Mini Review: Royal Navy Officers dress sword P-1845.
Dec 27, 2012 17:37:50 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Dec 27, 2012 17:37:50 GMT
I just bought the above mentioned sword at History Revisited: www.history-revisited.com/detail ... ord-m-1845
I do not have it yet, it is in the mail. I have to make some alterations, such as replacing the grip leather with ray skin and replacing the cillindrical peenblock with a ball peenblock, to make it more correct.
Since I will be doing these workies anyway, I would like to ask you what more can be done, did I miss something, short of regrinding the blade I mean?
Further more, do any of you have experience with this sword, handled it and so on. If so, I would like to hear about that, if you do not mind. Thank you, Ulahn.
Well what can I say. The sword arrived this afternoon, well wrapped in bubble plastic and in a sturdy carton box.
Before I begin my first and mini review, I like to state that I do not do camera. I do not like camera. Period. I have to make do with people sticking their IPhones and whatnot in my face, all the time and year round, so I am sick of camera. And no, I am not an actor. Also, I have nothing with History Revisited, nor they with me. Good, so now that everything is clear, let us do this review thingy. If you would be so kind as to click on the link above, you will at least have some idea what I am talking about, though the pictures are not very good, I hope they will suffice.
I would like to start with the year of issue P-1845. As far as I can see this must be P-1846, since in this year some changes were made, see below.
I will keep, for the sake of my sanity, to the year P-1845, so advertised by History Revisited, during this review if you do not mind. It tends to get rather confusing with all those P- numbers.
I do not know much about the background of this sword, only that the first issue was in 1827 I think.
The only differences I could find between my P-1845 and the P-1827 are in the grip wrap, the locked and the position of the two carrying rings.
The P-1827 grip has 6 wire turns, the P-1845 has 7.
The P-1827 has no locked and the P-1845 and later issues do.
The P-1827 has two carrying rings on either side of the brass scabbard mouth, the P-1845 has two on one side of the scabbard, fitted to the scabbard mouth and a lower situated brass fitting.
I do not think there where any changes made to the blade, most certainly not to the hilt as far as I can tell.
Later on, under: Hilt, I hope to clearify what this locked stuff is all about, for now let's do some
STATS: Blade length : 80cm - 31.49"
Handle length : 10.4cm - 4.09"
Overall length : 98cm - 38.58"
POB : 15cm - 5.9"
Width of blade at the hilt: 2.65cm - 1.04"
Width of blade at the false edge: 2.3cm - 0.9"
Start of false edge: 22cm - 8.66" from the tip.
Blade thickness at hilt: o.8cm - 0.31"
Blade thickness at false edge; 0.3cm - 0.12"
Weight: See the website please. I do not own scales.
The blade:
This is a Universal Swords product I think. Anyway, the blade is pleasantly stiff, while at the same time having a good flex. When I push the blade to the ground the flex starts at the beginning of the false edge, when pushed slightly harder the flex creeps higher up the blade. I like it and it is certainly not whippy. It feels solid, like something you can rely on, like a good tool. Hit the pommel and the tip vibrates, but is not going much either way. There is this bell-like sound.
It has one broad fuller on each side, starting out of a small ricasso adorned with the brass inspection roundel in a cross and going down the blade untill the start of the back edge. The beautiful, deep etching on either side for almost the same length is very well done. I could not see any waviness, hammer marks or whatnot.
At least this example is very well made and the blade made those nice WOOSH, WOOSH sounds when I attackted my reading desk. The desk won. For now.
The handle:
Made of brown leather over wood and wire wrapped in 7 turns, it feels tough as nails and is very well made. No flaws here, or it must be that the original had a rayskin grip wrap, which cannot be done in this price segment so I hear. So I do not hold this against Universal Swords. What I did discover however was that I automatically held the sword in the handshake grip and there found the grip to be a little on the thin side. Note however that I had the sword in the house for about 10 minutes all in all, so maybe this notion will change when I have handled it some more.
The hilt:
Made of brass, with a guard of good proportions, offering some protection to the hand, but none to big. This is a dress sword, a military variant of the civillian small sword, I am given to understand and as such designed to be carried in an environment where one has to pay attention to certain feminine sensitivities as to banging into all kinds of pesky little sidetables, potted plants and whatever those d#4$ned creatures stuff their houses with. Doing the rounds in gentile society with a great big war sabre doesn't do the promotional flow any good. It simply is not done, you know, old chap.
So, here we come to the locked, this being one half of the guard that can be clapped down on the side of the body when carried, so the sword is very close to said body and as such the risk of above mentioned promotional and societal disasters is greatly reduced.
This flap has a hole which locks on a pin on the brass scabbard mouth. So, whatever happens, even walzing and swinging 300 pound society belles around, or rather being swung around by them, the blade will not leave the scabbard. It is safe.
