Appleseed Sharpening/Angus Trim 1315 review
Aug 19, 2014 20:40:16 GMT
Post by Gakuseinozen on Aug 19, 2014 20:40:16 GMT
Introduction
First off, I know this might be an unorthodox review, so if the mods feel it shouldn't be here or belongs somewhere else please move as necessary.
Second, for those of you that don't know, our fellow forumite Voltan has a service called Appleseed Sharpening. I recently enlisted his services to redo the edge on my Atrim 1315 and was impressed by the quality of the work so I wanted to do a review.
I will essentially be reviewing two products, the 1315 and the sharpening job by Appleseed/Voltan. The review will focus primarily on the sharpening, however, since the 1315 has been reviewed elsewhere and my particular piece is over a decade old and (seems to) have modifications done to it by the previous owner, so any new releases of this model by Gus will likely not be quite the same as mine.
Background
I bought this piece back in 2003 from a member on Sword Forum International, and for whatever reason the edge was not sharp when I bought it; I could draw the entire length of the edge across my skin without getting cut. This was my first sword and I had heard that swords were not meant to be razor sharp, so I assumed that this was intentional... until I tried to cut with it for the first time. A friend and I got a stand and some tatami mats and went at it. While the sword would bite when swung with great force, it simply would not cut. I chalked it up to poor form/inexperience and ended up shelving my sword for about 10 years for unrelated reasons.
Upon a renewed interest in swords earlier this year, and the desire to do some more cutting, I decided to put an edge on my blade with an Accusharp. I know, I know... But to be fair, my knowledge was limited, I had no experience with files or stones and I was following the advice offered on the Sword Buyers Guide website which advertised an easy but effective method of sharpening.
While it did put an edge on my sword, it obviously wasn't ideal and didn't perform the way I wanted, so when I saw posts from Appleseed Sharpening to the SBG Facebook group, I decided to enlist some experienced help to redo the edge.
Atrim 1315: stats and handling
The stats on my piece are almost identical to the ones listed here for the Valiant Armory version. I do not have a scale to check the weight, but I'd say it feels right around 2 and 1/2 pounds. The POB on mine is also a bit further out at right around 5 inches from the crossguard.
I would describe the handling as authoritative, yet quick; it's got a good balance between speed and power. As a blade of average length and balanced handling, it fits the niche between a shortsword and a longsword/greatsword perfectly. The grip is comfortable and big enough to fit one hand up against the crossguard with another gripping the pommel for added power if desired. While not designed for thrusting, the tip is pointy enough and tracks well enough to delivery accuracy, especially with a finger over the crossguard.
The blade is quite stiff with no whippy-ness or droop whatsoever. It has a generous sweet spot centered around where the fuller terminates, making placement of cuts a cinch.
Aesthetically, it is a quintessential Atrim: utilitarian, yet pleasing to the eye. While the finish and geometry evoke a machine made feel, it has a beauty of it's own that comes from the perfect lines and symmetry generated from the computer driven CNC machine that makes all of Gus' blades.
Edge: before and after comparison
Before
After
The before shot clearly slows the secondary bevel, and the relatively rough grind left by the Accusharp is also visible if you zoom in (CTRL + Mouse wheel up in most browsers). In addition to the secondary bevel, I also applied uneven pressure on one side (perhaps both) of the blade which resulted in more of a chisel shaped edge (|/) than a proper V.
In the after shot, it might be easy for the untrained eye (myself included) to mistake the line for a secondary bevel but a simple touch test reveals that it is in fact a smooth transition from blade to edge; there is no ridge or bevel present. In addition to the removal of the secondary bevel, the edge was brought to a mirror polish with progressively finer grits and then finished with a leather strop and honing compound. Although this makes the edge more visible than it was before, I personally find it attractive and the smooth polish helps reduce resistance when the blade travels through the target, as you will see below in the cutting section.
Edge: photos
Here are some photos of the new edge. I'll let the photos do the talking for this section.
Cutting
In short - the new edge makes cutting much easier and more enjoyable. The previous edge worked, technically, but not very well. As we all know, the Accusharp is meant for knives and as such puts a knife edge on whatever you use it on. Knife edge ≠ sword edge. Many times when trying to cut thicker bottles (and some thin ones, too), even with good edge alignment it would simply bat it across the yard and produce nasty feedback/vibration in the hand. The result was that I didn't have confidence in the blade, especially on thicker targets. This is not the feeling you should have when you hold a weapon, even if it's not a weapon that is ever used in self defense.
The new edge has given me that confidence; I am no longer scared to put my blade against tougher targets and have no doubt that it will be able to handle anything I put up against it. I will probably even try tatami again some day
Here is a short video of me putting the new edge through its paces for the first time. I did not do a lot of cutting since I am saving targets for an upcoming get together with some friends, but the few targets I did cut felt effortless.
