Nial
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For no one in this world can you trust not men not women not beast, This you can trust!
Posts: 201
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Post by Nial on Mar 18, 2010 12:37:30 GMT
But the point you are missing is that it isn't in fact a blade that is worth $3000 dollars, if it were they would've used them on swords and it begs the question why do they have so many rusted blades around? Had they just offered the blades before they rusted they could've sold them for more. If you are happy with what you got then that is great but a $30 dollar blade is a $30 blade even if it is an albion. Exactly Bloodwraith that is my point the sword were worth $3000 but these blades are all imperfect ones and you cannot tell exactly what you get till you get it even the guys there told me that. So for maybe a little more i could have Brenno make another. Also i was looking at buying the needed hardware to work on the blade so on the whole would have cost more. And a $40 blade which is only £26 to me isn't worth the extra. It's principles folks. By the wat thanks for the kind offers guys BB nad Rob very kindly indeed. ;D
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2010 12:46:03 GMT
Also not to put too fine a point on it but we also only see one side of the blade, which for the most part is covered in rust or "antiqued" as they put it. We have no idea what is on the other side, it's like playing russian roulette with five rounds in six round revolver. However $30 for an albion you can't really argue with that, defective or not, heat treated or not and I can see why they dont take questions with the sales moving so fast.
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Nial
Member
For no one in this world can you trust not men not women not beast, This you can trust!
Posts: 201
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Post by Nial on Mar 18, 2010 14:57:44 GMT
I agree and to all you guys out there that bagged some good for you i hope they turn out to be what you hoped for. i had no problem paying the price for the blade even double for it i would not have grumbled but it's the shipping i have a problem with as i know it doesn't have to coth that. Also when coming into the uk you have to pay a customs tax because it is outside Europe aand lets say i pay $200 i am looking at another possible£80 pounds on top to cover the customs and then there is a handling chareg i forgot to mention.
I know one of the cutlers who work at Albion and he said to me even he would't pay that. there will no doubt be good as well as bad hidden amongst thes beauties. You pays your money and thakes your chances.
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Post by Brendan Olszowy on Mar 18, 2010 15:02:47 GMT
Quite frankly guys please all take this very seriously and solemnly. This IS russian roullette.
These blade were discarded for a reason. We can see that some are labelled as obviously cracked. But some may have microfractures that were long forgotten about, and not detected for the sale through all that rust.
There is no QC or confidence / backup from Albion. We're just basically scavenging their rubbish.
Yes some blades were prototypes and others just had their licence expire so they were cast aside. But some are F'd and shouldn't be given out to the public. Not one of them should be taken as having a decent heat treat. Every one of them MUST be HT'd properly. I mean imagine if one was hardened, warped that tiny bit too much, and got binned brfore tempering. It's gonna break. Joe blogs does a quick file test, goes "hey this is hardened" and goes and cuts some bushes with it. *Bang* someone loses an eye or worse - no second chances.
I'm geting just one, but if I was in US I might get a few more. But I can fully rework them, you guy's cant.
I hope no one gets hurt out of this. Please be careful guys.
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Post by enkidu on Mar 18, 2010 15:58:40 GMT
Everyone here that order one or more blade should make comment after receiving them here, just out of curiosity that would be interesting.
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Dom T.
Member
Success, depress, ambition. Progress, regress, recognition.
Posts: 766
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Post by Dom T. on Mar 18, 2010 16:20:39 GMT
Yeah, you've gotta approach all of these blanks as project blades. NONE of these are gonna be perfect or they wouldn't be going for $30 plus shipping, as has been already said. Sorry if any of you guys were hoping for something functional and stuff. As Mr. Ols- Olsz- ah, sod it, Brenno, said, be careful guys! I don't wanna check this thread and read about someone getting hurt!
Thanks for the drawfiling tips thread, sir. I'm sure it'll save you from having to reply to a bajillion more pms, or at least a bajillion more from me ;D.
Yep, I agree with enkidu. You guys get up on here and tell about yer orders, especially when ye git 'em. I did take a few super-super-bad quality pictures when I was working on it. Taken from one of those really crappy digital cameras. God, I hate those. Maybe I'll put some of them up here a lil later. Gotta figure out how to do before I can, hahahah.
