Windlass Sword of Roven Review
Feb 26, 2010 6:19:03 GMT
Post by muerteblack on Feb 26, 2010 6:19:03 GMT
Greetings everyone! I recently discovered SBG, and I'm already overwhelmed by the wealth of pleasantly presented information here, and I'm looking forward to sharing with everyone here, and contributing the (very small amount of) knowledge that I do possess. So in that spirit, I'd like to present my very first review! Comments and suggestions as to what I can improve (which is a lot, i know) are more than welcome, which is the main reason why I'm here.
Formerly advertised as the “Long Sword,” the Sword of Roven is a sword on which I could find very little third party information before I purchased it a couple of months ago. Especially under its new name, (besides of course the same generic product description written by Windlass plastered over everyone and their uncle’s sword retail sites) I saw only passing mentions of it and references to it on various forums, with very little in the way of detailed descriptions. So I took a gamble and purchased it, intrigued by the sword’s simplistically practical look and (advertised) solid construction. Did this gamble pay off? Let’s have a look and find out…
Blade Length: 38"
Ricasso: 6 1/4"
Handle Length: 8"
Overall Length: 47 7/8"
Guard Length: 9 3/4"
Width at Ricasso: 1 13/16”
Width 1” from tip: 11/16”
Thickness at Ricasso: 1/8"
Thickness 1" from tip: 1/16"
POB: 6"
COP: 24"
Weight: 3lbs 3oz
The blade is a lengthy 38” long, featuring a 6 1/4” ricasso, a single fuller running down the blade, and an additional two fullers along the length of the ricasso.
The finish is a flawless mirror polish, which some may not like, but I am personally a sucker for the look. The blade gradually tapers down to a very deadly looking tip that I definitely would not want to have pointed at my throat, or any gaps in my armor for that matter.
As you can also see from the above image, the blade is manufactured blunt by Windlass. To sharpen things up, they send it to their friends in Georgia (Atlanta Cutlery) who stick the poor fellow down on a grinding belt and grind a very severe secondary bevel on either side of the edge. I am personally not a fan of the look, or of the performance, preferring a blade whose very geometry is forged to go straight down to the edge.
To make the best of the situation, I decided to get a whetstone and do some work on it. I sanded down the sides of the blade to remove the severity of the secondary bevel, and produce a more gradual curve.
However, the resulting scratches also had the effect of ruining the finish. However, some 800, 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper, then some Flitz metal polish restored the finish, allowing the blade to do the “mirror camouflage” trick again.
It’s still not an edge with which I am 100% happy, but it still looks fairly decent, and it does slice paper (more info below in the “cutting” section).
Aside from the poor edge geometry, the blade itself is very well forged and heat treated, and although I can bend it, it is still stiff enough to cut without any “whippy” action. Indeed, it is quite a bit stiffer than most other Windlass blades I have heard about (perhaps because of the longer ricasso?). It is also (again, as you’ll see below) capable of taking some (unintentional) abuse, so toughness is not an issue as long as you don’t do anything too destructive with it (which should not be done with any sword).
I am personally a fan of the simple-but-functional attitude of this sword. This is not the decorative sword whose life is wasted hanging on some royalty member’s wall like a monkey who is forced to wear clothes at a tourist attraction. This look says this sword belongs to a warrior who actually takes it into a battle to slice up some adversaries! The guard and pommel are made of steel (although I am not sure of the type).
Speaking of the pommel, it is of a shape I find to be attractive, and easy on the hands when gripping. The tang is threaded and runs through it, with a nut on the end. The threaded construction does cause the pommel to become loose after enough use, but can be retightened. My complaint here is that, due to its construction, tightening it is hard to do, especially without disturbing the pommel’s alignment. I wound up having to use some pliers combined with rubber bands for grip, but that method resulted in scratching up the nut slightly.
I really wish Windlass had designed it to be tightened with a screwdriver instead, for ease of use. However, gripe aside, it does allow for disassembling the hilt to allow for customization if the user desires.
