Windlass Steelcrafts 1860 saber
Apr 4, 2007 8:13:26 GMT
Post by Deleted on Apr 4, 2007 8:13:26 GMT
Okay, as some of you know I received this sword last week from www.mwart.com/xq/ASP.product/pid.2236/qx/1860-light-cavalry-sabre.htm. These guys have great prices and super fast shipping. I ordered the sword on 3/26/07 and recieved it on 3/29/07. The price, including shipping, was US$81.92. The only initial concern that I had was that the sword was wrapped in plastic and then put into a long, skinny cardboard box with newspaper padding and the box was crushed in on one side upon shipment (the marvels of UPS ). Upon opening the box, my fears were alleviated, as the sword and scabbard were both in fine condition.
The stats:
Blade length: 34" (not 35" as stated on websites)
Total hilt length: 5-7/8" (from face of guard to end of buttcap)
Grip: 4-1/4"
Blade width: 1-1/8" at guard, tapering to 7/8" @ 2-1/2" from tip.
Thickness: 3/16" at guard tapering to 1/16" at tip.
Weight: 2.5 lbs. (approx)
CoP: 10.5-11" from tip
C0G: 7-3/4" from guard
The blade:
The blade on this sword is historically inaccurate in thickness, as most period originals would have been 5/16-3/8" thick at the guard, tapering to 1/16" at the tip. Still, the blade is just about ideally tempered, so as to strike a near perfect balance between flexibility for cutting and rigidity for the thrust. I have to give WS credit for this, as some of their blades are far too flexible. The blade has the typical 1860 "dual fuller" (my terminology), in which there is a wide, shallow fuller on either side of the blade running about 3/4 of the way down and a smaller fuller within each of these near the top edge that runs about 2/3 length. Fullers are nicely done and even.
As with other WS products, the blade came blunt, but just barely. The "edge" has about a 1/64" flat face on it, so it doesn't take much to sharpen. I used a combination of a butcher's steel and my graduated coarseness Edgemaker system to sharpen the edge from roughly the halfway point to the tip, leaving the half closer to the hilt blunt for parrying (as was fairly customary on military sabers). This imparted a secondary bevel to the sharpened portion of the edge about 1/16" wide with a 45 degree included angle.
The blade has a fairly standard Windlass polish to it, or just shy of a mirror finish, but (thank goodness) it doesn't come with that annoying WIndlass clear lacquer coating.
It also features correct markings (no "Made in India" or "India" marklings anywhere ) with AMESMFcO CHICOREE MASS on the left face of the ricasso and U.S. ADK 1862 on the right.
The markings
The secondary bevel (here you can also see the end of the smaller fuller within the larger one)
The curvature of the blade
The hilt:
The hilt on this sword is made up of several parts. First, the heavy brass three-bar handguard, which is beautifully cast with only one very minor pit on the face. Second, the brass buttcap through which the tang is peened. Again, this is very well done and looks nice. Third, the grip itself. I have no idea what the grip core is made of (and I don't intend to strip it down to find out ;D), but it feels very hard and solid. The grip is a sandwich type affair: over the core is a wrap of (I'm assuming brass, since I can't see it) double-strand wire in a spiral pattern running the length of the core. Next, there is a piece of nice looking black leather wrapped over that. Finally, there is a second bit of double-strand brass wire wrapped over that. You can see the ridges of the wire under the leather and the wire over the leather is wrapped so it fits between these ridges. The wire wrap is pretty straight and extremely tight and immovable.
In fact, that is an apt description for the hilt as a whole. The entire thing is tight as a drum with absolutely zero movement, pinging, or any other unpleasant traits. Again, kudos to Windlass.
The hilt
Another view
The face of the guard with the protective cushion (I discarded the stock cheap felt one [inset] and cut my own out of some black scrap leather)
And, the tang rivet (beefy, baby!)
The scabbard
The scabbard is a reasonable facscimile of a period original made of heavy gauge steel with two 7/8" diameter by 1/8" thick steel suspension rings placed at 3" from the throat and 7-3/4" below that, and a removable throat cap, which contains the wipes that help keep the sword in place through friction. I can tell exactly what the wipes are made of, as I haven't disassembles this part, but they appear to be black rubber or plastic. The sword fits in very snugly, once fully seated and will not fall out under any circumstances. In fact, it fits a little too snugly for my taste, so I may look into modifying it at some point. In all, the scabbard feels extremely solid and would make a heck of an impact weapon on its own. All the various parts of the scabbard (rings, ring mounts, drag) are very well brazed and evenly applied.
One of the rings
The drag
Overall
Once I got the blade sharpened, I took the sword out and tried it out on water-filled 2 liter Coke bottles and 1 gal. milk jugs. Needless to say, with its curved edge and forward balance point, it made short work of these pitiful "victims". It almost wasn't worth it, it was so easy. ;D Pickle chipping is the order of the day with this baby. This was just a preliminary "fun" cutting session, and I plan on doing some more serious cutting (and thrusting) this weekend, so I'll have pics at that time.
I also caught Windlass in an apparent moment of modesty. They claim that it will flex to 20 degrees and return to true. Meh, that's nothing! I bent this blade to about 30-35 degrees out of line in both directions and it returned to true. Wow! How often does a manufacturer understate the abilities of its product? ;D
Though this sword varies is a few noticeable blade measurments from an original, and, thus, fails to capture the true brutal power imparted by such, it is still a very cool and solid little saber in its own right. It features a nicely-tempered blade, rock-solid hilt, and solid scabbard. And, with its center of gravity and center of percussion, it's a natural cutter. Unless this sword suddenly explodes one day in my hand ( ) I can very hardily recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, solid, well-made saber that should provide hours of backyard cutting mayhem and fun.
