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Post by Ninjadave89 on Jul 12, 2011 18:00:09 GMT
Hi everyone, I got a new gladius recently and was quite surprised to say the least. It is the new Deepeeka Cesarian Sword.  I bought it mainly because I liked the look of it, but as it turns out it has a very decent tang with no welds at all, and a surprisingly good flex to the blade.    Its quite a good cutter as well, though obviously being a deepeeka it still has no distal taper and is blade heavy. Overall im quite impressed, I will put up a cutting video after i've finished customizing the hilt. |
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Post by william m on Jul 12, 2011 19:12:33 GMT
Nice looking sword but its a bad combo with a heavy blade and a very weedy looking tang, not to mention the square shoulders.
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Post by Elheru Aran on Jul 12, 2011 20:46:21 GMT
Comments like yours, William, come up on occasion... they're understandable, and I do have to admit that most gladius tangs do look pretty damn skinny.
Thing is, a.) this is historically accurate, and b.) it actually works okay.
Excavated Roman swords have pretty much this exact same construction with the square shoulders and thin tang.
The gladius is primarily a thrusting blade, and as such stress is mainly straight up and down the tang-- not side to side. When it's used to cut, the large guard/grip assembly act as buttresses against the shoulders of the blade, to help prevent it breaking at the junction of blade and tang. The short blade also helps this considerably, as there's much less leverage against the tang.
Is this *ideal*? Not really. However, it works, and as long as you aren't trying to chop down trees with it or get a bad product, it's going to be more than adequate for the majority of gladiuses.
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Post by william m on Jul 12, 2011 22:04:03 GMT
I'll have to dig up some images of antique gladius blades. What you say is true but I think that the tang is too weedy for the blades length, which imo is too long.
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Post by william m on Jul 12, 2011 23:02:37 GMT
OK here we go. Much thicker tang and decent shoulders.  Same again as above  No sloped shoulders but tang is of a good proportion for the size of the blade, which you can estimate by how long the grip is.  |
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Post by joeydac on Jul 15, 2011 1:03:18 GMT
i have to agree that tang looks really thin i wouldnt swing it around
i dont trust deepeeka
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Post by Anuan on Jul 20, 2011 3:59:18 GMT
Saw a discussion recently on a much higher-end (Albion IIRC) gladius which had very similar comments on the tang-size and such.
Now, I've got more than my fair share of Deepeeka blades, through an import company here. Some of them are better than others, definitely, and the import company doesn't sell pre-sharpened blades of theirs except for knives and daggers. Their shorter blades (especially the pattern-welded knives) are actually really nice, and... I won't say much, but expect Deepeeka to pick up at least a little (maybe not massively, but at least a little) in the coming years.
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SanMarc
Senior Forumite
Posts: 3,193
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Post by SanMarc on Jul 22, 2011 4:58:39 GMT
Note the Riveted on tangs!!! Seems it was good back then...... |
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Post by chrisperoni on Jul 22, 2011 5:46:10 GMT
To compare, here are the 2 weedy'est looking tangs I've ever seen:   (you may now return to your regularily scheduled forum) |
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Post by MLanteigne on Jul 28, 2011 5:58:31 GMT
Do NOT cut with Deepeeka swords! They are essentially for reenacting only! None of the components are meant to be used in that manner, and the bottom line is you simply don't know of the quality or composition of the metal in the blade.
Just not worth your own safety being jeopardized...
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Post by joeydac on Aug 12, 2011 21:08:06 GMT
you would think they would make them cutting ready it would open up more buyers to there franchise there india based so labor im sure isnt a issue and they forge them why not go the extra mile
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