Atlanta Cutlery 1860 Light Cavalry Saber
May 3, 2010 8:53:04 GMT
Post by Deleted on May 3, 2010 8:53:04 GMT
Introduction:
A week ago I realized that my friend's birthday was coming up. He's shown an intrest in swords but hasn't been in a financial situation to get one, so I decided to surprise him.
Not being in much better of a situation myself, I went looking for the low-cost cutters and came across this saber. He had mentioned in the past that he'd like to one day get a saber as part of his battle ready collection, so I thought I hit the jackpot when I found this one on the main SBG review section. I decided to look into it more and see if another review had been written about it and hadn't found a single one.
Historical Overview:
Not really much of one. As stated in the original SBG review, this was more historicaly inspired then accurate. It's a saber in a metal scabbard with a brass, wrap-around, hand guard. Could have been found as a custom piece in the mid 1800's, but Atlanta Cutlery wasn't trying for anything specific here, or so it seems.
Initial Impressions:
I orderd the blade from Trueswords:http://www.trueswords.com/1860-light-cavalry-saber-p-751.html
And it arrived 3 days later. When I took it out of the box it was slathered in "storage oil" and wrapped seperately from the scabbard.
I unwrapped them, cleaned the oil off and put the sword into the scabbard. This is where the sword gets it's first (of many) poor review marks. The sword slid into the scabbard and stopped with about 7" of the blade still exposed. I didn't expect much from a $35 blade, so I took the scabbard to a hard surface and massaged it a little straighter. Problem solved.
Now for the review!
Stats:
Weight: 2lbs 6oz
Total Length: 39.75"
Blade Length: 33.25"
Gripping Length: 4.25" (5.5" with handshake grip)
POB: 7"
Pommel: Double hex nut.
Scabbard: Metal with 2 ring attachment
The Blade:
Suffers from some minor scratches and blemishes along the blade. At the base of the blade, however, there is the word "INDIA" scrawled in what looks like free hand. Not the most appealing characteristic in my book.
Blade Temper:
Eek. Ok, I'm not quite sure what is acceptable, but I own a few swords and this one doesn't come close to the best temper. But remember, it's $35. It DOES have a temper, just not a great one. But remember with entry blades, better to be to soft then to be to hard.
Pommel:
When I first took the nut off my heart kinda sunk when I saw the 2 threads it was being held on by:
But my fears were eased when I took off the backgrip to find another nut and a washer:
Grip:
The grip and tang are, in my opinion, the worst parts about this blade.
To start off with the "leather" grip, as advertised on the site, was the type of leather that has the look, feel and properties of wood. That is to say, the grip is just made of wood.
No leather here.
Next up: The guard digs into your hand with any style of grip unless modifications are made. The bits of metal you see not attached to the blade used to be a continuation of the guard in a straight line until it terminated abruptly which left close to a 90 degree chuck of metal biting into your hand.
The hand guard just barely fits under the pommel and the rest of the grip components have to be persuaded to fit like they are supposed to. The wood does not line up with the metal parts of the grip. At first I thought this was as style choice until I noticed that there wasn't any uniformity to them.
I had taken it out into the yard before I disassembled it, to give it a few practice swings and had noticed that the grip seemed to shift a little. At first I thought this was because the pommel nut wasn't tightened enough, but later had found the reason to be quite different:
It turns out that the hole for the tang is a uniform circle instead of a formed squared. Also you can see there is about a 1/2" gap between the ring and the top part of the grip.
Tang:
I'm not sure if this would classify as a rat tail, or if this is the standard dimensions for a saber's tang, but here ya go:
Conclusion:
The quality of this blade has changed drastically since the original review was done on the main SBG site. The fit of the blade is different, they have apparently run out of leather, the scabbard didn't fit the blade and the overall quality control has dropped.
I had bought this as an entry level cutter for a friend, but now I'm not even sure that I should give this as a gift to someone I don't hate.