The knuckle bow is roomy enough for my hand of medium size and ends in a lion head pommel, very well made with nice detailed features. The lions mane forms the backstrap, down to the guard again. On the lion head sits a round peen block and everything is very well peened together. Even the cypher with the anker on the outside of the guard is well crafted and nowhere could I find traces of tooling and hard edges, knicks or flaws in the polish. Even blowholes are hard to find, I didn't see any.
The scabbard:
Thick black leather with nice brass, engraved, fittings according to regulations, with two carrying rings on one side.
This scabbard will easely bend and break when one is not careful, it is the nature of this sort of scabbard and not the fault of Universal Swords. The blade sheets realy well into it and has a good fit. I found that when I set the sword aside, when in the scabbard, I can see the leather bend a little. Note that some leather conditioners will soften up the leather even more!
My solution for the moment is to set the sword aside with the hilt down, so there will not be any weight on the scabbard.
Handling:
I am no fencer, so please do not take my remarks for Gospel, but I found this sword to handle quite well, although it is a little tip heavy. It followed my silly moves with no problem whatsoever. When attacking my desk and getting almost wacked by the d%4#ned thing, I had no pain in the wrist. Let us say that I detect a serious intention here, this blade will kill and is made for such. I think it is fencible but not for the long distance, more for a quick in and out, if you pardon the frase. I think it will do well in fights on deck when you have to act very fast, hit, watch your back, hit. Let's say this blade will make a nice rapier, something like that and when sharpened ( also the backedge), it should make for a wicked little snuffer out of lives, delivering nasty drawcut wounds in a cramped environment. It's a snake and on par with my Huawei Kogarasu Maru wakisashi with which I do shadow fighting up and down the stairs. I allways win. Ofcourse.
Conclusions:
I must say that I really like this little snake of a sword. It is very well made, the temper is good, all the brass work is very well done and the scabbard is also period correct. The scabbard needs care, but hey, so do I.
At first I contemplated the ColdSteel Gentlemans sabre, but I had the feeling something was not right. To me it looks like a pastiche, some German Navy mixed with I do not know what. Maybe the ColdSteel is sharp out of the box, I do not know, so for those of us who like to cut, that would be a better choise. For me I think this P-1845 does it and for forumites living in Europe this is a good deal, Euro152, no Costums, no hassle and half the price of what the ColdSteel does here.
I most certainly can recommend it.
Pros: Period correct.
Good weight and handling.
Very well made, excellent temper.
Cons: I cannot find any.
I do not have it yet, it is in the mail. I have to make some alterations, such as replacing the grip leather with ray skin and replacing the cillindrical peenblock with a ball peenblock, to make it more correct.
Since I will be doing these workies anyway, I would like to ask you what more can be done, did I miss something, short of regrinding the blade I mean?
Further more, do any of you have experience with this sword, handled it and so on. If so, I would like to hear about that, if you do not mind. Thank you, Ulahn.
Well what can I say. The sword arrived this afternoon, well wrapped in bubble plastic and in a sturdy carton box.
Before I begin my first and mini review, I like to state that I do not do camera. I do not like camera. Period. I have to make do with people sticking their IPhones and whatnot in my face, all the time and year round, so I am sick of camera. And no, I am not an actor. Also, I have nothing with History Revisited, nor they with me. Good, so now that everything is clear, let us do this review thingy. If you would be so kind as to click on the link above, you will at least have some idea what I am talking about, though the pictures are not very good, I hope they will suffice.
I would like to start with the year of issue P-1845. As far as I can see this must be P-1846, since in this year some changes were made, see below.
I will keep, for the sake of my sanity, to the year P-1845, so advertised by History Revisited, during this review if you do not mind. It tends to get rather confusing with all those P- numbers.
I do not know much about the background of this sword, only that the first issue was in 1827 I think.
The only differences I could find between my P-1845 and the P-1827 are in the grip wrap, the locked and the position of the two carrying rings.
The P-1827 grip has 6 wire turns, the P-1845 has 7.
The P-1827 has no locked and the P-1845 and later issues do.
The P-1827 has two carrying rings on either side of the brass scabbard mouth, the P-1845 has two on one side of the scabbard, fitted to the scabbard mouth and a lower situated brass fitting.
I do not think there where any changes made to the blade, most certainly not to the hilt as far as I can tell.
Later on, under: Hilt, I hope to clearify what this locked stuff is all about, for now let's do some
STATS: Blade length : 80cm - 31.49"
Handle length : 10.4cm - 4.09"
Overall length : 98cm - 38.58"
POB : 15cm - 5.9"
Width of blade at the hilt: 2.65cm - 1.04"
Width of blade at the false edge: 2.3cm - 0.9"
Start of false edge: 22cm - 8.66" from the tip.