The normal size, thin plastic bottles just melted like butter as the blade sailed through them. I even got a few "silent" cuts which were pretty rare with the old edge and required perfect alignment; the new edge is much more forgiving of imperfect form. The thicker plastic (the tall Smart Water bottle) used to give me a lot of trouble before (perfect form and a lot of power was required to get a cut at all) but with the new edge it cut easily with the same amount of force used for the smaller bottles. Even the much thicker ice tea jug was no match; the blade went right through and the bottom of the jug stayed on the stand, moving only slightly.
Thrusting was also quite easy; the newly sharpened tip went clean through both sides of the target both times I tried, even though it was going up against the thicker plastic. Tip control was noticeably improved by putting a finger over the guard. This was something I could not do before because I sharpened the blade all the way to the crossguard (not my best idea). When I sent my blade to Voltan for sharpening I requested that the first 4 inches be blunted to create a ricasso of sorts, and this was well executed along with everything else.
Since I reached the maximum attachment limit for this post, I created an album of the pictures I took of the targets after cutting which you can look at here. As you can see the cuts were quite clean for the most part. The cut on the tea jug is a bit uneven but that is likely due to my poor edge alignment combined with the thickness of the plastic.
Conclusion
Pros:
•Cost. I don’t have anything for comparison since Voltan is the only one I know outside of an actual manufacturer that offers this kind of service, but the cost was very reasonable considering the work that was put in.
•Customer service. Voltan was very easy to work with, provided a quick turnaround, and supplied me with updates every step of the process.
•Quality. The results speak for themselves – the new edge is both beautiful and highly functional and as I said above gave me confidence in my sword which is valuable in and of itself.
Cons:
•Shipping. Unfortunately I live far away and had to ship my sword to be sharpened, which cost me as much as the work itself. This is of course no fault of Appleseed Sharpening.
•I do have one minor gripe with the work itself, and that is that when filing the first 4 inches of the blade for the ricasso, the file rubbed against the crossguard and made marks where it meets the blade. Precautions were taken and the crossguard was taped off before the filing was done, but it looks like the tape was insufficient to prevent the file from leaving some light marks. Overall, it’s not a big deal since the blade had already made much deeper and more noticeable marks prior to that which were my fault. The hilt assembly was loose for an extended period of time which allowed the shoulders of the blade to rub back and forth along the top of the crossguard when cutting. Eventually I will likely disassemble the hilt and see if both sets of marks can be sanded out.
In conclusion, I would recommend Voltan/Appleseed Sharpening's services to anyone here. He does fine work and is a pleasure to do business with. If anyone is in the same situation as I was, having a blunt blade or a blade with an improper edge and not having the expertise, tools, or confidence to try putting an edge on it yourself, then he's your man.
First off, I know this might be an unorthodox review, so if the mods feel it shouldn't be here or belongs somewhere else please move as necessary.
Second, for those of you that don't know, our fellow forumite Voltan has a service called Appleseed Sharpening. I recently enlisted his services to redo the edge on my Atrim 1315 and was impressed by the quality of the work so I wanted to do a review.
I will essentially be reviewing two products, the 1315 and the sharpening job by Appleseed/Voltan. The review will focus primarily on the sharpening, however, since the 1315 has been reviewed elsewhere and my particular piece is over a decade old and (seems to) have modifications done to it by the previous owner, so any new releases of this model by Gus will likely not be quite the same as mine.
Background
I bought this piece back in 2003 from a member on Sword Forum International, and for whatever reason the edge was not sharp when I bought it; I could draw the entire length of the edge across my skin without getting cut. This was my first sword and I had heard that swords were not meant to be razor sharp, so I assumed that this was intentional... until I tried to cut with it for the first time. A friend and I got a stand and some tatami mats and went at it. While the sword would bite when swung with great force, it simply would not cut. I chalked it up to poor form/inexperience and ended up shelving my sword for about 10 years for unrelated reasons.
Upon a renewed interest in swords earlier this year, and the desire to do some more cutting, I decided to put an edge on my blade with an Accusharp. I know, I know... But to be fair, my knowledge was limited, I had no experience with files or stones and I was following the advice offered on the Sword Buyers Guide website which advertised an easy but effective method of sharpening.
While it did put an edge on my sword, it obviously wasn't ideal and didn't perform the way I wanted, so when I saw posts from Appleseed Sharpening to the SBG Facebook group, I decided to enlist some experienced help to redo the edge.
Atrim 1315: stats and handling
The stats on my piece are almost identical to the ones listed here for the Valiant Armory version. I do not have a scale to check the weight, but I'd say it feels right around 2 and 1/2 pounds. The POB on mine is also a bit further out at right around 5 inches from the crossguard.
I would describe the handling as authoritative, yet quick; it's got a good balance between speed and power. As a blade of average length and balanced handling, it fits the niche between a shortsword and a longsword/greatsword perfectly. The grip is comfortable and big enough to fit one hand up against the crossguard with another gripping the pommel for added power if desired. While not designed for thrusting, the tip is pointy enough and tracks well enough to delivery accuracy, especially with a finger over the crossguard.
