2.htm Here's another link with some very nice looking swords... reasonably priced too for the most part. http://www.ancientedge.com/subcategory_8.html makes me want to get out my checkbook. [img]smile.gif[/img] [ 07-17-2003, 08:51 PM: Message edited by: Thoran ] |
07-18-2003, 02:19 PM | #27 | |
Manshoon
Join Date: July 1, 2003
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