VA 304s with Bristol Fittings
Aug 3, 2009 3:56:12 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 3, 2009 3:56:12 GMT
Hello all. This is my first review on here, so I hope it's informative and somewhat useful. As one of the first owners of a sword from the new Valiant Armoury Custom Sword Shoppe, I felt I had to go ahead and review my newest acquisition.
First off, a little personal background: I've studied German longsword for 3 years and am now studying Italian longsword. I'm a forum lurker to the extreme, so you won't have seen many posts by me... but I do at least have "some" experience with the more common European sword types.
When Valiant first announced their Custom Sword Shoppe, I envisioned those beautiful Bristol fittings on a longsword. Luckily, I only live about 30 minutes from Valiant HQ, and I've spoken with Sonny on a number of occasions, so he was kind enough to let me pop by and see what they were doing over there. This is why I was able to sneak under the wire with my custom, they'd barely even announced the custom shoppe and I was already bugging them, poking around and asking questions. To make an already long story a bit shorter, Sonny obliged me by making mine one of the very first customs to roll off the line. We went with green because... well... it's my favorite color <shrug>.
Historical Overview
This sword uses the already familiar 304s blade with the Bristol's type 9 guard (might want to double-check me on that typology) and what I'd call a type V1 pommel (fishtail variant). While I'm not even much of an armchair historian, I'd venture a guess that you could have seen a similar sword throughout much of the fifteenth century (all you hardcore history buffs feel free to correct me here...lol).
Initial Impressions
Again, since I live nearby I was able to go pick this sword up as soon as the dye was dry. As an aside, it simply amazes me how much Valiant does in-house.
When I first picked this sword up, I was amazed at the leatherwork; the seam on the grip was almost invisible. They'd skived the join and everything.
The finish on the fittings was equally impressive. It was a satin finish (think Albion), which might have been finished by hand judging by the polishing lines. The decorative lines on the guard do appear to have been slightly polished off on one spot, but that is an exceptionally minor point. I doubt many people could pick up this sword and immediately notice that. Also, due to my love of handmade items.. this just makes the sword that much more endearing to me.
The scabbard is the same quality we've come to expect from Valiant, so I probably don't need to wax poetic about that. I will mention the leather color real quick, though. I'd hesitantly requested green, as I've been wanting a green sword for some time. I say "hesitantly" because green can look REALLY good, but it all too often looks reeaaally bad. Well, they might as well have scanned my brain for the exact green I wanted, because I got it!
Absolutely beautiful!
The green seems slightly brighter in this picture than it looks in real life:
Note: For better pics, you might want to check this sword out at Valiant's Custom Sword Shoppe website. I'm glad I got my camera working, but I'm still a pretty poor photographer...lol.
Statistics
Overall Length: 45 inches
Blade Length: 35 3/4 in.
Handle: 6 in. (without pommel), 9 in. (with pommel)
PoB: About 5 inched from cross.
CoP: About 8 inches from tip.
Weight: I have no scale, but it doesn't feel much different from the standard 304s. Maybe add an extra ounce or two for the heavier pommel.
Handling Characteristics
Truth be told, it's been awhile since I've been able to work with a really good longsword; only my wasters have seen use in the past year or so. Dry handling my kriegschwert is only done up at work, as it's still on layaway (I work at a store that sells knives and swords). I mention this to be completely honest.... I'm rusty.
That being said, this sword handles like a dream. It moves very quickly from guard to guard (accompanied by a satisfying whistle as it moves through the air), and the point control was absolutely excellent for a sword of this type.
Test Cutting
Alright, here's where my year off from cutting really made me shine, or rather... it didn't. Also, I apologize for the 2 liters, I had no smaller bottles available.
My first cut was pretty unimpressive. I cut near the CoP, and didn't think my edge alignment was too bad, so I opted to check the edge. The edge looked pretty good around the CoP (so we'll chalk it up to edge alignment), but I did notice that an area near the tip didn't seem quite perfect. Funnily enough, my tip cuts were all pretty good... so it seems to be a moot point.
I would like to mention that my Kriegschwert "seems" to have an edge with a bit more bite (haven't been able to cut with it yet though), so there does seem to be some variance. Although, we should also keep in mind that one is a Signature and one is a modified Practical... so it might be apples to oranges.
