Albion Sherwood
Dec 14, 2011 4:59:07 GMT
Post by D'artagnan on Dec 14, 2011 4:59:07 GMT
As some of you may know I took a recent trip to Albion. I had been in contact with them for some time on the basis of ordering a sword from these esteemed craftsmen. I wasn’t able to afford a museum line as my budget was $1000 after selling off my fable blade and purchasing a custom VA Savoy. After countless hours spent pouring over the Albion website trying to decide what blade to get I had settled on a limited edition sword, specifically of the filmswords category by Lars Hansen called the Sherwood.
I was VERY excited, like a little boy at Christmas to be able to be one of the few here to travel to Albion to pick up a blade in person. However, this was an ill fated purchase I am sorry to say. I have tried to remain objective as possible in this review. Though it goes well over the $300 maximum for this forum, I will try and give a fair and honest accounting. Let it be known ahead of time that all of the other albions I have handled (34 and counting) are extremely well done masterpieces of artisan skill. I am in no way affiliated with Albion, Filmswords, or any company for that matter. I am a student in truth, one with not a ton of money and a modest collection of a handful of swords. I do know what I am talking about, but being a student. I am quite poor so cannot afford the wonderful armories some of you have, please do not let that deter you from my experiences or opinions.
First off, Albion charges a lot of money. They do brilliant work and when buying a sword I can assure you that you get every pennies worth. Some areas though, they fall woefully short when it comes to accessorizing your sword from them. For instance, take the display box. They charge $50 for it, even though I picked the sword up in person, never mind any shipping expenses. That put me off a little. I’ll let you all make up your mind on that.
Let me preface this all with a grain of salt, part of my disappointment comes from what I see as poor worksmanship. On the other hand, some of it comes from my own faulty expectations. Perhaps I held them in too high regard. I also failed to really take the measurements into consideration. I looked at the measurements given on the site, and I guess it didn’t really register with me what those were in reality.
Straight from the Albion site, here are the Sherwood’s Stats
Overall length: 37.125 Inches (94 cm)
Blade length: 29.75 Inches (75.5 cm)
Blade width (at base): 1.5 Inches (3.8 cm)
Weight: 2.25 Pounds (1 kilo)
Hand-finished Aged Steel Fittings
Twisted German Silver Wire-Wrapped Leather Grip
High Carbon Steel, Hand-Ground and Satin-Finished Blade
Individually Differentially Heat-Treated Blade
Sharpened
The Sherwood, as a whole, looks like a decent enough sword from a distance. I really was taken with the octagonal cross section, I find the illusion of it being rounded, when really having a keen edge to be appealing.
The Grip
As the website states and you can see the grip is leather with twisted silver wire wrap. Not too many complaints there, other than the obvious seam on the leather. The grip comes in at 4 ½ inches, which is very small even for my relatively small hands.
The Guard
This is really one of the things that bothered me about this sword. The grip is inconsequential, small, and just completely underwhelming. Some of the sodering is plain sloppy. And I am unsure of craftsmanship here, or if it is the antiquing effet that they claim, but there are what can only be described as pockmarks everywhere. I only thought antiqued meant a little faded. Either way, if it is there version of “antiquing” be warned that there will be little depressions all over the steel. This really was annoying, and it just looked plain crappy. You will also notice the some of the welding/ carving lines are also done sloppily.
Weld Lines
Crossgaurd
The Pommel
From what I can tell it ma be classified as a T4? It looks decent enough, but upon further inspection you can clearly see the same pockmarks happening here.
The Blade
The blade is pretty well done. The only thing I found wrong, and it is really hard to see is that the hollow grinding/bevels (not sure what it is called) is uneven on one side. It was hard to capture it on camera. But the raised part between the two edges on one side is uniform, but on the other it terminates unevenly and sloppily, almost as if it was rubbed off. The center of percussion is about five ¼ in from the hilt. The blade wobbles a lot when struck with a gloved hand from side to side. It came well oiled and bears the makers mark on one side.
Even on one side
Not so much on the other side
Handling:
I went outside and did various dry cuts. The grip is far too small to do anything hand and a half ways. And the sword is too heavy and clunky to do a whole lot of cut and thrusting. Overall it felt like a big clumsy smallsword. I mean the sword is quite tiny. My hand also kept sliding onto the pommel when making cuts and I must say it was unbearable without a glove. I’m not sure exactly where the point of balance is, but the hilt is heavy, but the blade seems heavy as well out near the point moreso than anywhere else, which to me says poorly balanced.
Overall Impression
The sword is underwhelming, and terribly so at that, especially for an Albion. As you can see I compared it next to my leg and to my body so as to proportion it. Then I had my girlfriend hold it. For reference she is 5’2, and it seems perfect for her, while I myself am at 6’0. It was perfect for her size, and all sexism aside really just felt like a woman’s sword on the whole. I was very disappointed.
Pros:
Nice bladework/shape for the most part
Very nice looking
Has a lot of potential if executed correctly
Perfect for the Warrior Wife
Cons:
1000 for imperfect work?
Poor balance
Too small
Shoddy welding
Pockmarks
Too small
Seam is obvious (to me)
Uncomfortable grip
Overall Rating: 5 out of 10.