The blade is quite stiff with no whippy-ness or droop whatsoever. It has a generous sweet spot centered around where the fuller terminates, making placement of cuts a cinch.
Aesthetically, it is a quintessential Atrim: utilitarian, yet pleasing to the eye. While the finish and geometry evoke a machine made feel, it has a beauty of it's own that comes from the perfect lines and symmetry generated from the computer driven CNC machine that makes all of Gus' blades.
Edge: before and after comparison
Before
After
The before shot clearly slows the secondary bevel, and the relatively rough grind left by the Accusharp is also visible if you zoom in (CTRL + Mouse wheel up in most browsers). In addition to the secondary bevel, I also applied uneven pressure on one side (perhaps both) of the blade which resulted in more of a chisel shaped edge (|/) than a proper V.
In the after shot, it might be easy for the untrained eye (myself included) to mistake the line for a secondary bevel but a simple touch test reveals that it is in fact a smooth transition from blade to edge; there is no ridge or bevel present. In addition to the removal of the secondary bevel, the edge was brought to a mirror polish with progressively finer grits and then finished with a leather strop and honing compound. Although this makes the edge more visible than it was before, I personally find it attractive and the smooth polish helps reduce resistance when the blade travels through the target, as you will see below in the cutting section.
Edge: photos
Here are some photos of the new edge. I'll let the photos do the talking for this section.
Cutting
In short - the new edge makes cutting much easier and more enjoyable. The previous edge worked, technically, but not very well. As we all know, the Accusharp is meant for knives and as such puts a knife edge on whatever you use it on. Knife edge ≠ sword edge. Many times when trying to cut thicker bottles (and some thin ones, too), even with good edge alignment it would simply bat it across the yard and produce nasty feedback/vibration in the hand. The result was that I didn't have confidence in the blade, especially on thicker targets. This is not the feeling you should have when you hold a weapon, even if it's not a weapon that is ever used in self defense.
The new edge has given me that confidence; I am no longer scared to put my blade against tougher targets and have no doubt that it will be able to handle anything I put up against it. I will probably even try tatami again some day
Here is a short video of me putting the new edge through its paces for the first time. I did not do a lot of cutting since I am saving targets for an upcoming get together with some friends, but the few targets I did cut felt effortless.
The normal size, thin plastic bottles just melted like butter as the blade sailed through them. I even got a few "silent" cuts which were pretty rare with the old edge and required perfect alignment; the new edge is much more forgiving of imperfect form. The thicker plastic (the tall Smart Water bottle) used to give me a lot of trouble before (perfect form and a lot of power was required to get a cut at all) but with the new edge it cut easily with the same amount of force used for the smaller bottles. Even the much thicker ice tea jug was no match; the blade went right through and the bottom of the jug stayed on the stand, moving only slightly.
Thrusting was also quite easy; the newly sharpened tip went clean through both sides of the target both times I tried, even though it was going up against the thicker plastic. Tip control was noticeably improved by putting a finger over the guard. This was something I could not do before because I sharpened the blade all the way to the crossguard (not my best idea). When I sent my blade to Voltan for sharpening I requested that the first 4 inches be blunted to create a ricasso of sorts, and this was well executed along with everything else.
Since I reached the maximum attachment limit for this post, I created an album of the pictures I took of the targets after cutting which you can look at here. As you can see the cuts were quite clean for the most part. The cut on the tea jug is a bit uneven but that is likely due to my poor edge alignment combined with the thickness of the plastic.
Conclusion
Pros:
•Cost. I don’t have anything for comparison since Voltan is the only one I know outside of an actual manufacturer that offers this kind of service, but the cost was very reasonable considering the work that was put in.
•Customer service. Voltan was very easy to work with, provided a quick turnaround, and supplied me with updates every step of the process.
•Quality. The results speak for themselves – the new edge is both beautiful and highly functional and as I said above gave me confidence in my sword which is valuable in and of itself.
Cons:
•Shipping. Unfortunately I live far away and had to ship my sword to be sharpened, which cost me as much as the work itself. This is of course no fault of Appleseed Sharpening.
•I do have one minor gripe with the work itself, and that is that when filing the first 4 inches of the blade for the ricasso, the file rubbed against the crossguard and made marks where it meets the blade. Precautions were taken and the crossguard was taped off before the filing was done, but it looks like the tape was insufficient to prevent the file from leaving some light marks. Overall, it’s not a big deal since the blade had already made much deeper and more noticeable marks prior to that which were my fault. The hilt assembly was loose for an extended period of time which allowed the shoulders of the blade to rub back and forth along the top of the crossguard when cutting. Eventually I will likely disassemble the hilt and see if both sets of marks can be sanded out.
In conclusion, I would recommend Voltan/Appleseed Sharpening's services to anyone here. He does fine work and is a pleasure to do business with. If anyone is in the same situation as I was, having a blunt blade or a blade with an improper edge and not having the expertise, tools, or confidence to try putting an edge on it yourself, then he's your man.