Valiant Armory Malatesta (Signature Serie) review
Oct 12, 2010 8:54:56 GMT
Post by serge021974 on Oct 12, 2010 8:54:56 GMT
Valiant Armory Malatesta (Signature Serie) review
Introduction
Vailant Armory are well known for making some beautiful and great quality swords on the market today. I’m not trying to give a better review as from odingaard but just give another point of view.
Historical overview
For this sword they claim it’s a 15th century bastard sword designed by Christian Fletcher and Angus Trim, produced by Valiant Armoury.
The Malatesta are best known, through the works of Jacob Burckhardt, John Addington Symonds and others, for their colourful contribution to the court life and culture of renaissance Italy. There are other sides to their history of at least comparable importance. By their representative status, as princes of middle rank, and by their unusually long tenure of power, the Malatesta are among the families most typical in all its stages of Italy's Age of Despots: in their acquisition and exercise of authority, their political career and personality, in the circumstances of their fall. At the same time, by their position as papal subjects, in Romagna and the March of Ancona, their progress is inseparable from the parallel history of government in the Papal State, first effectively founded in the same century as Maltesta rule and consolidated, two hundred years later, by the destruction of the Malatesta and other tyrants of central Italy.
Malatesta is an Italian family, ruling Rimini and nearby cities for almost 300 years from the 13th to 16th cent. Malatesta da Verucchio (d. 1312), a powerful Guelph leader, became (1239) podestà, or chief magistrate, of Rimini and used this position to entrench his family's position in the area. His hunchback son Gianciotto was married to Francesca da Rimini. With the expulsion of the family's Ghibelline rivals in 1295 the Malatesta rule in Rimini became well established, but papal investiture was made only in the following century. Branches of the family came to rule also Pesaro, Cesena, and Fano. In the 14th and 15th cent. several members of the family were noted condottieri in the service of various Italian states. The most famous was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–68), a typical lord of the Italian Renaissance. A patron of arts and letters, he had the church of San Francesco in Rimini transformed into the Tempio Malatestiano [the temple of the Malatesta]. A despot excommunicated for numerous crimes, he engaged in a bitter conflict with the papacy over territorial claims, but he finally lost (1463) all his possessions except Rimini. His brother Novello, lord of Cesena, built there the fine Malatesta library. Sigismondo's son and grandson held the little state with difficulty, eventually losing it in 1500 to Cesare Borgia. Although the Malatesta family returned for brief intervals in the early 16th cent., Rimini passed definitively to the Holy See in 1528.
Malatesta temple in Rimini (Italy)
Sigismondo Malatesta
Valiant Armory Malatesta sword
Review by Winckelmans Serge, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Initial impressions
The sword cam in a white box that was very good inspected by my customs (as you can see).
Inside this white box was another brown box.
Therein I found my sword. The box and some Styrofoam blocks were damaged but after all was the sword very good conserved.
The sword is a very well balanced and very light sword.
This absolutely stunning sword is a king's sword ( I would have in my mind). Everything about it screams "I am the king. Now bring me food, women and weapons. Not necessarily in that order! ;-) "
Statistics
Blade Length: 83 cm
Blade Width: 4,5 cm
Handle Length: 23 cm(including pommel)
Overall Length: 109 cm
Guard Width: 21 cm
POB (Point of Balance):12 cm
Weight: 1015 kg
THE BLADE
The blade is satin finished, not so long as you would expect and with a fuller for about 3/4 of the blade.
The tip isn’t a thrusting tip but more a “shaving” tip.
The blade is also very flexible as you can see in the next movie
GRIP
For me, the grip is little to small, as you can see on the next photo.
But after all is this the masterpiece of the sword. A wooden core that is wired and overlapped with a piece of brown (painted) leather. Why do I say painted? After doing my test cutting, my hand palm was a litle more brown :-) . (You’ll see on the picture together with my cutting results).
The blade has a full pin with a screwed end.
GUARD
The guard has a satin finish, solid steel and fits very well in the blade as on the grip, almost perfect.
POMMEL
Also beautiful satin finished piece of steel, fixed on the blade with an hexagonal nut.
THE SCABBARD
Is a wooden core scabbard, with beautiful accents on it also with a matching belt, which give this scabbard that little more in order to other sword suppliers
FIT AND FINISH
Overall, this is very nice looking sword. Vailant armoury used very attractive and decent materials creating this sword. I like the matching scabbard and al the extra accents that were done on this sword.
Handling Characteristics
As earlier said, this is a very light sword. I don’t expect this will cut some tatami mats but I will give it a try. The blade feels sharp but not that razor sharp. We will see what the test cutting has as result…
Test cutting
CHAAAARGE!!!!!!!!!
As you can see, all nice clean cuts!
cutting a tatami mat.
And another mat…
I didn’t expect this, but for me are this nice clean cuts.
As earlier said, a little bit of brown color came of my grip.
Minor scratches were on the blade, but when re-oiling my blade, it all came off.
CONCLUSION
A very well done, truly beautiful sword from Vailant. It is an accurate and beautiful detailed functional sword.
I would recommend this sword for any collection as a functional but most of all as a display sword.
It’s very light in hand and a pleasure to use. It was a risk to test this sword because I didn’t wanted to abuse this nice piece, but now, after all I know this is a good and functional sword (and that’s definitely a nice feeling knowing to have a beautiful BUT functional sword).
Pros
perfect balance and handling.
beautiful furniture.
overall good fit and finish.
Cons
I thought the sword would be longer and heavier .
This would better be a limited quantity piece so it would be more exclusive ;-) .
The Bottom Line
The Malatesta will get a new special place in my ‘weapon room’, near to my other Vailant product. Valiant Armory has done a great job with the Malatesta. I will definitely buy other products from this vendor because his standards are so high I couldn’t buy a wrong sword and have the risk of a low quality sword.
