DSA Squire (yeah, another one)
Aug 19, 2008 3:52:21 GMT
Post by Deleted on Aug 19, 2008 3:52:21 GMT
DSA Squire
First Impressions, Mostly Aesthetic –
Please keep in mind this is my first sword so I have absolutely nothing to compare it to. I am very very happy with my new sword. This sword has been pretty thoroughly reviewed and discussed here already. So, the small things I mention below are purely informational and are offered as comparison to others’ experience with the same sword, as there has been a lot of talk about widespread variation with this blade. I feel that nearly everything mentioned falls well within what you should expect from a $259 sword. It is not a meticulously handcrafted one of a kind masterpiece, nor is it part of a 50,000-unit cookie-cutter production run from a sweatshop. It is somewhere in between.
Things I like – the overall look of this sword. It is attractive and even better looking in hand, than in pictures. When I unpacked it at work, there was a rousing chorus of “Oh My God – That’s Beautiful!” from all my co-workers. The blue leather of the grip and scabbard is not nearly as bright as I feared. I was worried the blue might be too loud, but the leather is a very deep dark blue. The guard looks more handmade than machined. It is symmetrical and even, but every corner and edge doesn’t look perfectly squared off. Nice. There was no rust anywhere. I am pleased that it looks and feels like an attractively designed working tool, not a work of art that I am unworthy of.
Packing/shipping – it was well packed. Completely not DSA’s fault, but it got hung up by UPS and it took 8 full days instead of 5 to get to me. In that time, sitting in hot trucks and hot warehouses, the packing grease on the blade had more than enough time to migrate along the plastic wrapping and ooze out all over the leather grip and even get out to the separately packed scabbard that was in a thick paper covered sleeve. Very messy. Fortunately, it seems to have cleaned up fine. I can’t see any signs of discoloration to the leather.
The sword seats well into the scabbard, at least from the front. It seats a bit unevenly from the back, but it doesn’t wobble or rattle. It’s not tight-fitting. The sword would tip out easily. The scabbard seems quite solidly built, the stitching is even, and the collar and chape are tightly attached, if a little uneven at the top.
The metal collar isn’t completely even with the wood/leather at the throat and the rubber cement sealing the join has leached the blue dye and turned shockingly purple. I am probably going to try and darken that. Based on DSA’s own claims and other’s reviews, I wasn’t expecting much from the scabbard, so it’s all good.
A little disappointing, but nothing major:
Pommel -
It doesn’t match the guard in quality. It is obviously machined (too perfectly shaped) and not all that well finished. There are light tool marks on the edges and the inner circle was full of black polishing compound (easily wiped out). The inner circle is quite rough – not a problem if you are planning on plugging a pommel décor disc in there, but otherwise a little unfinished looking.
Grip wrap –
The seam is along the side of the grip, which is fine- it has to be somewhere, but it is overlap-glued with the edge facing up, to the front side of the sword (blade side with the DSA crest). I suppose that if I wanted to wrestle with the pommel glue, I could just turn the grip around, but then you would see where the ends of the wire wrap go poking into the leather. So, the grip is not assembled in a way that presents its best possible face forward. This would only matter for displaying. When you are holding it, obviously you don’t see any of this.
Very much on the plus side, the wire wrap really does guide your fingers into a comfortable grip. I have large hands for a woman - I wear a men’s large glove, for reference.
More of a problem, but still not deal-killing:
The Fuller on the front side has a slight s-bend.
I didn’t notice it at first, until I ran my finger down the fuller, and now it’s hard not to keep looking at it. You really only see it in just the right light or if you are sighting down the blade. On the back side, the fuller is straight. So, I have officially declared the DSA crest side to be the back now.
The biggest problem I see is that the cutout in the guard where the blade comes through seems too big.
Nothing is loose, but the geometry is off. The blade is clearly not centered with respect to the guard. I don’t think anything is bent, but you can see where one blade edge is centered and the other is not, where they exit the guard.