The stats:
Blade length: 34" (not 35" as stated on websites)
Total hilt length: 5-7/8" (from face of guard to end of buttcap)
Grip: 4-1/4"
Blade width: 1-1/8" at guard, tapering to 7/8" @ 2-1/2" from tip.
Thickness: 3/16" at guard tapering to 1/16" at tip.
Weight: 2.5 lbs. (approx)
CoP: 10.5-11" from tip
C0G: 7-3/4" from guard
The blade:
The blade on this sword is historically inaccurate in thickness, as most period originals would have been 5/16-3/8" thick at the guard, tapering to 1/16" at the tip. Still, the blade is just about ideally tempered, so as to strike a near perfect balance between flexibility for cutting and rigidity for the thrust. I have to give WS credit for this, as some of their blades are far too flexible. The blade has the typical 1860 "dual fuller" (my terminology), in which there is a wide, shallow fuller on either side of the blade running about 3/4 of the way down and a smaller fuller within each of these near the top edge that runs about 2/3 length. Fullers are nicely done and even.
As with other WS products, the blade came blunt, but just barely. The "edge" has about a 1/64" flat face on it, so it doesn't take much to sharpen. I used a combination of a butcher's steel and my graduated coarseness Edgemaker system to sharpen the edge from roughly the halfway point to the tip, leaving the half closer to the hilt blunt for parrying (as was fairly customary on military sabers). This imparted a secondary bevel to the sharpened portion of the edge about 1/16" wide with a 45 degree included angle.
The blade has a fairly standard Windlass polish to it, or just shy of a mirror finish, but (thank goodness) it doesn't come with that annoying WIndlass clear lacquer coating.
It also features correct markings (no "Made in India" or "India" marklings anywhere ) with AMESMFcO CHICOREE MASS on the left face of the ricasso and U.S. ADK 1862 on the right.
The markings
The secondary bevel (here you can also see the end of the smaller fuller within the larger one)
The curvature of the blade
The hilt:
The hilt on this sword is made up of several parts. First, the heavy brass three-bar handguard, which is beautifully cast with only one very minor pit on the face. Second, the brass buttcap through which the tang is peened. Again, this is very well done and looks nice. Third, the grip itself. I have no idea what the grip core is made of (and I don't intend to strip it down to find out ;D), but it feels very hard and solid. The grip is a sandwich type affair: over the core is a wrap of (I'm assuming brass, since I can't see it) double-strand wire in a spiral pattern running the length of the core. Next, there is a piece of nice looking black leather wrapped over that. Finally, there is a second bit of double-strand brass wire wrapped over that. You can see the ridges of the wire under the leather and the wire over the leather is wrapped so it fits between these ridges. The wire wrap is pretty straight and extremely tight and immovable.
In fact, that is an apt description for the hilt as a whole. The entire thing is tight as a drum with absolutely zero movement, pinging, or any other unpleasant traits. Again, kudos to Windlass.
The hilt
Another view
The face of the guard with the protective cushion (I discarded the stock cheap felt one [inset] and cut my own out of some black scrap leather)
And, the tang rivet (beefy, baby!)
The scabbard
The scabbard is a reasonable facscimile of a period original made of heavy gauge steel with two 7/8" diameter by 1/8" thick steel suspension rings placed at 3" from the throat and 7-3/4" below that, and a removable throat cap, which contains the wipes that help keep the sword in place through friction. I can tell exactly what the wipes are made of, as I haven't disassembles this part, but they appear to be black rubber or plastic. The sword fits in very snugly, once fully seated and will not fall out under any circumstances. In fact, it fits a little too snugly for my taste, so I may look into modifying it at some point. In all, the scabbard feels extremely solid and would make a heck of an impact weapon on its own. All the various parts of the scabbard (rings, ring mounts, drag) are very well brazed and evenly applied.
One of the rings
The drag
Overall
Once I got the blade sharpened, I took the sword out and tried it out on water-filled 2 liter Coke bottles and 1 gal. milk jugs. Needless to say, with its curved edge and forward balance point, it made short work of these pitiful "victims". It almost wasn't worth it, it was so easy. ;D Pickle chipping is the order of the day with this baby. This was just a preliminary "fun" cutting session, and I plan on doing some more serious cutting (and thrusting) this weekend, so I'll have pics at that time.
I also caught Windlass in an apparent moment of modesty. They claim that it will flex to 20 degrees and return to true. Meh, that's nothing! I bent this blade to about 30-35 degrees out of line in both directions and it returned to true. Wow! How often does a manufacturer understate the abilities of its product? ;D
Though this sword varies is a few noticeable blade measurments from an original, and, thus, fails to capture the true brutal power imparted by such, it is still a very cool and solid little saber in its own right. It features a nicely-tempered blade, rock-solid hilt, and solid scabbard. And, with its center of gravity and center of percussion, it's a natural cutter. Unless this sword suddenly explodes one day in my hand ( ) I can very hardily recommend it to anyone looking for a fun, solid, well-made saber that should provide hours of backyard cutting mayhem and fun.