Edge alignment still not perfect, but a decent cut none-the-less:
Very clean tip cut:
My favorite cut! Such a clean cut that the bottle was still full of water and not leaking... except when I was shaking the stand while trying to get a better angle for my picture.
Thrusting with this bad boy was completely effortless... there's not much more to say about that. After the fact, I tried to find the "thrusted" bottles to take pics, but they were all too destroyed by that point to tell one from another (whoops).
I'd also like to mention that I did tag my cutting stand on one cut and the edge showed absolutely no damage of any kind.
All in all, this sword cuts quite well... any and all "flubs" we'll chalk up to user error (I was cutting pretty poorly).
I am still one happy camper!
Conclusions
Just so you know, I went to art school here in Texas, and I received my BFA in Metalsmithing from said school. My point in mentioning this is that we were always told that a critique didn't do anyone any good unless you mentioned all the bad points. That idea was drilled into me for several years, and since then I've abided by it in every aspect of my life (sometimes to disastrous results ).
Well, ladies and gentleman... you've already heard everything bad I have to say! Part of the edge near the tip didn't "seem" perfect, but cut well anyway (despite poor cutting form), and part of the guard was a bit "overpolished" (which is a nice quirk to let you know it's a handmade piece). My only worry is that the Valiant Armoury team may have set the bar too high for their future work. Sorry everyone, if you want anything better, you'll have to go directly to Christian or Gus.
Pros:
~Leatherwork is absolutely beautiful. Hands down the best I've seen yet.
~ Weight/balance is spot-on, easily the best you'll find in this price range.
~ Sonny and his team went to great lengths to give me EXACTLY what I wanted. Thanks again guys!!!
Cons:
~ Edge wasn't quite as pristine as what I've found on some other Valiant swords, but impressive none-the-less (Please see the end of my review*).
~ Some detail was lost on the guard during polishing.
~ This exact model is no longer available. However, Sonny did mention that they're coming out with more practical fittings, so custom options should be growing soon.
* Here's a little anecdote. While discussing the edge at the shop, Sonny did mention that even he was surprised by the sword's sharpness, since his finger got sliced at one point! I'm happy to know that Sonny put just a little bit more of himself into this sword...lol.
First off, a little personal background: I've studied German longsword for 3 years and am now studying Italian longsword. I'm a forum lurker to the extreme, so you won't have seen many posts by me... but I do at least have "some" experience with the more common European sword types.
When Valiant first announced their Custom Sword Shoppe, I envisioned those beautiful Bristol fittings on a longsword. Luckily, I only live about 30 minutes from Valiant HQ, and I've spoken with Sonny on a number of occasions, so he was kind enough to let me pop by and see what they were doing over there. This is why I was able to sneak under the wire with my custom, they'd barely even announced the custom shoppe and I was already bugging them, poking around and asking questions. To make an already long story a bit shorter, Sonny obliged me by making mine one of the very first customs to roll off the line. We went with green because... well... it's my favorite color <shrug>.
Historical Overview
This sword uses the already familiar 304s blade with the Bristol's type 9 guard (might want to double-check me on that typology) and what I'd call a type V1 pommel (fishtail variant). While I'm not even much of an armchair historian, I'd venture a guess that you could have seen a similar sword throughout much of the fifteenth century (all you hardcore history buffs feel free to correct me here...lol).
Initial Impressions
Again, since I live nearby I was able to go pick this sword up as soon as the dye was dry. As an aside, it simply amazes me how much Valiant does in-house.
When I first picked this sword up, I was amazed at the leatherwork; the seam on the grip was almost invisible. They'd skived the join and everything.
The finish on the fittings was equally impressive. It was a satin finish (think Albion), which might have been finished by hand judging by the polishing lines. The decorative lines on the guard do appear to have been slightly polished off on one spot, but that is an exceptionally minor point. I doubt many people could pick up this sword and immediately notice that. Also, due to my love of handmade items.. this just makes the sword that much more endearing to me.