Pros:
It's cheap
Cons:
It's cheap
Poor grip
Poor temper
Poor polish
Poor scabbard fit
Skinny tang
Grip digs into hand without modifications
A week ago I realized that my friend's birthday was coming up. He's shown an intrest in swords but hasn't been in a financial situation to get one, so I decided to surprise him.
Not being in much better of a situation myself, I went looking for the low-cost cutters and came across this saber. He had mentioned in the past that he'd like to one day get a saber as part of his battle ready collection, so I thought I hit the jackpot when I found this one on the main SBG review section. I decided to look into it more and see if another review had been written about it and hadn't found a single one.
Historical Overview:
Not really much of one. As stated in the original SBG review, this was more historicaly inspired then accurate. It's a saber in a metal scabbard with a brass, wrap-around, hand guard. Could have been found as a custom piece in the mid 1800's, but Atlanta Cutlery wasn't trying for anything specific here, or so it seems.
Initial Impressions:
I orderd the blade from Trueswords:http://www.trueswords.com/1860-light-cavalry-saber-p-751.html
And it arrived 3 days later. When I took it out of the box it was slathered in "storage oil" and wrapped seperately from the scabbard.
I unwrapped them, cleaned the oil off and put the sword into the scabbard. This is where the sword gets it's first (of many) poor review marks. The sword slid into the scabbard and stopped with about 7" of the blade still exposed. I didn't expect much from a $35 blade, so I took the scabbard to a hard surface and massaged it a little straighter. Problem solved.
Now for the review!
Stats:
Weight: 2lbs 6oz
Total Length: 39.75"
Blade Length: 33.25"
Gripping Length: 4.25" (5.5" with handshake grip)
POB: 7"
Pommel: Double hex nut.
Scabbard: Metal with 2 ring attachment
The Blade:
Suffers from some minor scratches and blemishes along the blade. At the base of the blade, however, there is the word "INDIA" scrawled in what looks like free hand. Not the most appealing characteristic in my book.
Blade Temper:
Eek. Ok, I'm not quite sure what is acceptable, but I own a few swords and this one doesn't come close to the best temper. But remember, it's $35. It DOES have a temper, just not a great one. But remember with entry blades, better to be to soft then to be to hard.
Pommel:
When I first took the nut off my heart kinda sunk when I saw the 2 threads it was being held on by:
But my fears were eased when I took off the backgrip to find another nut and a washer:
Grip:
The grip and tang are, in my opinion, the worst parts about this blade.
To start off with the "leather" grip, as advertised on the site, was the type of leather that has the look, feel and properties of wood. That is to say, the grip is just made of wood.
No leather here.
Next up: The guard digs into your hand with any style of grip unless modifications are made. The bits of metal you see not attached to the blade used to be a continuation of the guard in a straight line until it terminated abruptly which left close to a 90 degree chuck of metal biting into your hand.
The hand guard just barely fits under the pommel and the rest of the grip components have to be persuaded to fit like they are supposed to. The wood does not line up with the metal parts of the grip. At first I thought this was as style choice until I noticed that there wasn't any uniformity to them.
I had taken it out into the yard before I disassembled it, to give it a few practice swings and had noticed that the grip seemed to shift a little. At first I thought this was because the pommel nut wasn't tightened enough, but later had found the reason to be quite different:
It turns out that the hole for the tang is a uniform circle instead of a formed squared. Also you can see there is about a 1/2" gap between the ring and the top part of the grip.
Tang:
I'm not sure if this would classify as a rat tail, or if this is the standard dimensions for a saber's tang, but here ya go:
Conclusion:
The quality of this blade has changed drastically since the original review was done on the main SBG site. The fit of the blade is different, they have apparently run out of leather, the scabbard didn't fit the blade and the overall quality control has dropped.
I had bought this as an entry level cutter for a friend, but now I'm not even sure that I should give this as a gift to someone I don't hate.
Pros:
It's cheap
Cons:
It's cheap
Poor grip
Poor temper
Poor polish
Poor scabbard fit
Skinny tang
Grip digs into hand without modifications