VA Warder
Jun 12, 2010 10:50:35 GMT
Post by Deleted on Jun 12, 2010 10:50:35 GMT
Alright, here is my shot at a review of this sword. (Warning:My camera is roughly 10yrs old,and a handme down from a friend so it sucks)
First impressions were great. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there was some finger prints on the blade. This got me looking closer, and I saw there was some gunk on it, like some one had cut something. In this area the edge looked thinner, like someone had sharpened out a nick, and there were what looked like cracks along the edge. After this I contacted Sonny, and arranged for an exchange, with him offering to test the replacement himself.
Skip forward a few weeks and I have the new one, looking much better than the first.Customer service was exceptional.
Mine is not the default color!
Stats:
OAL: 44"
Blade length: 33 1/2
hilt: 10 1/4
grip: 7"
guard width: 7"
PoB : about 5 1/2 past the guard
CoP: about 22' past the guard
I do not have anything to weigh it with.
Blade:
At the guard the blade is 1 3/8" wide. It has some flex to it, but not very much, it will take me some getting used to but is no where near as flexible as say the 304. It came quite sharp, able to cut paper with just the weight of the blade. Also it has a very pointy tip. The fals edge is not sharp at all really, and I am not sure it is even supposed to be.Mine has a few small scratches, which make me think that Sonny did indeed test it, as well as sharpen it afterwards, as it has marks from sharpening on the edge. There are 2 tiny heat marks, one on the very tip, and the other right at the guard.
Starting at about 4 inches pat the guard to abot 7 1/2 there is a slight blackish mark that looks like a heat mark from sharpening.it is only about 1/2 mm wide and on only one sdie of the blade, so it is very hard to miss.
Grip:
The grip is cord wrapped leather over wood. A bit narrow for my taste, but not too thin.Roughly 1 1/4" wide by 3/4" thick.It is hexagonal shape, I find this slightly uncomfortable.
Pommel:
The pommel is held on with a hex nut. No opinion on this either way, though the end of the nut is exposed(this seems to vary depending on the sword, pictures on KoA dont have this) The pommel is also easy to grip
Scabbard:
This is leather wrapped wood. It is nice, though very tip heavy without the sword in it, causing it to hang somewhat awkwardly. No problems it the sword is sheathed however.The blade does slide out if turned upsidedown,and it rattles slightly. Looks great however.
Handling:
It handles well two handed, and is quite fast. One handed is a bit awkward and slower for me. I am 6' and average build, and find it to be just about perfect on weight and length. It feels heavier that the 304, but I don't know if it really is. It takes a good bit of room to swing though, not really a close quarters weapon. I am not really sure how it should be handled, and end up swinging it similar to my katana.
Cutting:
(I have cut maybe 30 bottles and so I am NOT good at this...)My cutting area is rather small, so I only tried twice, with about a half swing on each. First was on a flimsy 1.5L bottle with a horizontal cut.I basically just batted this, small cut in the bottle and nasty jarring of the sword, which hopefully did not damage it. Second was against a 2L soda bottle with a downward diagonal half swing. I caught it with the tip and it went clean though with very little resistance, and the top was held on by about an inch. I dont know if the tip missed this or it is from shortening the swing.
Also, I am nervous, as this was over my price range, by I had to have it, and I dont feel like breaking it on accident so I was being over cautious.
All in all, I love this sword. Though no offence to Sonny and his customer service, which is wonderful, I would have preffered not to need to contact him at all. I have horrid luck in general, so I hope that I have gotten the bad ones out of the way, for both myself and others.I am willing to put the big problem I had down as a fluke.
Pros:
Beautiful sword and scabbard
Scary sharp
Handles great if you have room for it
Grip and scabbard are well wrapped
Cons:
Scabbard hangs funny without the sword in it
pommel nut sticks out(on mine)
needs lots of room to swing
a few minor and one large QC issue at first, but nothing seems wrong with the one I have now.
Grip may be uncomfortable to one unused to the shape
I would recommend this to any one that feels comfortable dropping the money for it(I normally wouldnt spend this much at once, but it was worth it to have a -as my friend put it- viking samurai scimitar). The default colors are great, I however recommend that no one else get it in green.Ever. (That's a lie, but hey, I like the thought of me being the only one to have one this awesome looking.And since Sonny seemed excited that green turned out great it makes me think mine is the first, so I will always have that at least ;D)
Any comments on how to do this better would be welcomed, as well as questions on anything I missed.
