Armour Class 17th Century Swept Hilt Rapier Review
Jul 7, 2011 21:27:54 GMT
Post by u02rjs4 on Jul 7, 2011 21:27:54 GMT
Armour Class 17th Century Swept Hilt Rapier Review
Intro
Hello this is my first review and I apologize if any info is incorrect. I own a Cold steel and Hanwei sword but I thought I would do a review on my new Armour class sword as I can’t seem to find any other reviews on them. I live in the UK and Hanwei, Windlass, Cold Steel etc seem to be very expensive so having something made by Armour Class ends up costing about the same. My cold steel sword, I got from the USA, paid the postage and high import duty, and it was still a lot cheaper than buying it from the UK. Armour class swords are made by a couple of guys in Glasgow Scotland and accordingly have quite long waiting times. My rapier took about 8 months to arrive. They seem to have a lot of business as when I ordered the sword they said it would take approx. 6 months. I don’t think waiting for a handmade sword is a problem though so I told them I was happy to proceed. It arrived well packaged an undamaged. And cost £200 not including postage, which is roughly $320. I recently visited Bamburgh castle and the Leeds royal armouries in England and took a picture of these two swords which have a similar guard to the armour class sword.
Stats
Total length- 45”
Blade length- 39”, from lower guard 37”
Width at ricasso- 1”
Weight- 1.1 kg/ 2.4lbs
Blade- EN45 spring steel
Handle- metal wire
Guard- welded steel
Components
Blade
A nice looking sharp straight blade with a tiny area where the polishing isn’t as good. The blade is very light with a large degree of flexibility. You can bend it in your hand significantly. I understand flexibility is important so that the sword isn,t likely to snap but if a rapier can’t thrust well then that’s not good. I did some thrusting practices shown later to test if it was to flexible. If I strike the pommel with my hand or hit the blade off something there is a normal centre of percussion at the far end of the blade. There is also one at the start of the blade so the handle gets quite a lot of vibration going through it. This is my only rapier so I don’t know if this is normal. Most of my medieval swords have a sweet spot in the handles and they don’t send much vibration into the hand.
Guard and handle
I love the handle and guard. Very nice feel and very attractive. For the price the guard is very complicated and finished to a nice polish.
Pommel
I’m not sure if the pommel is peened or threaded etc . Pommel is nice and heavy making the swords cente of balance about 3 inches from the cross guard.
Handling and tests.
This sword feels very light and fast in the hand and it’s a joy to swish about to the annoyance of my girlfriend watching me pretending to be Zorro or Inigo Montoya. I constructed a very basic homemade target made out of a damaged handbag made of synthetic leather and a light denim like material. I had a bag of dense hay I use for my rabbits and packed it into the bag. The rapier had no trouble and glided through. Next I put a damaged jacket made out of cotton with a thin fleece lining and folded it a few times and put it in front of the bag. It was about 3 layers deep and the rapier went through and into the bag. On a few off camera attempts if the stab was to slow or at a funny angle it would lodge in the jacket and bend mildly like a fencing foil. This is good as the blade won’t snap easily but a stiffer blade may go through more easily. All in all I like the blade, but risking a bit less flex for rigidity would be a slight improvement for me, however it performed vastly better than I feared.
Sorry about the video i came over all odd and shy!
Conclusion
Pros
Beautiful (my favourite looking sword)
Lovely feel
Good price
Cons
Fraction to flexible
P.S I have been looking at the darkwood armory rapiers. Any feed back on them?
Intro
Hello this is my first review and I apologize if any info is incorrect. I own a Cold steel and Hanwei sword but I thought I would do a review on my new Armour class sword as I can’t seem to find any other reviews on them. I live in the UK and Hanwei, Windlass, Cold Steel etc seem to be very expensive so having something made by Armour Class ends up costing about the same. My cold steel sword, I got from the USA, paid the postage and high import duty, and it was still a lot cheaper than buying it from the UK. Armour class swords are made by a couple of guys in Glasgow Scotland and accordingly have quite long waiting times. My rapier took about 8 months to arrive. They seem to have a lot of business as when I ordered the sword they said it would take approx. 6 months. I don’t think waiting for a handmade sword is a problem though so I told them I was happy to proceed. It arrived well packaged an undamaged. And cost £200 not including postage, which is roughly $320. I recently visited Bamburgh castle and the Leeds royal armouries in England and took a picture of these two swords which have a similar guard to the armour class sword.
Stats
Total length- 45”
Blade length- 39”, from lower guard 37”
Width at ricasso- 1”
Weight- 1.1 kg/ 2.4lbs
Blade- EN45 spring steel
Handle- metal wire
Guard- welded steel
Components
Blade
A nice looking sharp straight blade with a tiny area where the polishing isn’t as good. The blade is very light with a large degree of flexibility. You can bend it in your hand significantly. I understand flexibility is important so that the sword isn,t likely to snap but if a rapier can’t thrust well then that’s not good. I did some thrusting practices shown later to test if it was to flexible. If I strike the pommel with my hand or hit the blade off something there is a normal centre of percussion at the far end of the blade. There is also one at the start of the blade so the handle gets quite a lot of vibration going through it. This is my only rapier so I don’t know if this is normal. Most of my medieval swords have a sweet spot in the handles and they don’t send much vibration into the hand.
Guard and handle
I love the handle and guard. Very nice feel and very attractive. For the price the guard is very complicated and finished to a nice polish.
Pommel
I’m not sure if the pommel is peened or threaded etc . Pommel is nice and heavy making the swords cente of balance about 3 inches from the cross guard.
Handling and tests.
This sword feels very light and fast in the hand and it’s a joy to swish about to the annoyance of my girlfriend watching me pretending to be Zorro or Inigo Montoya. I constructed a very basic homemade target made out of a damaged handbag made of synthetic leather and a light denim like material. I had a bag of dense hay I use for my rabbits and packed it into the bag. The rapier had no trouble and glided through. Next I put a damaged jacket made out of cotton with a thin fleece lining and folded it a few times and put it in front of the bag. It was about 3 layers deep and the rapier went through and into the bag. On a few off camera attempts if the stab was to slow or at a funny angle it would lodge in the jacket and bend mildly like a fencing foil. This is good as the blade won’t snap easily but a stiffer blade may go through more easily. All in all I like the blade, but risking a bit less flex for rigidity would be a slight improvement for me, however it performed vastly better than I feared.
Sorry about the video i came over all odd and shy!
Conclusion
Pros
Beautiful (my favourite looking sword)
Lovely feel
Good price
Cons
Fraction to flexible
P.S I have been looking at the darkwood armory rapiers. Any feed back on them?