Introduction
Vailant Armory are well known for making some beautiful and great quality swords on the market today. I’m not trying to give a better review as from odingaard but just give another point of view.
Historical overview
For this sword they claim it’s a 15th century bastard sword designed by Christian Fletcher and Angus Trim, produced by Valiant Armoury.
The Malatesta are best known, through the works of Jacob Burckhardt, John Addington Symonds and others, for their colourful contribution to the court life and culture of renaissance Italy. There are other sides to their history of at least comparable importance. By their representative status, as princes of middle rank, and by their unusually long tenure of power, the Malatesta are among the families most typical in all its stages of Italy's Age of Despots: in their acquisition and exercise of authority, their political career and personality, in the circumstances of their fall. At the same time, by their position as papal subjects, in Romagna and the March of Ancona, their progress is inseparable from the parallel history of government in the Papal State, first effectively founded in the same century as Maltesta rule and consolidated, two hundred years later, by the destruction of the Malatesta and other tyrants of central Italy.
Malatesta is an Italian family, ruling Rimini and nearby cities for almost 300 years from the 13th to 16th cent. Malatesta da Verucchio (d. 1312), a powerful Guelph leader, became (1239) podestà, or chief magistrate, of Rimini and used this position to entrench his family's position in the area. His hunchback son Gianciotto was married to Francesca da Rimini. With the expulsion of the family's Ghibelline rivals in 1295 the Malatesta rule in Rimini became well established, but papal investiture was made only in the following century. Branches of the family came to rule also Pesaro, Cesena, and Fano. In the 14th and 15th cent. several members of the family were noted condottieri in the service of various Italian states. The most famous was Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta (1417–68), a typical lord of the Italian Renaissance. A patron of arts and letters, he had the church of San Francesco in Rimini transformed into the Tempio Malatestiano [the temple of the Malatesta]. A despot excommunicated for numerous crimes, he engaged in a bitter conflict with the papacy over territorial claims, but he finally lost (1463) all his possessions except Rimini. His brother Novello, lord of Cesena, built there the fine Malatesta library. Sigismondo's son and grandson held the little state with difficulty, eventually losing it in 1500 to Cesare Borgia. Although the Malatesta family returned for brief intervals in the early 16th cent., Rimini passed definitively to the Holy See in 1528.
Malatesta temple in Rimini (Italy)
Sigismondo Malatesta
Valiant Armory Malatesta sword
Review by Winckelmans Serge, Oost-Vlaanderen, Belgium
Initial impressions
The sword cam in a white box that was very good inspected by my customs (as you can see).
Inside this white box was another brown box.
Therein I found my sword. The box and some Styrofoam blocks were damaged but after all was the sword very good conserved.
The sword is a very well balanced and very light sword.
This absolutely stunning sword is a king's sword ( I would have in my mind). Everything about it screams "I am the king. Now bring me food, women and weapons. Not necessarily in that order! ;-) "
Statistics
Blade Length: 83 cm
Blade Width: 4,5 cm
Handle Length: 23 cm(including pommel)
Overall Length: 109 cm
Guard Width: 21 cm
POB (Point of Balance):12 cm
Weight: 1015 kg
THE BLADE
The blade is satin finished, not so long as you would expect and with a fuller for about 3/4 of the blade.
The tip isn’t a thrusting tip but more a “shaving” tip.
The blade is also very flexible as you can see in the next movie
GRIP
For me, the grip is little to small, as you can see on the next photo.
But after all is this the masterpiece of the sword. A wooden core that is wired and overlapped with a piece of brown (painted) leather. Why do I say painted? After doing my test cutting, my hand palm was a litle more brown :-) . (You’ll see on the picture together with my cutting results).
The blade has a full pin with a screwed end.
GUARD
The guard has a satin finish, solid steel and fits very well in the blade as on the grip, almost perfect.
POMMEL
Also beautiful satin finished piece of steel, fixed on the blade with an hexagonal nut.
THE SCABBARD
Is a wooden core scabbard, with beautiful accents on it also with a matching belt, which give this scabbard that little more in order to other sword suppliers
FIT AND FINISH
Overall, this is very nice looking sword. Vailant armoury used very attractive and decent materials creating this sword. I like the matching scabbard and al the extra accents that were done on this sword.
Handling Characteristics
As earlier said, this is a very light sword. I don’t expect this will cut some tatami mats but I will give it a try. The blade feels sharp but not that razor sharp. We will see what the test cutting has as result…
Test cutting
CHAAAARGE!!!!!!!!!
As you can see, all nice clean cuts!
cutting a tatami mat.
And another mat…
I didn’t expect this, but for me are this nice clean cuts.
As earlier said, a little bit of brown color came of my grip.
Minor scratches were on the blade, but when re-oiling my blade, it all came off.
CONCLUSION
A very well done, truly beautiful sword from Vailant. It is an accurate and beautiful detailed functional sword.
I would recommend this sword for any collection as a functional but most of all as a display sword.
It’s very light in hand and a pleasure to use. It was a risk to test this sword because I didn’t wanted to abuse this nice piece, but now, after all I know this is a good and functional sword (and that’s definitely a nice feeling knowing to have a beautiful BUT functional sword).
Pros
perfect balance and handling.
beautiful furniture.
overall good fit and finish.
Cons
I thought the sword would be longer and heavier .
This would better be a limited quantity piece so it would be more exclusive ;-) .
The Bottom Line
The Malatesta will get a new special place in my ‘weapon room’, near to my other Vailant product. Valiant Armory has done a great job with the Malatesta. I will definitely buy other products from this vendor because his standards are so high I couldn’t buy a wrong sword and have the risk of a low quality sword.