I know part of this may have been my expectations. And PLEASE PLEASE let it be known I am an utter fan of Albion. I will be returning this blade for a Next Generation piece and they have been more than reasonable and fair throughout it all. Perhaps I got a lemon or perhaps it is the filmswords or just this sword model but I seem to expect a little more for that amount of money. I will not stop admiring Albion talent and the weapons they offer, but this sword was just underwhelming and it made me sad.
Proportion
I was VERY excited, like a little boy at Christmas to be able to be one of the few here to travel to Albion to pick up a blade in person. However, this was an ill fated purchase I am sorry to say. I have tried to remain objective as possible in this review. Though it goes well over the $300 maximum for this forum, I will try and give a fair and honest accounting. Let it be known ahead of time that all of the other albions I have handled (34 and counting) are extremely well done masterpieces of artisan skill. I am in no way affiliated with Albion, Filmswords, or any company for that matter. I am a student in truth, one with not a ton of money and a modest collection of a handful of swords. I do know what I am talking about, but being a student. I am quite poor so cannot afford the wonderful armories some of you have, please do not let that deter you from my experiences or opinions.
First off, Albion charges a lot of money. They do brilliant work and when buying a sword I can assure you that you get every pennies worth. Some areas though, they fall woefully short when it comes to accessorizing your sword from them. For instance, take the display box. They charge $50 for it, even though I picked the sword up in person, never mind any shipping expenses. That put me off a little. I’ll let you all make up your mind on that.
Let me preface this all with a grain of salt, part of my disappointment comes from what I see as poor worksmanship. On the other hand, some of it comes from my own faulty expectations. Perhaps I held them in too high regard. I also failed to really take the measurements into consideration. I looked at the measurements given on the site, and I guess it didn’t really register with me what those were in reality.
Straight from the Albion site, here are the Sherwood’s Stats
Overall length: 37.125 Inches (94 cm)
Blade length: 29.75 Inches (75.5 cm)
Blade width (at base): 1.5 Inches (3.8 cm)
Weight: 2.25 Pounds (1 kilo)
Hand-finished Aged Steel Fittings
Twisted German Silver Wire-Wrapped Leather Grip
High Carbon Steel, Hand-Ground and Satin-Finished Blade
Individually Differentially Heat-Treated Blade
Sharpened
The Sherwood, as a whole, looks like a decent enough sword from a distance. I really was taken with the octagonal cross section, I find the illusion of it being rounded, when really having a keen edge to be appealing.
The Grip
As the website states and you can see the grip is leather with twisted silver wire wrap. Not too many complaints there, other than the obvious seam on the leather. The grip comes in at 4 ½ inches, which is very small even for my relatively small hands.
The Guard
This is really one of the things that bothered me about this sword. The grip is inconsequential, small, and just completely underwhelming. Some of the sodering is plain sloppy. And I am unsure of craftsmanship here, or if it is the antiquing effet that they claim, but there are what can only be described as pockmarks everywhere. I only thought antiqued meant a little faded. Either way, if it is there version of “antiquing” be warned that there will be little depressions all over the steel. This really was annoying, and it just looked plain crappy. You will also notice the some of the welding/ carving lines are also done sloppily.
Weld Lines
Crossgaurd
The Pommel
From what I can tell it ma be classified as a T4? It looks decent enough, but upon further inspection you can clearly see the same pockmarks happening here.
The Blade
The blade is pretty well done. The only thing I found wrong, and it is really hard to see is that the hollow grinding/bevels (not sure what it is called) is uneven on one side. It was hard to capture it on camera. But the raised part between the two edges on one side is uniform, but on the other it terminates unevenly and sloppily, almost as if it was rubbed off. The center of percussion is about five ¼ in from the hilt. The blade wobbles a lot when struck with a gloved hand from side to side. It came well oiled and bears the makers mark on one side.
Even on one side
Not so much on the other side
Handling:
I went outside and did various dry cuts. The grip is far too small to do anything hand and a half ways. And the sword is too heavy and clunky to do a whole lot of cut and thrusting. Overall it felt like a big clumsy smallsword. I mean the sword is quite tiny. My hand also kept sliding onto the pommel when making cuts and I must say it was unbearable without a glove. I’m not sure exactly where the point of balance is, but the hilt is heavy, but the blade seems heavy as well out near the point moreso than anywhere else, which to me says poorly balanced.
Overall Impression
The sword is underwhelming, and terribly so at that, especially for an Albion. As you can see I compared it next to my leg and to my body so as to proportion it. Then I had my girlfriend hold it. For reference she is 5’2, and it seems perfect for her, while I myself am at 6’0. It was perfect for her size, and all sexism aside really just felt like a woman’s sword on the whole. I was very disappointed.
Pros:
Nice bladework/shape for the most part
Very nice looking
Has a lot of potential if executed correctly
Perfect for the Warrior Wife
Cons:
1000 for imperfect work?
Poor balance
Too small
Shoddy welding
Pockmarks
Too small
Seam is obvious (to me)
Uncomfortable grip
Overall Rating: 5 out of 10.
I know part of this may have been my expectations. And PLEASE PLEASE let it be known I am an utter fan of Albion. I will be returning this blade for a Next Generation piece and they have been more than reasonable and fair throughout it all. Perhaps I got a lemon or perhaps it is the filmswords or just this sword model but I seem to expect a little more for that amount of money. I will not stop admiring Albion talent and the weapons they offer, but this sword was just underwhelming and it made me sad.
Proportion