Additionally, one side of the guard is flush to the flat of the blade, but there is a big gap on the other side. Hopefully this won’t have a major effect on the handling. Again, taking it all apart and somehow shimming it might fix this? The gap between the blade and the guard was also packed full of black polishing compound that I had to dig out.
Sharpening. This was pretty disappointing. I paid the 25$ and had DSA sharpen it, and understood it would be machine sharpened. The best I can say is that they made a half decent start that has taken the bulk of the work out of sharpening it myself (leaving the whole “V” versus Appleseed discussion aside for now). The edge is uneven in sharpness along its length and uneven in depth of the V (not sure if that is the right way to describe it). On one side the sharpening cut might be 1/8th inch wide, while the other side might look barely touched. I was pleased that they left a portion of blade near the hilt blunted – I am fond of my fingers.
However it is totally uneven… on one side they left 1 ½ “ and 1 ¾”, right and left. On the other side, they left 1 ½” and 2 ½“ – it just looks sloppy. There are little scratches, scuffs really, all over that would quickly polish off, but there are also one or two bigger scratches and some deeper grind marks right next to the DSA crest.
There are rough metal burrs still hanging onto one section of edge and part of the tip isn’t sharpened at all. Even so, I would say it was worth the $25, given the horror stories I have heard about sharpening these swords from scratch.
I weighed the sword on 3 different scales and it is right around 3lbs 6 oz. Maybe an ounce more or less. But 3lbs 6oz is my story and I am sticking with it .
The point of balance is 6 inches from the pointy tip of the guard, and 7 inches from the back of the guard where it meets leather. So yeah… 6.5 inches as advertised on Arms of Valor sounds okay to me.
It feels pretty blade heavy, as expected. I noticed that DSA has updated their website ala the weight. Apparently they now also include a leather sword belt , though I didn’t get one. Not a problem since I have become slightly obsessed with making my own.
I will have to let you know about how it handles (if I can handle it) and how it cuts later. I need to clean up that edge, gather some targets and figure out some kind of stand first.
Overall, it has been an excellent, satisfying transaction with Paul, the SBG store and Darksword Armory. Thanks to the SBG store and these forums, I got what I paid for and I got what I expected.
Buff
First Impressions, Mostly Aesthetic –
Please keep in mind this is my first sword so I have absolutely nothing to compare it to. I am very very happy with my new sword. This sword has been pretty thoroughly reviewed and discussed here already. So, the small things I mention below are purely informational and are offered as comparison to others’ experience with the same sword, as there has been a lot of talk about widespread variation with this blade. I feel that nearly everything mentioned falls well within what you should expect from a $259 sword. It is not a meticulously handcrafted one of a kind masterpiece, nor is it part of a 50,000-unit cookie-cutter production run from a sweatshop. It is somewhere in between.
Things I like – the overall look of this sword. It is attractive and even better looking in hand, than in pictures. When I unpacked it at work, there was a rousing chorus of “Oh My God – That’s Beautiful!” from all my co-workers. The blue leather of the grip and scabbard is not nearly as bright as I feared. I was worried the blue might be too loud, but the leather is a very deep dark blue. The guard looks more handmade than machined. It is symmetrical and even, but every corner and edge doesn’t look perfectly squared off. Nice. There was no rust anywhere. I am pleased that it looks and feels like an attractively designed working tool, not a work of art that I am unworthy of.
Packing/shipping – it was well packed. Completely not DSA’s fault, but it got hung up by UPS and it took 8 full days instead of 5 to get to me. In that time, sitting in hot trucks and hot warehouses, the packing grease on the blade had more than enough time to migrate along the plastic wrapping and ooze out all over the leather grip and even get out to the separately packed scabbard that was in a thick paper covered sleeve. Very messy. Fortunately, it seems to have cleaned up fine. I can’t see any signs of discoloration to the leather.
The sword seats well into the scabbard, at least from the front. It seats a bit unevenly from the back, but it doesn’t wobble or rattle. It’s not tight-fitting. The sword would tip out easily. The scabbard seems quite solidly built, the stitching is even, and the collar and chape are tightly attached, if a little uneven at the top.