The scabbard is the same quality we've come to expect from Valiant, so I probably don't need to wax poetic about that. I will mention the leather color real quick, though. I'd hesitantly requested green, as I've been wanting a green sword for some time. I say "hesitantly" because green can look REALLY good, but it all too often looks reeaaally bad. Well, they might as well have scanned my brain for the exact green I wanted, because I got it!
Absolutely beautiful!
The green seems slightly brighter in this picture than it looks in real life:
Note: For better pics, you might want to check this sword out at Valiant's Custom Sword Shoppe website. I'm glad I got my camera working, but I'm still a pretty poor photographer...lol.
Statistics
Overall Length: 45 inches
Blade Length: 35 3/4 in.
Handle: 6 in. (without pommel), 9 in. (with pommel)
PoB: About 5 inched from cross.
CoP: About 8 inches from tip.
Weight: I have no scale, but it doesn't feel much different from the standard 304s. Maybe add an extra ounce or two for the heavier pommel.
Handling Characteristics
Truth be told, it's been awhile since I've been able to work with a really good longsword; only my wasters have seen use in the past year or so. Dry handling my kriegschwert is only done up at work, as it's still on layaway (I work at a store that sells knives and swords). I mention this to be completely honest.... I'm rusty.
That being said, this sword handles like a dream. It moves very quickly from guard to guard (accompanied by a satisfying whistle as it moves through the air), and the point control was absolutely excellent for a sword of this type.
Test Cutting
Alright, here's where my year off from cutting really made me shine, or rather... it didn't. Also, I apologize for the 2 liters, I had no smaller bottles available.
My first cut was pretty unimpressive. I cut near the CoP, and didn't think my edge alignment was too bad, so I opted to check the edge. The edge looked pretty good around the CoP (so we'll chalk it up to edge alignment), but I did notice that an area near the tip didn't seem quite perfect. Funnily enough, my tip cuts were all pretty good... so it seems to be a moot point.
I would like to mention that my Kriegschwert "seems" to have an edge with a bit more bite (haven't been able to cut with it yet though), so there does seem to be some variance. Although, we should also keep in mind that one is a Signature and one is a modified Practical... so it might be apples to oranges.
Edge alignment still not perfect, but a decent cut none-the-less:
Very clean tip cut:
My favorite cut! Such a clean cut that the bottle was still full of water and not leaking... except when I was shaking the stand while trying to get a better angle for my picture.
Thrusting with this bad boy was completely effortless... there's not much more to say about that. After the fact, I tried to find the "thrusted" bottles to take pics, but they were all too destroyed by that point to tell one from another (whoops).
I'd also like to mention that I did tag my cutting stand on one cut and the edge showed absolutely no damage of any kind.
All in all, this sword cuts quite well... any and all "flubs" we'll chalk up to user error (I was cutting pretty poorly).
I am still one happy camper!
Conclusions
Just so you know, I went to art school here in Texas, and I received my BFA in Metalsmithing from said school. My point in mentioning this is that we were always told that a critique didn't do anyone any good unless you mentioned all the bad points. That idea was drilled into me for several years, and since then I've abided by it in every aspect of my life (sometimes to disastrous results ).
Well, ladies and gentleman... you've already heard everything bad I have to say! Part of the edge near the tip didn't "seem" perfect, but cut well anyway (despite poor cutting form), and part of the guard was a bit "overpolished" (which is a nice quirk to let you know it's a handmade piece). My only worry is that the Valiant Armoury team may have set the bar too high for their future work. Sorry everyone, if you want anything better, you'll have to go directly to Christian or Gus.
Pros:
~Leatherwork is absolutely beautiful. Hands down the best I've seen yet.
~ Weight/balance is spot-on, easily the best you'll find in this price range.
~ Sonny and his team went to great lengths to give me EXACTLY what I wanted. Thanks again guys!!!
Cons:
~ Edge wasn't quite as pristine as what I've found on some other Valiant swords, but impressive none-the-less (Please see the end of my review*).
~ Some detail was lost on the guard during polishing.
~ This exact model is no longer available. However, Sonny did mention that they're coming out with more practical fittings, so custom options should be growing soon.
* Here's a little anecdote. While discussing the edge at the shop, Sonny did mention that even he was surprised by the sword's sharpness, since his finger got sliced at one point! I'm happy to know that Sonny put just a little bit more of himself into this sword...lol.