Darkwood Armory Espada Ropera.
Jan 16, 2015 15:14:47 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Jan 16, 2015 15:14:47 GMT
I bought this rapier here at the forum: www.sword-forum.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=23648 . Other than being a very satisfied owner of one of their products, I have no dealings with Darkwood in any way.
The Espada Ropera rapier is an early type of the breed and is Spanish in origin. In Spain this rapier was used by military and civilians alike.
This in contrast to the Italian rapiers, presented to us by Windlass and Hanwei, which are strictly for use by civillians, as their slight build was not up to the rigours of the miltary world. The Espada is swordlike in substance, though with a long and slender stabbing blade. Remnants of sword types from earlier medieval times can be seen in the pommel and the down turned guard, of a form harking back to Arabic swords. New are the knucklebow and the bars that protect the finger in open grip. An interesting expose can be read here: translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mundohistoria.org%2Fblog%2Farticulos_web%2Fla-espada-ropera%3Fpage%3D1&edit-text= .Google's translation of the original Spanish text is a bit garbled though.
The hilt.
Beautiful and made from mild steel, it has a handmade look. The cut outs in the guillons and the knuckle bar are well done but not finished to a high level, though with some attention and filing they can be much bettered. Darkwood caters to the sparring community, so while estethics play a part, not too much time is wasted here. This also helps to keep the price down of course. Factors as safety and build quality matter the most. The grip is a humble wooden affair of good quality and is well made. More elaborate grips can be ordered on site: www.darkwoodarmory.com/
The blade.
Long and slender, it is a good 6 mm thick at the ricasso. I was surprised to see this, as most swords in the $200 - $400 class have only 4.5 mm stock. It is stiff with just a little flex, excellent of temper and as a rapier blade should be, more a stabber than a cutter. The tip is re-enforced and the three custom fullers are a nice extra. I am sure the tip can be sharpened as one would like to do so, as can the lower half of the blade, to make it useful for the draw and slice cut. It is a world apart from everything Hanwei and Windlass offer in the way of rapiers. And for the record, this is a positive statement.
There is no scabbard, so I am going to make me one.
Handling and built quality.
The Espada handles very well. Even I, without much training, can easely have good point control. The grip offers ample space for any hand and there are no pointy bits and sharp bars to lessen the comfort. It feels like an extension of the arm and it is fast and lively. A good sword, one feels, reliable. Not giving one the feeling bits and pieces will drop off, or worse, when put to the test. Everything fits well and tight and it rings like a bell.
Construction.
This is the crux of the matter. In the sparring world great emphasis is laid on safety. Also and here is Darwood a real star, it is a must that parts can be swapped on a moments notice. Said parts must be sturdy and well made and the whole package must resemble originals as close as can be as to weight, handling and looks. This is quite a tall order but Darkwood meets all demands. Here are the bits and bobs that make up the hilt.
At the right of the pommel one sees a bold. This is ,, The Bold '', the linchpin so to say.
Findlithui, with his good nose for the better things in the world of construction and probably everywhere else, discovered this bold and is experimenting and working on all kinds of exiting things to do with it, as can be seen here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/43202/ht-check-out-product . And here is a layout of the construction of the Espada.
The bold has inside threads that cover 17 mm of the 27.5 mm of threaded tang. Compaire this to the measly 4-6 mm in the nut systems from Windlass and others and shiver at the thought what could happen there. Still, these swords are sold as battle ready. I am not dissing on Windlass and Co here. This is just the truth. Look at the Windlass German Bastard New Edition or what happened with that grip of the Hanwei Side sword as can be savoured here:
sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/40901 and here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/41274/ and here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/41733/
This is some stuff Darkwood decided it can do without. Again, I am not dissing on Hanwei and Cold Steel, nor Windlass. I have a house full of them and I like them very much, but I also would like it very much if they would consider the use of thicker stock and a bold system a la Darkwood.
