Cutlass from Treasure Island

I don't know anything about them but their site is great with a lot of options:

www.xyfos.com/

This site is Italian but also offers great products:

www.coltelleriacollini.com

Hope this helps.

Cian - If you can stick to Windlass or Hanwei swords you stand a good chance of avoiding disapointment with your purchase. Their Medieval Arts branded products seem to all be windlass (at first glance).

I've just been checking out Collini and their site is sweet, The zoom in shots of the pictures are awesome and exactly what other retailers NEED NEED NEED to get on their sites - see below - Ive left it full size to show how good they are. I'll go there in future for pics of swords I'm interested in.

Windlass makes a few nice cutlasses.

Brass-hilted:
www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=1287

Pirate (sort of a fantasy piece, but very cool):
www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=1276

Scottish:
www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=2517

Dutch:
www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=2701

Any of these would be cool.

Loyalist Arms of Canada has these to offer:
loyalistarms.freeservers.com/pirateswordscutlasses%20.html
A couple are, obviously, the same general look as the Windlass pieces, but have more tradtional peened hilt assemblies, rather than threaded, and they are much cheaper. You could email them and see what costs would be like for shipping, etc. to Ireland.

I'm sure you could find a Euro distributor for some of these swords, I just don't know of any myself. Perhaps another of our European members can give you some leads.

Treasure Island is an awesome story. I've read it countless times over the last 30 years. It really does hook you and make you want to set sail, doesn't it?

In a threaded hilt, the blade tang extends through the guard, handle, and pommel, and is threaded on the end, so that either the pommel itself, or a seperate nut hold the hilt together.

A peened hilt is basically the same setup, except that the end of the tang, instead of being threaded, is just hammered flat over the pommel to hold things together.

This article has some pics of the different assembly types near the bottom:
www.albion-swords.com/swords-functional.htm

If you read the article, they have some fairly negative opinions of threaded hilts that are true to some extent, but don't let it keep you from getting a sword that has this feature. In actual use, decently made threaded hilts (like Windlass) hold up just fine.

Well, there are others vastly more knowledgeable than me, but I appreciate the compliment, nonetheless.

As to the help, no problem, that's why we're here. Never hesitate to ask any question you may have, however small it may seem.

Welcome aboard, by the way.

Hey guys and gals (if any),
I'm new to the site and sword-buying in general. I have some background in Japanese weapons training, but nothing I'd call on an expert level. Okay why I'm here and why I'm posting:
I want to buy a decent quality pirate-esque cutlass. After looking through here and reading the AwEsOmE sword buying tips on the main site I've still not been able to find the one I like. I've looked at all the links in this thread and they don't really float my boat. There is this one

at www.a2armory.com/picusw.html that I found that LOOKS cool but after calling the helpline they basically told me in many more words than were necessary that it was a piece of crap. SO, if anybody out there knows of a quality made pirate-type cutlass or company that makes something like this, please let me know! Oh yeah, btw.. my price range is $200 and below I'd say.

Okay that's all you really needed to know.. if you want to kill another minute or two: the background on why I'm buying it. My good friend is a BIG pirate fan. He was a pirate fan before Pirates of the Caribbean came out... aaaaaand, he's getting married. So being the clever guy I am I figured an awesome gift to get him would be an authentic pirate sword engraved with the date of his wedding, and his and his bride's name to cut the cake with (of course!). Lo and behold.. I can't find anything worth buying.

"And for everyone playing at home", here's the discount link and how it works:

10% discount at Reliks on Windlass

Well I'm not sure if he ever liked or even read Treasure Island (that was the other guy in this thread.. I know, I kind of highjacked it) but thanks a lot for your help! Thanks to Villarreal for posting those links for me.. while I'd already seen most in a previous post (I think).. I do like the 2nd one down with the purple grip; good shape and seems like decent quality.

A bit off topic.. but whatever, this site and the forums have spurred me onto it.. I think I'd like to buy a Japanese sword of decent quality for myself. My price range for this is probably $200-$280ish. Like I mentioned before, I've had some training and I've always wanted a real sword. From what everyone has to say.. I think I'm leaning toward Cheness.. but does anyone have any suggestions for a particular model or perhaps another company I should look at? It would probably mostly be for wall decoration.. but of course I'd like to take her down every now and then and practice some forms and possibly slice something up. Thanks!

-dashotrk

PS. I was also thinking about an Iaito as well.. but it would probably get a lot more use; suggestions for that?