Moving down to the grip, we find a pretty standard wood core wrapped in leather configuration. One nice thing I found was that instead of gluing the leather on with epoxy, Windlass wrapped and sewed the leather onto the core. However, the downside is they did a sloppy job of the stitching at the top, and after several weeks of use, the stitching started to come undone. However, I was able to sew some new stitches on myself to repair the damage and reinforce that area, making it almost as good as new.
The guard was reasonably well executed with a solid, practical design. However, the key word here is “reasonably.” First, the guard’s surface itself has several blemishes that I could not get the camera to pick up (probably due to my own poor photography skills), but the blemishes are visible to the naked eye. Also, the guard’s interface with the blade, although aligned on one side, is not on the other, resulting in a slight gap.
The scabbard is black leather with metal furniture at either end, which looks very simple yet elegant in my opinion. However, it seems to be generic, not tailored for this particular sword, because it is rather ill-fitting, which I hear is very common with Windlass scabbards.
The sword on the whole weighs slightly over 3 pounds. For its class, you could certainly find swords both lighter and heavier. With its balance at 6 inches beyond the guard, which is roughly at the end of the ricasso, as demonstrated above, I find the sword to be a joy to handle either one handed or two handed, despite its length (I am 6’2” which may make some difference). It is light enough to swing both one and two handed, and maneuvers quite well, yet the blade still makes its presence known, and I feel very authoritative when I hold it.
With the way it handles (as I described above), it sure feels like a cutter, but with its edge, is it really? Let’s do some testing and find out. Unfortunately, I do not have a video camera that would take a good enough image to be worth showing any cutting videos, so bear with my lengthy descriptions.
Living in an apartment, water-filled bottles are obviously out of the question, so within these realms, my main enemies are hordes of cardboard boxes, usually TV dinner and empty Kleenex boxes and the like. As you can see, despite my complaints about the edge, with the proper technique, the sword still delivers clean, easy cuts to these poor paper products. Speaking of paper, in addition to slicing and thrusting through heavier targets, the blade is also capable of some finesse. Another of my favorite target types is to fold a sheet of printer paper so that it has a base, and place it on my target stand. While it is sitting unanchored, I can still slice it cleanly in half, or even thrust through it before it has a chance to go flying. I guess the edge wound up being sharp enough after all. As far as durability goes, I have accidentally embedded the blade into my wooden cutting stand and stabbed the tip into some brickwork (don’t ask… it’s embarrassing…), and neither occurrences have caused any edge damage or rolling, so its toughness pretty much speaks for itself.
I would not recommend this sword to someone looking for an out-of-the-box performance cutter, nor would I recommend it to someone looking for an aesthetic display piece. However, with some elbow grease, the cutting geometry of the blade can be improved upon to some extent, and the blade’s quality and integrity itself is extremely good. And if all you want is a blade, the removable hilt assembly would make a great customization project as for $175 at Kult of Athena, you really are getting a lot of sword for your money, and it really is a steal. However, again, for a few dollars more, you can get a sword with better cutting qualities by default. Again though, you get what you pay for. But all things considered, it is a very safe and solid buy if you are very short on cash and want the cheapest two handed long sword that is still an actual battle-ready weapon that will not break on you.
Pros
- Great value for the money
- Excellent handling
- Very tough, well forged blade
Cons
- Poor edge geometry with the default sharpening service
- Sloppy/poor QC implementation of fittings and scabbard
In short, it is definitely hard to find anything else that even comes close at this price point. However, for what it is, it is possible to do so much better for just a few dollars more these days.
Where to buy:
Although MRL now stocks the sword for $199, you can buy the sword at Kult of Athena for $174.95: www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=500794&name=Long+Sword
Reason for edit: corrected a mistake on my part about the blade's unsharpened performance pointed out to me by Razor. Windlass blades, even unsharpened, are still not blunt enough for sparring purposes out of the box.