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Post by brotherbanzai on Mar 18, 2010 17:12:19 GMT
Brotherbanzai reporting in:
I ordered 5 blades early on and have received them. I was trying to get long-swords but couldn't tell anything from the ruler and was in a bit of a hurry to grab a few before they all sold out. All five turned out to be shorter than I had hoped. I see now that if you take the time to count the little blurs on the ruler you can figure about how long the blades in the photos are.
Three of the blades are marked Deltin. One of those three also has the Albion special edition mark on the other side ( a sword with a long squiggle coming off one side of the cross to form a letter A, at least I think that's their special edition mark). Those three blades are hardened and tempered. The two without the extra mark are identical to each other and all three appear to be finished blades that were just left to rust. The rust was easily removed in about five minutes with some light sanding. However the blades have very shallow pitting where they were rusted--looks like light shadows in tiny splotches along the blade. Sanding the steel down past the pitting to get them back to smooth did take a fair amount of time. The flats, edges and fullers are all smooth and straight. Far better than any Windlass I've ever owned. The tangs are not hardened.
The fourth blade is a double fullered single hander. This one has been machined rather than forged. The fullers terminate very sloppily near the tip which is probably why this blade was binned. It is not hardened or tempered. Will take a bit of work to fix the fullers but nothing terrible.
The fifth blade is a little type 18 that is machined. The lines are all absolutely perfect. This one is 1/4" thick whereas the others are all 3/16". It is not hardened or tempered.
Since I can do my own heat treating and have plenty of experience grinding and re-grinding blades, these are perfect for me. Of the five I got, I would consider each of them a good deal. I plan on refurbishing 4 of them and putting on some nice bronze hilt parts and selling them as budget banzais. I'll likely keep the type 18
Some notes: * The blade that were shiny but rusty were already heat treated. The blades that still had machine marks were not heat treated.
* I believe Albion tempers their blades in a salt bath immediately after hardening, so the possibility of getting a blade that is hardened but not tempered is probably slight. Also, if doing a bend test (put your knee up on a chair, grab both ends of the blade and pull it slowly and lightly toward you) the unhardened blades will bend very easily with very little effort and stay bent. If you somehow got a blade that was hardened but not tempered it would snap at this point before you ever got it hilted up, took it outside, and tried to cut something.
* Albion didn't renew their license to carry the Conan stuff so there is at least the possibility that there is nothing wrong with those blades and they may have simply been made but not sold before the license ran out.
* What they are charging for all these blade blanks is less than what the piece of steel would cost me. If I were to take a bare piece of steel to a machine shop to have a fuller put in both sides, that would be another $50 or more.
* Albion could have just hauled these all off for the scrap metal. Instead, they offered them to all of us. They have to pay someone to answer the phone, box them up, and ship them out. There's no way they're getting rich off these things so of course they aren't screwing around with shipping and trying to figure out what's heat treated and whatnot.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2010 6:29:38 GMT
I picked up the crazy orkish looking blade that went up a few days ago. It's no longer up, obviously. Wish I saved the picture...
I've never seen anything like this, PERIOD, not to mention anything by Albion. I'm assuming it's something cranked out for fun by an apprentice or something. I'm REALLY hoping she's HT'd, since I have no way of doing so myself.
I have a few ideas on how to mount it up. The word "Onigatana" comes to mind...
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 19, 2010 12:57:45 GMT
I picked up the crazy orkish looking blade that went up a few days ago. It's no longer up, obviously. Wish I saved the picture... I've never seen anything like this, PERIOD, not to mention anything by Albion. I'm assuming it's something cranked out for fun by an apprentice or something. I'm REALLY hoping she's HT'd, since I have no way of doing so myself. I have a few ideas on how to mount it up. The word "Onigatana" comes to mind... I believe that was a staff weapon, meant to be mounted on a pole. I almost bought it too if we're talking about the same thing.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 20, 2010 5:12:23 GMT
I picked up the crazy orkish looking blade that went up a few days ago. It's no longer up, obviously. Wish I saved the picture... I've never seen anything like this, PERIOD, not to mention anything by Albion. I'm assuming it's something cranked out for fun by an apprentice or something. I'm REALLY hoping she's HT'd, since I have no way of doing so myself. I have a few ideas on how to mount it up. The word "Onigatana" comes to mind... I believe that was a staff weapon, meant to be mounted on a pole. I almost bought it too if we're talking about the same thing. I suppose it's possible. Though if that's the case, the tang must've been drastically shortened.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 21, 2010 14:41:26 GMT
Looks like there are 4 Father blade blanks up for sale right now.
