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Post by LG Martial Arts on Dec 21, 2014 19:09:03 GMT
My one and only, an H/T 9th Century Viking sword from Crusader Monk
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Post by vinland on Dec 22, 2014 7:45:31 GMT
Only Viking sword I own is a windlass sticklestad, mainly because I saw the fairly positive reviews and the low price on it. Gotta say I'm rather disappointed, but I sort of expected it.
The point of balance on it is about 8 inches from the front guard, the blade came rather dull, even though I bought the sharpening services. The handle is a little too long for my liking, the front guard practically has edges on it already, and the copper pieces around the handle itself are loose.
Maybe I just got a bad one, but it really left me with a poor view on the swords windlass makes.
I don't have a way to take a good picture of mine since my phone camera is awful, so this is an of one I found online.Attachments:
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Post by sonofarwyn on Jan 8, 2015 16:21:37 GMT
Only Viking sword I own is a windlass sticklestad, mainly because I saw the fairly positive reviews and the low price on it. Gotta say I'm rather disappointed, but I sort of expected it.
The point of balance on it is about 8 inches from the front guard, the blade came rather dull, even though I bought the sharpening services. The handle is a little too long for my liking, the front guard practically has edges on it already, and the copper pieces around the handle itself are loose.
Maybe I just got a bad one, but it really left me with a poor view on the swords windlass makes.
I don't have a way to take a good picture of mine since my phone camera is awful, so this is an of one I found online. Sounds like you got a lemon. I have one of these I got from KoA about five months ago, and its in pretty decent shape. Fittings on mine were solid and tight. Sharpening was acceptable. The POB on these is blade forward, yours sounds a little further out than mine, which was right around 6 1/2" off the top of my head. If its a recent purchase, take a look at a return. The hilt furniture should not move at all, that's a solid reason to return it for a replacement blade.
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Post by vinland on Jan 9, 2015 20:03:15 GMT
Only Viking sword I own is a windlass sticklestad, mainly because I saw the fairly positive reviews and the low price on it. Gotta say I'm rather disappointed, but I sort of expected it.
The point of balance on it is about 8 inches from the front guard, the blade came rather dull, even though I bought the sharpening services. The handle is a little too long for my liking, the front guard practically has edges on it already, and the copper pieces around the handle itself are loose.
Maybe I just got a bad one, but it really left me with a poor view on the swords windlass makes.
I don't have a way to take a good picture of mine since my phone camera is awful, so this is an of one I found online. Sounds like you got a lemon. I have one of these I got from KoA about five months ago, and its in pretty decent shape. Fittings on mine were solid and tight. Sharpening was acceptable. The POB on these is blade forward, yours sounds a little further out than mine, which was right around 6 1/2" off the top of my head. If its a recent purchase, take a look at a return. The hilt furniture should not move at all, that's a solid reason to return it for a replacement blade. I've had it for a fairly long time, and I've done some modifications to it to make it feel a bit better in my hand. I rounded the guard off so it didn't dig into my hand as much, and I spent a day draw filing and polishing the blade to bring the POB down from 8" to around 7 1/2" before I stopped. I've also fixed the copper pieces myself, Hammered them down with a leather mallet usually used for jewelry, epoxied them to the handle and now they aren't going anywhere. At this point this sticklestad is more of project to practice my blade making skills, I don't really do any cutting with it anymore. But if you say that yours is much better than I might give them another shot one day, but I just got darksword armory's 12th century two handed templar sword and I won't be buying another sword for a while.
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Post by sonofarwyn on Jan 9, 2015 21:53:14 GMT
Gotcha. The other thing to be said with the Windlass products is that they are all made manually. As such, there is always variation in any of the their product, and as a result, there are some stinkers that slip in to the mix. Some of their blades are much better than others, there are a fair number of subcontractors making things for them, and some of those guys are very skilled. I have a couple of their blades that the work on is impressive as hell, particularly seeing the price point. Their rapiers for example, have some damn nice work in the hilts compared to some other high end manufacturers. The flip sides is that you get some stuff that is way sub-par, and occasionally it changes as the smithing moves on to a new smith. An example, the Descheaux rapier has a very well executed basket hilt. Really really nice work on the one I have. The blade, on the other hand, is a useless whippy little noodle. So, I basically paid a couple of hundred bucks for a project hilt, and need a blade to mount on it. The Musketeer rapier, on the other hand, is very well done indeed, and is a good solid stiff bladed rapier. I recommend it. With Windlass, it really comes down to the model and the reputation it has in the community.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Jan 19, 2015 18:16:29 GMT
Only have four Viking swords right now but have another three coming in this year. The two swords on the floor are my starter swords by Henwei. The two on the display I built are an Albion Vinland and Clontarf.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Feb 17, 2015 19:42:08 GMT
Oops, just got another sword to add to the display.