The bold does 2 things. It stiffens the threaded top of the tang and functions as a sort of lightning rod for stresses, vibrations and unwanted pressure on the grip. The thicker and stiffer part of the tang, because of the bold, inside the pommel, takes good care of any vibrations and stresses from the pommel too, as does the leather washer between pommel and grip. That pommel is rather large and weighty, so I dare to venture that without the bold construction, chances are that the pommel will just snap the tang at some point below it. I think we all are aware of instances where this happened. If one has 4.5 mm stock and one goes a threading, not much is left. Trow an overly weighty, non screw on pommel in the mix, like most brands tend to do to better the POB of their untapered blades a bit, have a nut on top of that pommel that can be scewed down much more than needed, or, same thing really, a screw on pommel that can be screwed down endlessly and sooner than later, see above, stuff will happen. Nasty stuff. As it is, the Darkwood makes me feel a lot better in that regard.
I will try to explain how it works. Because of the design of the bold, it cannot go down the tang for more than 17 mm. The pommel, the grip and the guard fill up the rest of the tang space. If one designs a grip of say length X, the bold will press down on it, via the pommel, to amount A, which will be the ideal amount of pressure to keep everything in place, even under heavy duty sparring, but without invoking undue stress on the grip. This is what Darkwood did. Make the grip longer than A and the pressure on it will go up. Make the grip shorter than A and the whole assembly will rattle.
With a little nr 13 wrench you take the bold off and parts, or bend blades, can be swapped in no time. It would not surprise me if hilts or blades from other Darkwood swords, like their basket hilts, can be swapped around freely. But even as that would not be the case, the system Darkwood designed works very well indeed. Thus far I could not find raports of major disasters happening with Darkwood swords.
Could the system be bettered?
Not if one wants to keep a ,,Dynamic'' system, dynamic meaning the ,,safe swap'' function. Me, I have no need to swap blades, my needs are so to say ,,Static''. So, I do not like that theaded part under the pommel as seen in the picture above and I would like a nut under said pommel, sitting in a hollow in the top of the grip and a tube of Locktite to secure the whole lot.
Also, I would like to clean up the cut outs, cover the grip with something, wire maybe and put some ornamentation on the flats of the pommel, sharpen the blade and clean up the fullers and let us not forget a scabbard. But that is me, a neurotic maniacal tinkerer, rather fond of what Mr. Dave Kelly so eloquently calls: ,,Pimpsticks''.
Aside from those small improvements, I can find no fault with this rapier ,,as is'' and I can happily recommend the Darkwood Espada Ropera to all readers of this epistle.
Thank you.
Statistics.
Length oa : 109 cm.
Blade length : 93 cm.
Blade width at ricasso: 2.8 cm.
Thickness at ricasso : 6 mm.
Taper : 6 mm - 3 mm at 1" from the tip.
POB : 13.5 cm.
Grip length : 9.3 cm.
Weight : 1177 grams.
The Espada Ropera rapier is an early type of the breed and is Spanish in origin. In Spain this rapier was used by military and civilians alike.
This in contrast to the Italian rapiers, presented to us by Windlass and Hanwei, which are strictly for use by civillians, as their slight build was not up to the rigours of the miltary world. The Espada is swordlike in substance, though with a long and slender stabbing blade. Remnants of sword types from earlier medieval times can be seen in the pommel and the down turned guard, of a form harking back to Arabic swords. New are the knucklebow and the bars that protect the finger in open grip. An interesting expose can be read here: translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mundohistoria.org%2Fblog%2Farticulos_web%2Fla-espada-ropera%3Fpage%3D1&edit-text= .Google's translation of the original Spanish text is a bit garbled though.
The hilt.
Beautiful and made from mild steel, it has a handmade look. The cut outs in the guillons and the knuckle bar are well done but not finished to a high level, though with some attention and filing they can be much bettered. Darkwood caters to the sparring community, so while estethics play a part, not too much time is wasted here. This also helps to keep the price down of course. Factors as safety and build quality matter the most. The grip is a humble wooden affair of good quality and is well made. More elaborate grips can be ordered on site: www.darkwoodarmory.com/
The blade.