The metal collar isn’t completely even with the wood/leather at the throat and the rubber cement sealing the join has leached the blue dye and turned shockingly purple. I am probably going to try and darken that. Based on DSA’s own claims and other’s reviews, I wasn’t expecting much from the scabbard, so it’s all good.
A little disappointing, but nothing major:
Pommel -
It doesn’t match the guard in quality. It is obviously machined (too perfectly shaped) and not all that well finished. There are light tool marks on the edges and the inner circle was full of black polishing compound (easily wiped out). The inner circle is quite rough – not a problem if you are planning on plugging a pommel décor disc in there, but otherwise a little unfinished looking.
Grip wrap –
The seam is along the side of the grip, which is fine- it has to be somewhere, but it is overlap-glued with the edge facing up, to the front side of the sword (blade side with the DSA crest). I suppose that if I wanted to wrestle with the pommel glue, I could just turn the grip around, but then you would see where the ends of the wire wrap go poking into the leather. So, the grip is not assembled in a way that presents its best possible face forward. This would only matter for displaying. When you are holding it, obviously you don’t see any of this.
Very much on the plus side, the wire wrap really does guide your fingers into a comfortable grip. I have large hands for a woman - I wear a men’s large glove, for reference.
More of a problem, but still not deal-killing:
The Fuller on the front side has a slight s-bend.
I didn’t notice it at first, until I ran my finger down the fuller, and now it’s hard not to keep looking at it. You really only see it in just the right light or if you are sighting down the blade. On the back side, the fuller is straight. So, I have officially declared the DSA crest side to be the back now.
The biggest problem I see is that the cutout in the guard where the blade comes through seems too big.
Nothing is loose, but the geometry is off. The blade is clearly not centered with respect to the guard. I don’t think anything is bent, but you can see where one blade edge is centered and the other is not, where they exit the guard.
Additionally, one side of the guard is flush to the flat of the blade, but there is a big gap on the other side. Hopefully this won’t have a major effect on the handling. Again, taking it all apart and somehow shimming it might fix this? The gap between the blade and the guard was also packed full of black polishing compound that I had to dig out.
Sharpening. This was pretty disappointing. I paid the 25$ and had DSA sharpen it, and understood it would be machine sharpened. The best I can say is that they made a half decent start that has taken the bulk of the work out of sharpening it myself (leaving the whole “V” versus Appleseed discussion aside for now). The edge is uneven in sharpness along its length and uneven in depth of the V (not sure if that is the right way to describe it). On one side the sharpening cut might be 1/8th inch wide, while the other side might look barely touched. I was pleased that they left a portion of blade near the hilt blunted – I am fond of my fingers.
However it is totally uneven… on one side they left 1 ½ “ and 1 ¾”, right and left. On the other side, they left 1 ½” and 2 ½“ – it just looks sloppy. There are little scratches, scuffs really, all over that would quickly polish off, but there are also one or two bigger scratches and some deeper grind marks right next to the DSA crest.
There are rough metal burrs still hanging onto one section of edge and part of the tip isn’t sharpened at all. Even so, I would say it was worth the $25, given the horror stories I have heard about sharpening these swords from scratch.
I weighed the sword on 3 different scales and it is right around 3lbs 6 oz. Maybe an ounce more or less. But 3lbs 6oz is my story and I am sticking with it .
The point of balance is 6 inches from the pointy tip of the guard, and 7 inches from the back of the guard where it meets leather. So yeah… 6.5 inches as advertised on Arms of Valor sounds okay to me.
It feels pretty blade heavy, as expected. I noticed that DSA has updated their website ala the weight. Apparently they now also include a leather sword belt , though I didn’t get one. Not a problem since I have become slightly obsessed with making my own.
I will have to let you know about how it handles (if I can handle it) and how it cuts later. I need to clean up that edge, gather some targets and figure out some kind of stand first.
Overall, it has been an excellent, satisfying transaction with Paul, the SBG store and Darksword Armory. Thanks to the SBG store and these forums, I got what I paid for and I got what I expected.
Buff