As most people here know, I was a Windlass vendor for many moons ending a few years back. The Windlass story is pretty complex, but MRL/Windlass actually used to be paired with the big names back in the day.
The way it initially went down is that Atlanta Cutlery / Museum Replicas were owned by Americans (through 1994). Museum Replicas originally only carried
Fulvio Del Tin swords. Then, a change of hands went to the owners of Windlass Steelcrafts in India. Windlass Steelcrafts continued to purchase Del Tin blades and hilt them with hilt components made in India to further cut costs. In 1997, the changeover was complete and Del Tin was put totally out of the loop. Windlass had copied every Del Tin blade they had hilted; therefore forgoing a need to partner with Del Tin - which forced Fulvio to suspending doing any US distribution for several years. Even today, alot of Windlass stuff is reproduced Del Tin blades hilted on different furniture. This is why there were so many Del Tins and Windlasses that look alike in the early and mid 1990s. Some of these were really awesome swords, because Windlass used a thinner/lighter blade than their Del Tin counterparts, making the design pop for alot of people and adding popularity to the Windlass name.
Below are a few examples of Windlass designs which directly duplicate (or try to duplicate in some cases) a Del Tin production item:
Example A (Copy with same quality as Del Tin counterpart):Windlass Medieval Short Sword: www.myarmoury.com/review_mrl_medshort.htmlDel Tin 2140 13th C Medieval Sword:www.kultofathena.com/product~item~DT2140~name~Del+Tin+13th+Century+Medieval+Sword.htmExample B (Copy which was improved by Hank Reinhardt over Del Tin counterpart by adding flared shoulders and better hardware.):Windlass Transitional Viking Sword: www.swordsswordsswords.com/site/816663/product/PT500238Del Tin 5120 - Late Period Viking Sword:www.kultofathena.com/product~item~DT5120~name~Del+Tin+Late+Period+Viking+Sword.htmExample C (Bad Recent Copy of a Del Tin Counterpart):
Windlass Sword of St. Michael: www.myarmoury.com/review_mrl_stmfalc.htmlDel Tin 6153 - 15th C Italian Falchionwww.kultofathena.com/product~item~DT6153B~name~Del+Tin+15th+Century+Italian+Falchion+-+Black+Grip.htm[/size]Now, the big names:
Hank Reinhardt and
Ewart Oakeshott were both at one point deeply connected with Museum Replicas LTD when it opened it's doors in the 1980s. Hank was actually considered a co-founder for the company. Both Hank and Ewart did some sword designs though the 1990s for Museum Replicas. Hank had a rapier / gauche set with them as late as 2003-2004. However, Hank became increasingly disgruntled with Windlass in the years after the Indian buyout. He eventually stopped working with them on projects because they allegedly just stopped listening to his advice. It cost alot of time and effort to make a sword to Hank's standards because he was the expert of the day, so to speak.
In the end, Windlass began to rely on only one American guy (at least though a couple years back),
Bruce Brookhart, to initiate and approve many of their newer sword designs. Bruce, Ewart, and Hank were friends in real life, so there was a passing of knowledge between them, but Bruce was not quite the expert that Ewart or Hank were. He stayed on with MRL as a consultant in Conyers because his love of swords, armor, and WMA. I have met him (Bruce) on several occasions and he is a pretty nice fella (though many people think he is a d*ck when they first meet him). To get a sword idea worked on, you pretty much had to go through him.
Bruce Brookhart doing a cutting demonstration in a Windlass Steelcrafts video below:
But, in recent years, even Bruce has not had the impact on the new sword designs that he used to. Windlass began to think that their smiths in India had the know-how to independantly create European Medieval swords without consulting much of anyone. Bruce used to complain about new products being junk for the most part. They constantly rehash old designs, putting different furniture on blades designed years ago. This is why some of their swords are good and others simply don't work or fall apart the first time you hit a tree limb with them. Their longer blades remain whippy for one reason - they are conserving steel and making it as long as possible while using the least amount of steel and still call it a sword while resembling a Del Tin blade.
This will seem like an odd statement, but the Windlass smiths don't understand about alot of things like PoB, CoP, nodes, etc. They know how to make blades that they were shown how to make by other smiths - mostly prior Del Tin designs. Their experience is in duplicating designs, not creating original ones. In their film,
Forged in the Heat of Battle, they actually show this.
Will Windlass change? I seriously doubt it. They will always be hit or miss with their swords. They don't do enough research into their products, nor do they base their so-called historical swords on actual weight, dimensions, or even actual appearance (remember the missing limb on their Edinborough sword - eek!) of their pieces they are supposed to represent. Windlass does not have a staff member to actually go into a museum and look at something or even bother to read the stats from
Records of the Medieval Sword. They do not pay attention to customer recommendations nor do they have a track record or keeping their best made swords in production. They seem to do what they want to thinking that their expertise in making well-tempered blades makes them experts at making European swords.
Try to call Museum Replicas or write Windlass and ask them about a sword design. You will get a response like this:
"We apperciate you contacting us. We will have you know that all all of the Windlass products are made to ISO 9001 standards for quality and we make the best swords in the world, so we really don't need to change anything. Thank you and have a nice day."The end result is this. Windlass will always make alot of money selling what they sell - no matter the quality. They have a two-million member mailing list and make a HUGE profit. Even on clearance items, they are making 3x what they put into a product. Why bother to invest more money into something if what you are selling is making you a big profit?
There is a big difference in attitude when speaking about a true sword maker like Trim or Tinker because they really love their art and know a sword like a swordsmith should - they care if a product is made to their specifications or not. To Windlass, making a sword is about making something that people will buy impulse out of a catalogue and nothing more.