I am currious how long it will take for them to be sold.
Best wishes, Meschler
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2010 19:41:02 GMT
Well, the last of my order has come in today, and it looks like Albion has come to the end of their sale for now. I suppose any new blanks that show up will just be recent mistakes. Before I continue though, I must say this... I understood the risks, played the odds and was fully prepared for the result. I just want to make it clear that I'm not sour about my luck with what I got... any longer. So, I ended up ordering 8 total from the sale. I figured that the description had said that "most" were heat treated, so I had pretty good odds of getting one with a heat treat and temper. Not so much. 7 of the 8 blanks were not heat treated. Here's some pictures of my total order: In the first picture, the only one that was HT/T (heat treated and tempered) was the one on the bottom. Deamonskull and I have decided to trade a duplicate that he got with the bottom one I got. I've knocked all the rust off and smoothed out the pits, but didn't want to take off to much metal. It's a wonderful blade, I just didn't fall in love with it like I thought I would. As far as the others... well. Some have some obvious mistakes, some look perfect. After I had ordered the first 4 and only got 1 HT/T, I figured that if I ordered another 4, there HAD to be more that were HT/T. Sadly that wasn't the case and now I need to either build a forge, or make friends with a blacksmith. I plan on getting a HT/T done to numbers 1-or-2 and 3. (Assuming 1 is the top) The rest of the blades are nice, but nothing that I just HAVE to make functional. So if anyone wants 4-7, knowing that they aren't HT/T, they are yours for $25 and shipping. Edit: Ok, so I am still a little sour, but with myself, not with Albion. I mean, hell, for $200 bucks, I could have gotten the VA Practical Arming sword which I've wanted for a long time. Ah well, lesson learned.
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Post by stromloswordsusa on Mar 23, 2010 20:59:55 GMT
PM sent. I somehow missed out every time these were offered, and they will no doubt get rusty again waiting for me to do something with them, but what the heck.
Cheers, Rob
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2010 21:53:50 GMT
Ish, only one was heat-treated? Jeez, sorry about you luck there. I held off from buying because they did not list the reasons they were rejected. Hopefully you will turn out a good sword or two with what you have got there to recoup your investment.
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Post by shadowhowler on Mar 23, 2010 23:29:41 GMT
I considered picking up a couple of these... but I have no way to Heat Treat a sword... and cleaning up and doing something with a Heat Treated blade would be more then enough of a project already. So, since I had no way to know if I would get a Heat Treat blade or not, I took a pass on it.
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Post by enkidu on Mar 26, 2010 23:05:57 GMT
Got mines today. 1 atlantean ht/t with the little ears and engravings missing. 1 father's sword, soft as butter so no ht/t but looking good, no engravings. 1 saber blade with a dent near the tip that makes it looks mean, ht/t also.
2 out of 3, not bad, i'm just pissed off by the fact they send it by UPS without telling me, they costed me almost as much for shipping then what they costed me. I know someone with everything at hand to finish the job, so overall a good buy !
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Post by shadowhowler on Mar 26, 2010 23:31:24 GMT
i'm just pissed off by the fact they send it by UPS without telling me, they costed me almost as much for shipping then what they costed me. What is it with UPS and Canada? I have heard there are some CRAZY fees involved, don't quite know why.
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Post by enkidu on Mar 26, 2010 23:35:01 GMT
Thats only a way to get more into their pockets, nothing really justifies it, only the fact that you know what are exactely the fees only when they knock on your door with that big shinny package on their hands... They know how to use other's weekness:)
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 26, 2010 23:53:50 GMT
Huh. I only got one, but it was awesome. Making it into a great shortsword as we speak.
No doubt about being heat treated either. Then again, it was a broken blade. Could've been during the heat treating, so maybe picking broken was the secret. Either that or I just got lucky.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2010 6:07:32 GMT
Still waiting on the blade I ordered... Been about two weeks since I sent the check, and I know they cashed it...
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