Blade thickness at hilt: o.8cm - 0.31"
Blade thickness at false edge; 0.3cm - 0.12"
Weight: See the website please. I do not own scales.
The blade:
This is a Universal Swords product I think. Anyway, the blade is pleasantly stiff, while at the same time having a good flex. When I push the blade to the ground the flex starts at the beginning of the false edge, when pushed slightly harder the flex creeps higher up the blade. I like it and it is certainly not whippy. It feels solid, like something you can rely on, like a good tool. Hit the pommel and the tip vibrates, but is not going much either way. There is this bell-like sound.
It has one broad fuller on each side, starting out of a small ricasso adorned with the brass inspection roundel in a cross and going down the blade untill the start of the back edge. The beautiful, deep etching on either side for almost the same length is very well done. I could not see any waviness, hammer marks or whatnot.
At least this example is very well made and the blade made those nice WOOSH, WOOSH sounds when I attackted my reading desk. The desk won. For now.
The handle:
Made of brown leather over wood and wire wrapped in 7 turns, it feels tough as nails and is very well made. No flaws here, or it must be that the original had a rayskin grip wrap, which cannot be done in this price segment so I hear. So I do not hold this against Universal Swords. What I did discover however was that I automatically held the sword in the handshake grip and there found the grip to be a little on the thin side. Note however that I had the sword in the house for about 10 minutes all in all, so maybe this notion will change when I have handled it some more.
The hilt:
Made of brass, with a guard of good proportions, offering some protection to the hand, but none to big. This is a dress sword, a military variant of the civillian small sword, I am given to understand and as such designed to be carried in an environment where one has to pay attention to certain feminine sensitivities as to banging into all kinds of pesky little sidetables, potted plants and whatever those d#4$ned creatures stuff their houses with. Doing the rounds in gentile society with a great big war sabre doesn't do the promotional flow any good. It simply is not done, you know, old chap.
So, here we come to the locked, this being one half of the guard that can be clapped down on the side of the body when carried, so the sword is very close to said body and as such the risk of above mentioned promotional and societal disasters is greatly reduced.
This flap has a hole which locks on a pin on the brass scabbard mouth. So, whatever happens, even walzing and swinging 300 pound society belles around, or rather being swung around by them, the blade will not leave the scabbard. It is safe.
The knuckle bow is roomy enough for my hand of medium size and ends in a lion head pommel, very well made with nice detailed features. The lions mane forms the backstrap, down to the guard again. On the lion head sits a round peen block and everything is very well peened together. Even the cypher with the anker on the outside of the guard is well crafted and nowhere could I find traces of tooling and hard edges, knicks or flaws in the polish. Even blowholes are hard to find, I didn't see any.
The scabbard:
Thick black leather with nice brass, engraved, fittings according to regulations, with two carrying rings on one side.
This scabbard will easely bend and break when one is not careful, it is the nature of this sort of scabbard and not the fault of Universal Swords. The blade sheets realy well into it and has a good fit. I found that when I set the sword aside, when in the scabbard, I can see the leather bend a little. Note that some leather conditioners will soften up the leather even more!
My solution for the moment is to set the sword aside with the hilt down, so there will not be any weight on the scabbard.
Handling:
I am no fencer, so please do not take my remarks for Gospel, but I found this sword to handle quite well, although it is a little tip heavy. It followed my silly moves with no problem whatsoever. When attacking my desk and getting almost wacked by the d%4#ned thing, I had no pain in the wrist. Let us say that I detect a serious intention here, this blade will kill and is made for such. I think it is fencible but not for the long distance, more for a quick in and out, if you pardon the frase. I think it will do well in fights on deck when you have to act very fast, hit, watch your back, hit. Let's say this blade will make a nice rapier, something like that and when sharpened ( also the backedge), it should make for a wicked little snuffer out of lives, delivering nasty drawcut wounds in a cramped environment. It's a snake and on par with my Huawei Kogarasu Maru wakisashi with which I do shadow fighting up and down the stairs. I allways win. Ofcourse.
Conclusions:
I must say that I really like this little snake of a sword. It is very well made, the temper is good, all the brass work is very well done and the scabbard is also period correct. The scabbard needs care, but hey, so do I.
At first I contemplated the ColdSteel Gentlemans sabre, but I had the feeling something was not right. To me it looks like a pastiche, some German Navy mixed with I do not know what. Maybe the ColdSteel is sharp out of the box, I do not know, so for those of us who like to cut, that would be a better choise. For me I think this P-1845 does it and for forumites living in Europe this is a good deal, Euro152, no Costums, no hassle and half the price of what the ColdSteel does here.
I most certainly can recommend it.
Pros: Period correct.
Good weight and handling.
Very well made, excellent temper.
Cons: I cannot find any.
