trying to decide!

in my opinion this decision is easy: get a Hanwei Tinker. you mention that you are looking for the best QC and materials and in that case it would be really hard to pick a sword. does this mean all these sword are about the same level of quality? not at all. they are all made from very good material. marterial that is better than the people in antiquity had available. they all have about the same level of quality control, meaning that they all tend to have little inconsistencies but usually nothing really majorly wrong with them. but only one of these choices is, in my opinion, a well designed sword. a sword that acts like a sword and that is the H/T line. I have never met the DSA sword you are looking at but I have seen other DSA swords and I think I have a pretty good idea of how they make swords and of what to expect from one of theirs. I have seen the gen2 and I was not impressed. I have not seen the Hanwei Kungfu so this one might be the wild card that surprises me by being an actually good sword but my gut tells me no.

I do know a good bit about the H/T line and I like them. I like them all. they are good swords. I particularly love the EMSHS (standard single hander) so if I were you, I'd get one of those.

ohh, an addendum, i don't mind a sword being historically inaccurate or a little heavy, and i know gen2 and darksword have always been a little overbuilt. the HT line is good because it's both solidly built it seems and has better handling characteristics. Definitely true about the quality of materials though, i like paul's analogy on the review of the celtic sword..if some bronze age celtic warrior discovered that sword in a forest, he would have thought it to be magic.

hmmm

the QC on ALL of these swords is such that a really bad sword that needs to be returned CAN slip through. they are all mass produced so it happens from time to time and we have not the imperical data required to know with exactly what regularity it happens. some people buy several swords from any one of these makers and get perfect blades every time while other people get two or three in a row bad, and still others get a random smattering of both good and bad. you want a sword with REALLY good QC you have to buy a sword made by one person, probably a custom. Lundemo, Tinker, ATrim all do this with great consistency but you pay a price for that QC. the extra money is worth it, but only if you can swing the price. if you can't it doesn't matter. but YES the H/T line has better QC than the standard Hanwei Euro lines but DSA and Gen2 both probably can say the same. I am NOT a fan of the normal Hanwei Euro lines at all.

on Paul's analogy: yup if some bronze age warrior found a DSA, or Gen2/Legacy Arms, or H/T sword in resting on a tree stump in the woods he would think them all magical and marvelous for sure, I agree. and he would pick them all up and take them home to arm himself and his two favorites. but it would be his mates that got the DSA and the Gen2 swords and he would keep the H/T for himself, unless his king caught wind of it then his lord would get the H/T.

if you listen to Tinker's recent pod cast "The Sword Geek" ( there's a thread about it here) then you would have heard him tell a story about holding an antique for the first time and how it seemed to levitate in his hand. to know where he wanted it to go and what he wanted it to do. he was stunned by this feeling and he said it made him realize for the first time in his life how people could pick up a sword and fight for their life with it. you will not get this feeling from any sword on your list other than the H/T line swords. this is why I would choose the H/T. and as good as the H/T swords are swords made by Tinker himself and by Gus himself are just that much better.

one last thing, you mention the H/T being "such a thin blade" I'd say the EMSHS has a very thick and robust blade. heck the edge down by the guard is nearly as thick as a nickle. I chopped a brick with it. no damage.
I did a little sort of review on mine that I custom mounted. I did a poor job at first I should update that. anyway take a look: sbgswordforum.proboards.com/inde ... read=12194 and tell me that is not a tough sword. I would put that sword through anything and for the most part already have.

Well for just quality of materials, the DSA wins hands down. They have good steel and are the only one that uses both decent wood and leather. The wood and leather in the hanwei swords are bad...and the leather used in gen 2 is even worse. Course where the DSA runs into issues is that it doesn't feel like a sword...or move like one...or really even looks like one for those who really study swords. They are passible enough as stage swords...and that is what they are designed for. The whole 1mm edge and sharpening thing really doesn't change that these swords were not designed to actually be swords.

As far as the hanwei tinker line, the norman has the better scabbard and is peened. It is very tip heavy. The EMSH comes with the hex nut and has a very neutral feel to it. If you like dao style of swords, the norman will be the better sword. If you just don't know about swords, the EMSH sword is the safer choice as a neutral feel mean your likely to not hate it. May not love it, but you won't hate it.