Gen2 Flame of Angels (prototype)
Mar 7, 2010 21:56:03 GMT
Post by Razor on Mar 7, 2010 21:56:03 GMT
[shadow=yellow,left,300]Flame[/shadow]
[shadow=orange,left,300]of[/shadow]
[shadow=red,left,300]Angels[/shadow]
Designed By Adam Sharp
img296.imageshack.us/img296/8678/flameofangelsvx8.jpg
Manufactured By Gen2/Legacy Arms
www.imperialcoinc.com/
Exclusively sold By Imperial Weapons
www.imperialweapons.com/
Review By Ray Harrington
With Special quest Adam Sharp
This pose is in honor of Hans Talhoffer, who did this pose in his book "Medieval Combat"
Me
Adam
Introduction
I would like to thank Jason from Imperial Weapons and Clyde from Gen 2 for allowing me the opportunity to review this sword. I am the second reviewer of a team to review two prototype swords that were picked in a contest at SBG, that was held by Jason of Arms of Valor. Darksword Armory, the original manufacturer of the Flame of Angels, but was not constructed to the true design; therefore Jason chose to have Gen 2 make them.
Slayer of Darkness was the first reviewer, and he did a very thorough review. I thought, how was I going to do this review? Was I just going to review it like I was the first one to do it? If I did that, would it be redundant for me to do the same thing as Slayer? Since these swords are prototypes, Clyde and Jason wanted the reviewers evaluations of these swords, to get a better 'feel' of what they were like. My review is going to be a little different than if it had been a production sword. They will still be weighed and measured, but only to help me evaluate the swords, and get an understanding of them. And also, to make suggestions on changes, if anything needs to be changed at all.
I'm going to insert the link of Slayer of Darkness' review, and I'm going to update it with the links of all the review team. That way, if there is something I missed or if you want to compare all the reviews, you can find them here.
Slayer of Darkness review
/index.cgi?board=swordreviews&action=display&thread=14435
Adam got a chance to come over and check out his sword. It was an advantage to have the designer of the Flame of Angel here to go over the sword together. I got to learn first hand about his design, and observe how much thought and effort he had put into it. How he designed the grip and pommel to the way he holds and uses a longsword, even including a comfortable spot for his pinky finger. The size of the pommel wasn't just to give the sword a good point of balance, but also to strike with.
Historical Overview
Flame of Angels is a fantasy sword, and Adam wanted to design a functional fantasy sword that handles well. Here is a link to the story he wrote.
www.armsofvalour.com/Sword.pdf
Initial Impression
Since another reviewer sent me the sword and not a manufacturer, I didn't take any pictures of the packaging. Slayer did a good job repackaging.
My first impression on this sword was, "Man, this thing is big!" When I picked it up, I noticed the grip right away. This grip has to be the best grip that I have seen on a Gen 2. The pommel is like a mini-mace. I did some dry handling, and surprisingly, it handled great for its weight.
When I was examining the sword, I noticed the tip was bent. It couldn't have happened in the shipping. If so, it would have broke the scabbard as well. I contacted Jason and told him about it. He asked me if I was able to fix it.
Here is the tip after I fixed it.
When Adam first saw his sword, he had this big smile on his face. He quickly went out side to do some dry handling. He was impressed with how well it handled, and how close it was to his original design.
Statistics
Blade length: 35 1/2"
Grip: 8"
Overall length: 47 3/8"
Guard Width: 10 3/8"
POB: 3 1/2"
COP 21
Blade
Flame of Angels has a very elegant leaf-shape blade with flared shoulders. It has a fuller that is 24" long 13/16" wide and about 0.4 mm deep. The thickness of the blade starts at 17/64" by the cross guard and tappers down the to 15/64" before the fuller. The length of the fuller the thickness stays around 11/64". After the fuller the thickness is 9/64" and tappers down to 5/64" at the tip. The edge geometry I will discuss latter.
The leaf-shape blade gives the sword a broad blade that is great for cutting and , the edges tapper in graceful curves to a sharp pint, which is great for thrusting.