Windlass Sword of Roven
Steel: 1095 High Carbon Steel
Weight: 3lbs 3oz
Point of Balance: 6”
Price Range: $170-199 USD
Steel: 1095 High Carbon Steel
Weight: 3lbs 3oz
Point of Balance: 6”
Price Range: $170-199 USD
Formerly advertised as the “Long Sword,” the Sword of Roven is a sword on which I could find very little third party information before I purchased it a couple of months ago. Especially under its new name, (besides of course the same generic product description written by Windlass plastered over everyone and their uncle’s sword retail sites) I saw only passing mentions of it and references to it on various forums, with very little in the way of detailed descriptions. So I took a gamble and purchased it, intrigued by the sword’s simplistically practical look and (advertised) solid construction. Did this gamble pay off? Let’s have a look and find out…
Blade Length: 38"
Ricasso: 6 1/4"
Handle Length: 8"
Overall Length: 47 7/8"
Guard Length: 9 3/4"
Width at Ricasso: 1 13/16”
Width 1” from tip: 11/16”
Thickness at Ricasso: 1/8"
Thickness 1" from tip: 1/16"
POB: 6"
COP: 24"
Weight: 3lbs 3oz
The Blade
The blade is a lengthy 38” long, featuring a 6 1/4” ricasso, a single fuller running down the blade, and an additional two fullers along the length of the ricasso.
The finish is a flawless mirror polish, which some may not like, but I am personally a sucker for the look. The blade gradually tapers down to a very deadly looking tip that I definitely would not want to have pointed at my throat, or any gaps in my armor for that matter.
As you can also see from the above image, the blade is manufactured blunt by Windlass. To sharpen things up, they send it to their friends in Georgia (Atlanta Cutlery) who stick the poor fellow down on a grinding belt and grind a very severe secondary bevel on either side of the edge. I am personally not a fan of the look, or of the performance, preferring a blade whose very geometry is forged to go straight down to the edge.
To make the best of the situation, I decided to get a whetstone and do some work on it. I sanded down the sides of the blade to remove the severity of the secondary bevel, and produce a more gradual curve.
However, the resulting scratches also had the effect of ruining the finish. However, some 800, 1000 and 2000 grit sandpaper, then some Flitz metal polish restored the finish, allowing the blade to do the “mirror camouflage” trick again.
It’s still not an edge with which I am 100% happy, but it still looks fairly decent, and it does slice paper (more info below in the “cutting” section).
Aside from the poor edge geometry, the blade itself is very well forged and heat treated, and although I can bend it, it is still stiff enough to cut without any “whippy” action. Indeed, it is quite a bit stiffer than most other Windlass blades I have heard about (perhaps because of the longer ricasso?). It is also (again, as you’ll see below) capable of taking some (unintentional) abuse, so toughness is not an issue as long as you don’t do anything too destructive with it (which should not be done with any sword).
The Fittings
I am personally a fan of the simple-but-functional attitude of this sword. This is not the decorative sword whose life is wasted hanging on some royalty member’s wall like a monkey who is forced to wear clothes at a tourist attraction. This look says this sword belongs to a warrior who actually takes it into a battle to slice up some adversaries! The guard and pommel are made of steel (although I am not sure of the type).
Speaking of the pommel, it is of a shape I find to be attractive, and easy on the hands when gripping. The tang is threaded and runs through it, with a nut on the end. The threaded construction does cause the pommel to become loose after enough use, but can be retightened. My complaint here is that, due to its construction, tightening it is hard to do, especially without disturbing the pommel’s alignment. I wound up having to use some pliers combined with rubber bands for grip, but that method resulted in scratching up the nut slightly.
I really wish Windlass had designed it to be tightened with a screwdriver instead, for ease of use. However, gripe aside, it does allow for disassembling the hilt to allow for customization if the user desires.