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Post by lionsbeard on Mar 13, 2015 16:16:16 GMT
Here are the majority of mine so far: From top to bottom; Albion Thegn - very light fast blade! Hanwei Godfred - also a very nimble viking sword Custom based on a Hanwei 9th century blade - love this one, good heft, feels good in hand Crusader Monk Suonotaka Kris Cutlery Viking (somewhat customized) - the shield breaker. This is a beast of a sword Windlass Sticklestad - good all arounder, comfortable, solid, good grip Hanwei Tinker 9th Century Viking Sword - older model, so the grip isnt as sharp, feels good, in the middle of the pack Windlass Leuterit- really good feeling sword, great blade, let down by crappy alloy fittings About the windlass leuterit; I have discovered that the guard and pommel are solid copper plated with a type of alloy-silver and all latexed over with a plastic that peals off.... mine started a "clicking" sound in the pommel.
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Post by sonofarwyn on Mar 14, 2015 18:00:08 GMT
Now thats a very interesting find. Frankly, it would probably look better without the plating. Good find lionsbeard!
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Post by jwest on Mar 14, 2015 20:37:24 GMT
Here are the majority of mine so far: From top to bottom; Albion Thegn - very light fast blade! Hanwei Godfred - also a very nimble viking sword Custom based on a Hanwei 9th century blade - love this one, good heft, feels good in hand Crusader Monk Suonotaka Kris Cutlery Viking (somewhat customized) - the shield breaker. This is a beast of a sword Windlass Sticklestad - good all arounder, comfortable, solid, good grip Hanwei Tinker 9th Century Viking Sword - older model, so the grip isnt as sharp, feels good, in the middle of the pack Windlass Leuterit- really good feeling sword, great blade, let down by crappy alloy fittings About the windlass leuterit; I have discovered that the guard and pommel are solid copper plated with a type of alloy-silver and all latexed over with a plastic that peals off.... mine started a "clicking" sound in the pommel. Your grip might have shrunk. The grip is made of rosewood. You could get some fretboard oil and treat the grip. It might expand enough to tighten things up. Arwyn pretty much nailed it with his discription of the Leuterit. On mine the slot for the blade shoulders is cut to large. In two places there is less than a millimeter of copper alloy. This makes one side of the cross very weak. But it will be a donor blade so no big deal.
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Post by lionsbeard on Mar 16, 2015 1:00:30 GMT
There is considerable "fill" or glue on both sides of wooden grip, I thought about finishing oil but I think the problem lies with soft copper on steel. I clubbed a couple of milk cartons that simply exploded, after the jarring session I started hearing the clicking; it's getting slightly worse, still nothing to fear of it flying off, but still annoying... I'm gathering that the sticklestad pommel and guard are copper as well.. don't have one to experiment with.
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Post by siralan (Sir Alan Adale) on Mar 17, 2015 3:19:18 GMT
So here is my small viking collection. It includes my Valiant Armory Hedemark with 33' Blade then my Darksword Armory Einar and then my newest pride and joy recently arrived from a lucky eBay find a one of one hundred an Albion Valkyrja. And the funny thing is like another esteemed collector here on the forum I found that Valkyrja only after ordering and paying for a Christian Fletcher Sheildmaiden. Although it is not complete so I will have to add it later.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Mar 17, 2015 17:17:52 GMT
Hope you bought a lottery ticket on the day you found the Valkyrja because that had to be your lucky day. You don't find them up for sale very often. I'm waiting for Sonny to come out with his version of it.
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Post by Caboose on Mar 18, 2015 1:53:35 GMT
I'm waiting for Sonny to come out with his version of it. This. As much as I love the Suontaka, I can't really justify blowing $1K+ on one. Hopefully Sonny's will fit the bill.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Mar 18, 2015 2:13:02 GMT
You and me both. I think he's waiting on the cost of casting the bronze fitting to come up with a price. I'm guessing in the $600 to $800 range.
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Post by Croccifixio on Mar 20, 2015 2:37:45 GMT
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Sean (Shadowhowler)
VIP Reviewer
Retired Moderator
No matter where you go, there you are.
Posts: 8,828
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Post by Sean (Shadowhowler) on Mar 20, 2015 5:49:07 GMT
Yeah... that's nice.
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Post by Gunnar Wolfgard on Mar 24, 2015 13:09:12 GMT
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Luka
Senior Forumite
Posts: 2,848
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Post by Luka on Mar 24, 2015 13:35:46 GMT
Well, they were used in Scandinavia well before the end of the viking age. It's not sure where were they developed, but some types people think of as typically viking were also developed in Frankish lands... Type K for example.
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Post by beastofwotan on Mar 24, 2015 13:40:44 GMT
In my eyes that's not a Viking sword, it looks too European. To me these are true Viking swords. Just my opinion. Who made that first one? It's quite nice.
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