Grip
Finally Gen2 has made a grip that I like! It's about the same as my Windlass longsword's grip, with the width of 1 15/32" thickness 3/4" and circumference of 3 3/4" by the cross and the width 1 1/16" thickness 29/32" and circumference of 3 1/4" by the pommel. the wrap is very well done, you can barely see the seam.
The Guard
Adam noticed that the guard was a bit off of his original design, but nonetheless he was still satisfied.
Being a fantasy sword the guard resembles a style 5 guard with the ends at a nicely curved 45 degree angle.
The Pommel
Adam noticed the pommel was a little bit off of his design too, but again he was still satisfied. The measurements were almost right on, with the length of 3" and the width 2.18", his original design, the pommel's length was 3" and the width 2.25". It was the shape of the pommel that was just a bit off from what he drew.
The Scabbard
There is not much more to add. Slayer of Darkness did a really thorough description of the scabbard. I agree on a lot of his "thoughts". I will add, that the sword fits snugly and will not fall out when held upside down with movement.
Handling
For a sword weighing 4.2 lbs. it is agile in it's own right. I did a lot of solo drills and dry cutting, a long with cutting targets. The sword performed with ease. At first, I thought the size of the pommel was going to get in the way, but surprisingly it didn't. I could go from guard to guard and cut with ease. After awhile, I didn't even notice the size of the pommel at all. But when comparing the FoA with other longswords, it's not so nimble. Even though the FoA has a POB of 3 1/2" it is slower and tip heavier than my Windlass Longsword, which has a pob of 6". Adam also could feel the difference in how the sword performed. We both came to the conclusion, that it had to do with the heavier weight of the FoA. I would also like to mention, in my opinion, the leaf-shape blade would also make the sword tip heavier.
Even though the FoA is tip heavy, when I'm in the guards of Pflug(plow) or Ochs(ox), I don't feel the heaviness of the tip. I don't think I have ever experience this before,usually when a sword is tip heavy it is always tip heavy.
I created a video to show how agile it is, while demonstrating the German guards.
Cutting
When Adam came over, I wanted to get him on video cutting along with me.Unfortunately, the sun had gone down. I was hoping the darkness would not be a filming issue, as we had outside lighting to assist us.
We were going to do some cutting before setting my camera up to film. We found out fast that the swords were not sharp enough to cut any bottles or jugs, maybe mats at best, but we didn't have any. That night, we made a video demonstrating how dull the swords were, and we used my Windlass longsword to show that it wasn't our lack of skill. I can see why SlayerofDarkness form was so bad, as he had to put everthing he had in order to cut with these swords.
Evaluating a sword is difficult when it is too dull to cut with, therefore leading to decreased moral amongst the future reviewers.
With the permission from Jason, I sharpened one of the edges, leaving the other edge alone. Now all the other reviewers could see one of the original edges.
When examining the edge before I started sharpening it,I noticed that the geometry on the edges of the swords was off. On one side of the edge, was a wedge grind. The other side was an appleseed grind, that went to far over.
Pressed for time, I created a working edge on it. Not a 100% happy with it, but it should work for the rest of the review tour.
On the first video, shows Adam and I are first cutting with my Windlass Longsword, to demonstrate that we know how to cut then, we tried to cut with the Gen2 FoA.
The second video shows me cutting with the FoA after I sharpened it.
"Each sword is hand forged and will very in sharpness slightly. Jason from AOV/IW will hand inspect each blade for sharpness and touch up the edge if needed before shipping."
Conclusion and Suggestions
In conclusion, Gen2 did a very good job in nearly matching Adam's original design. When we were discussing what to do with the sword, may ideas came up. For instance, distiled taper on the blade. But, let's be realistic. These are sub 300 swords, made in the Philippines. We cannot expect these swords to turn out to be like the high end swords.
I believe the FoA sword is close to being ready for production. Any minor or cosmetic changes could hinder the sword instead of improving its performance, but the sword does need to be lighter. Some suggestions are, the Fuller needs to be at least 1mm deep on both sides. That should lighten up the sword a little bit. The sharpening needs to be improved. The dye of the leather, when wet, will rub off onto your hands and clothing when wiping it down.
You can get the sword here, when it is ready.
www.imperialweapons.com/
-Ray Harrington