Moving down to the grip, we find a pretty standard wood core wrapped in leather configuration. One nice thing I found was that instead of gluing the leather on with epoxy, Windlass wrapped and sewed the leather onto the core. However, the downside is they did a sloppy job of the stitching at the top, and after several weeks of use, the stitching started to come undone. However, I was able to sew some new stitches on myself to repair the damage and reinforce that area, making it almost as good as new.
The guard was reasonably well executed with a solid, practical design. However, the key word here is “reasonably.” First, the guard’s surface itself has several blemishes that I could not get the camera to pick up (probably due to my own poor photography skills), but the blemishes are visible to the naked eye. Also, the guard’s interface with the blade, although aligned on one side, is not on the other, resulting in a slight gap.
The scabbard is black leather with metal furniture at either end, which looks very simple yet elegant in my opinion. However, it seems to be generic, not tailored for this particular sword, because it is rather ill-fitting, which I hear is very common with Windlass scabbards.
Handling
The sword on the whole weighs slightly over 3 pounds. For its class, you could certainly find swords both lighter and heavier. With its balance at 6 inches beyond the guard, which is roughly at the end of the ricasso, as demonstrated above, I find the sword to be a joy to handle either one handed or two handed, despite its length (I am 6’2” which may make some difference). It is light enough to swing both one and two handed, and maneuvers quite well, yet the blade still makes its presence known, and I feel very authoritative when I hold it.
Cutting
With the way it handles (as I described above), it sure feels like a cutter, but with its edge, is it really? Let’s do some testing and find out. Unfortunately, I do not have a video camera that would take a good enough image to be worth showing any cutting videos, so bear with my lengthy descriptions.
Living in an apartment, water-filled bottles are obviously out of the question, so within these realms, my main enemies are hordes of cardboard boxes, usually TV dinner and empty Kleenex boxes and the like. As you can see, despite my complaints about the edge, with the proper technique, the sword still delivers clean, easy cuts to these poor paper products. Speaking of paper, in addition to slicing and thrusting through heavier targets, the blade is also capable of some finesse. Another of my favorite target types is to fold a sheet of printer paper so that it has a base, and place it on my target stand. While it is sitting unanchored, I can still slice it cleanly in half, or even thrust through it before it has a chance to go flying. I guess the edge wound up being sharp enough after all. As far as durability goes, I have accidentally embedded the blade into my wooden cutting stand and stabbed the tip into some brickwork (don’t ask… it’s embarrassing…), and neither occurrences have caused any edge damage or rolling, so its toughness pretty much speaks for itself.
The Bottom Line
I would not recommend this sword to someone looking for an out-of-the-box performance cutter, nor would I recommend it to someone looking for an aesthetic display piece. However, with some elbow grease, the cutting geometry of the blade can be improved upon to some extent, and the blade’s quality and integrity itself is extremely good. And if all you want is a blade, the removable hilt assembly would make a great customization project as for $175 at Kult of Athena, you really are getting a lot of sword for your money, and it really is a steal. However, again, for a few dollars more, you can get a sword with better cutting qualities by default. Again though, you get what you pay for. But all things considered, it is a very safe and solid buy if you are very short on cash and want the cheapest two handed long sword that is still an actual battle-ready weapon that will not break on you.
Pros
- Great value for the money
- Excellent handling
- Very tough, well forged blade
Cons
- Poor edge geometry with the default sharpening service
- Sloppy/poor QC implementation of fittings and scabbard
In short, it is definitely hard to find anything else that even comes close at this price point. However, for what it is, it is possible to do so much better for just a few dollars more these days.
Where to buy:
Although MRL now stocks the sword for $199, you can buy the sword at Kult of Athena for $174.95: www.kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=500794&name=Long+Sword
Reason for edit: corrected a mistake on my part about the blade's unsharpened performance pointed out to me by Razor. Windlass blades, even unsharpened, are still not blunt enough for sparring purposes out of the box.