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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 21:58:50 GMT
I came across this review ( www.rsw.com.hk/brescia-review.htm) today, and I'm somewhat confused. I'm relatively new to collecting swords, but from my rudimentary knowledge I understood albion blades to be the best of the best blades around. After coming across this review I am wondering if this is normal for albions, if these kinds of issues are unique to this guys albion, or if all swords are susceptible to this kind of damage from the things that happen to his sword? I am not doubting albion's quality but more wondering if the standards I have set, such as damage resistance are far above what can be expected. Any help would be appreciated.
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Post by ShooterMike on Jan 3, 2010 22:32:44 GMT
The Brescia Spadona, being a part of the Albion Museum Line offerings, is designed to replicate a single individual historic sword in a museum. It's not what you might call a "modern high-performance design" that's built on historic principles but using elements of modern high-performance design insight. As such, it is as durable as that historic sword was expected to be, or a bit better considering modern steel and heat treatment. It's certainly not going to be indestructible. No swords ever were. Since I don't have any insight as to what your actual expectations are for a sword, I couldn't comment on whether they are unrealistic or not. But the facts are, a long steel blade with a sharp edge can easily suffer damage to that edge when struck against a hard object with sufficient force... Hollywood movie goofiness not withstanding.
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Post by shadowhowler on Jan 3, 2010 22:47:24 GMT
But the facts are, a long steel blade with a sharp edge can easily suffer damage to that edge when struck against a hard object with sufficient force... Hollywood movie goofiness not withstanding. ^ THIS is truth... Hollywood has done bad, BAD things to the publics expectations of what a sword is, was, should be.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 22:50:29 GMT
He cut pork and the edge chipped? That doesn't sound right to me.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 22:54:53 GMT
The sword was probably a bit oversharpened, but that also might be historical for a sword made for unarmored combat and duels.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 22:59:57 GMT
Mike thanks for your explanation. That cleared up a lot of my questions. As for my expectations, I expect a sword to hold up even if you do occasionally drop it or something and in this review that didn't seem to be the case. I personally have dropped both my gen 2 norman and black prince several times and have never had them show deformation as a result, however this albion did which led to me questioning my expectations. Also as Johnathan said, having the edge chip from cutting pork seemed a bit odd to me.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 23:08:57 GMT
He cut pork and the edge chipped? That doesn't sound right to me. Bone that has been dead for a while can and will chip sword edges. Dead bone and live bone aren´t the same. I have had some pork bone chip a cleaver´s edge and that was a tool specifically designed for chopping up dead bone. Fenris, I have had my gen 2 get damaged from a drop. It happens...not always but it really depends on how and what it is dropped on. To assume that a sword can survive a drop 100% of the time is unrealistic. Sometimes even a small drop will damage a sword because it just landed all wrong. How do you make sure 100% that this doesn´t happen? Don´t drop the sword. Sword not in control of your hand is a bad BAD thing anyways.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 23:14:30 GMT
I am going to assume that it was a combination of the bone being far harder than living bone and the sword being too sharp. It still surprises me somewhat. The damage caused by the drop is understandable.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2010 23:22:16 GMT
Napalm that makes sense about the bone being harder, I hadn't really thought of that. And I agree that a sword not in control of your hand is a bad thing. In both cases for me the swords fell while in the sheath so it wasn't as dangerous as it could have been... Thank you all for your responses and helping me clear up my questions.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 4:03:09 GMT
Well then don't drop your sword and it won't get damaged. I don't know any sword, short of tacticals that wont take damage from being dropped.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 4:17:39 GMT
As already stated, any type of sword can receive damage from usage. In the case of the Brescia; it's not the first time I have read about Albions getting chipped/nicked easily. In fact, this was one reason why I only buy second-hand Albions and never new ones. They have QC issues just like every other company. Hell, I know of people who have gotten new Svantes that had casting flaws, uneven central ridges, crooked tips, etc.
If you use a sword, you stand a chance of damaging it. It's common knowledge that swords had to be repaired or touched up after battles. In the modern sense, I know cases where people have hit water bottles wrong and warped blades due to improper edge alignment or chipped an edge on the hardened plastic lip of a 2L bottle. Wheather or not the sword was a $49 Musashi or a $3600 Albion, if you use it - you risk damage to it.
As for myself, I cut very little even with my second-hand Albions. They are just too much of an investment to risk damaging. My Albions represent the epitome of historical correctness in my colelection; and I treat them as such. I save my abuse for easily replaced products such as Windlass, Valiant, Hanwei, DSA, Gen2, etc...
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Jan 4, 2010 4:52:06 GMT
honestly the deamage that was done to this sword was pretty minor. I don't think I would complain about a little ding like that from cutting meat with the bone in it. also the fittings are mild steel right? most swords are and mild steel is soft. again not much of a surprise. this is a great example of why you must learn to care for and repair your swords if you are going to use them. I think the water bottle cutting speaks volumes too. I bet it would have handled tatami and bamboo very well also.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 5:27:08 GMT
Considering he dropped it, I'm surprised it didn't take more damage and Tom is right the damage is within acceptable limits.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 6:05:29 GMT
My Mercenary fell off my bumper at Dragon*Con while I was changing outfits. The pommel hit the pavement full force. It got a little road rash, but after spending some time with some 400 gr sandpaper and a grey Scotch Brite pad; you can't even tell.
The mild steel furniture is easy to fix, but I'd send it back to Albion to have them touch up the blade personally.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 15:38:00 GMT
Another question, in Lance's review I read that the pivot point of the Spadona is exactly at the tip and that this makes for a sword that has excellent point control. Now how do you determine the pivot points? One should be behind the guard if I recall correctly and the other one at the tip? I know there are several threads on SFI and such but none of them, at least not to my knowledge, shows how to figure out where the pivot points are. They go on and on about how important they are but don't tell me how to look for them. The reason for my question is that I'm currently making a tac sword and I want it to handle as well as I can get it to. I decided on distal and profile taper (distal taper copied from ATrim willowleaf: dramatic concave taper on the first few inches than gradually tapering towards the tip), etc but never considered pivot points. Now I can still change a lot so I'd like to know as much as I can now before the final shaping is finished.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 19:14:17 GMT
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Jan 4, 2010 20:39:59 GMT
judging the pivot point or turning point is a real pain in the ass for me. even though I have read that article lunaman links several times I'm still not sure I'm doing it right as every single one of my swords comes out having their turning points within an inch from the point. so either all my swords are pretty good (which I doubt) or I'm not doing it right (much more likely)
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 20:43:11 GMT
Have you tried the pendulum from the cross method? It takes way longer, but it's not as "blurry" as the waggle test, if you get my drift.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 4, 2010 21:15:43 GMT
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Post by Tom K. (ianflaer) on Jan 5, 2010 0:50:32 GMT
no, I've only tried the waggle. maybe I'll have to try the penduluum test. hoo boy what a paint that seems to be though
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