First impressions were great. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that there was some finger prints on the blade. This got me looking closer, and I saw there was some gunk on it, like some one had cut something. In this area the edge looked thinner, like someone had sharpened out a nick, and there were what looked like cracks along the edge. After this I contacted Sonny, and arranged for an exchange, with him offering to test the replacement himself.
Skip forward a few weeks and I have the new one, looking much better than the first.Customer service was exceptional.
Mine is not the default color!
Stats:
OAL: 44"
Blade length: 33 1/2
hilt: 10 1/4
grip: 7"
guard width: 7"
PoB : about 5 1/2 past the guard
CoP: about 22' past the guard
I do not have anything to weigh it with.
Blade:
At the guard the blade is 1 3/8" wide. It has some flex to it, but not very much, it will take me some getting used to but is no where near as flexible as say the 304. It came quite sharp, able to cut paper with just the weight of the blade. Also it has a very pointy tip. The fals edge is not sharp at all really, and I am not sure it is even supposed to be.Mine has a few small scratches, which make me think that Sonny did indeed test it, as well as sharpen it afterwards, as it has marks from sharpening on the edge. There are 2 tiny heat marks, one on the very tip, and the other right at the guard.
Starting at about 4 inches pat the guard to abot 7 1/2 there is a slight blackish mark that looks like a heat mark from sharpening.it is only about 1/2 mm wide and on only one sdie of the blade, so it is very hard to miss.
Grip:
The grip is cord wrapped leather over wood. A bit narrow for my taste, but not too thin.Roughly 1 1/4" wide by 3/4" thick.It is hexagonal shape, I find this slightly uncomfortable.
Pommel:
The pommel is held on with a hex nut. No opinion on this either way, though the end of the nut is exposed(this seems to vary depending on the sword, pictures on KoA dont have this) The pommel is also easy to grip
Scabbard:
This is leather wrapped wood. It is nice, though very tip heavy without the sword in it, causing it to hang somewhat awkwardly. No problems it the sword is sheathed however.The blade does slide out if turned upsidedown,and it rattles slightly. Looks great however.
Handling:
It handles well two handed, and is quite fast. One handed is a bit awkward and slower for me. I am 6' and average build, and find it to be just about perfect on weight and length. It feels heavier that the 304, but I don't know if it really is. It takes a good bit of room to swing though, not really a close quarters weapon. I am not really sure how it should be handled, and end up swinging it similar to my katana.
Cutting:
(I have cut maybe 30 bottles and so I am NOT good at this...)My cutting area is rather small, so I only tried twice, with about a half swing on each. First was on a flimsy 1.5L bottle with a horizontal cut.I basically just batted this, small cut in the bottle and nasty jarring of the sword, which hopefully did not damage it. Second was against a 2L soda bottle with a downward diagonal half swing. I caught it with the tip and it went clean though with very little resistance, and the top was held on by about an inch. I dont know if the tip missed this or it is from shortening the swing.
Also, I am nervous, as this was over my price range, by I had to have it, and I dont feel like breaking it on accident so I was being over cautious.
All in all, I love this sword. Though no offence to Sonny and his customer service, which is wonderful, I would have preffered not to need to contact him at all. I have horrid luck in general, so I hope that I have gotten the bad ones out of the way, for both myself and others.I am willing to put the big problem I had down as a fluke.
Pros:
Beautiful sword and scabbard
Scary sharp
Handles great if you have room for it
Grip and scabbard are well wrapped
Cons:
Scabbard hangs funny without the sword in it
pommel nut sticks out(on mine)
needs lots of room to swing
a few minor and one large QC issue at first, but nothing seems wrong with the one I have now.
Grip may be uncomfortable to one unused to the shape
I would recommend this to any one that feels comfortable dropping the money for it(I normally wouldnt spend this much at once, but it was worth it to have a -as my friend put it- viking samurai scimitar). The default colors are great, I however recommend that no one else get it in green.Ever. (That's a lie, but hey, I like the thought of me being the only one to have one this awesome looking.And since Sonny seemed excited that green turned out great it makes me think mine is the first, so I will always have that at least ;D)
Any comments on how to do this better would be welcomed, as well as questions on anything I missed.