Long and slender, it is a good 6 mm thick at the ricasso. I was surprised to see this, as most swords in the $200 - $400 class have only 4.5 mm stock. It is stiff with just a little flex, excellent of temper and as a rapier blade should be, more a stabber than a cutter. The tip is re-enforced and the three custom fullers are a nice extra. I am sure the tip can be sharpened as one would like to do so, as can the lower half of the blade, to make it useful for the draw and slice cut. It is a world apart from everything Hanwei and Windlass offer in the way of rapiers. And for the record, this is a positive statement.
There is no scabbard, so I am going to make me one.
Handling and built quality.
The Espada handles very well. Even I, without much training, can easely have good point control. The grip offers ample space for any hand and there are no pointy bits and sharp bars to lessen the comfort. It feels like an extension of the arm and it is fast and lively. A good sword, one feels, reliable. Not giving one the feeling bits and pieces will drop off, or worse, when put to the test. Everything fits well and tight and it rings like a bell.
Construction.
This is the crux of the matter. In the sparring world great emphasis is laid on safety. Also and here is Darwood a real star, it is a must that parts can be swapped on a moments notice. Said parts must be sturdy and well made and the whole package must resemble originals as close as can be as to weight, handling and looks. This is quite a tall order but Darkwood meets all demands. Here are the bits and bobs that make up the hilt.
At the right of the pommel one sees a bold. This is ,, The Bold '', the linchpin so to say.
Findlithui, with his good nose for the better things in the world of construction and probably everywhere else, discovered this bold and is experimenting and working on all kinds of exiting things to do with it, as can be seen here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/43202/ht-check-out-product . And here is a layout of the construction of the Espada.
The bold has inside threads that cover 17 mm of the 27.5 mm of threaded tang. Compaire this to the measly 4-6 mm in the nut systems from Windlass and others and shiver at the thought what could happen there. Still, these swords are sold as battle ready. I am not dissing on Windlass and Co here. This is just the truth. Look at the Windlass German Bastard New Edition or what happened with that grip of the Hanwei Side sword as can be savoured here:
sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/40901 and here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/41274/ and here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/41733/
This is some stuff Darkwood decided it can do without. Again, I am not dissing on Hanwei and Cold Steel, nor Windlass. I have a house full of them and I like them very much, but I also would like it very much if they would consider the use of thicker stock and a bold system a la Darkwood.
The bold does 2 things. It stiffens the threaded top of the tang and functions as a sort of lightning rod for stresses, vibrations and unwanted pressure on the grip. The thicker and stiffer part of the tang, because of the bold, inside the pommel, takes good care of any vibrations and stresses from the pommel too, as does the leather washer between pommel and grip. That pommel is rather large and weighty, so I dare to venture that without the bold construction, chances are that the pommel will just snap the tang at some point below it. I think we all are aware of instances where this happened. If one has 4.5 mm stock and one goes a threading, not much is left. Trow an overly weighty, non screw on pommel in the mix, like most brands tend to do to better the POB of their untapered blades a bit, have a nut on top of that pommel that can be scewed down much more than needed, or, same thing really, a screw on pommel that can be screwed down endlessly and sooner than later, see above, stuff will happen. Nasty stuff. As it is, the Darkwood makes me feel a lot better in that regard.
I will try to explain how it works. Because of the design of the bold, it cannot go down the tang for more than 17 mm. The pommel, the grip and the guard fill up the rest of the tang space. If one designs a grip of say length X, the bold will press down on it, via the pommel, to amount A, which will be the ideal amount of pressure to keep everything in place, even under heavy duty sparring, but without invoking undue stress on the grip. This is what Darkwood did. Make the grip longer than A and the pressure on it will go up. Make the grip shorter than A and the whole assembly will rattle.
With a little nr 13 wrench you take the bold off and parts, or bend blades, can be swapped in no time. It would not surprise me if hilts or blades from other Darkwood swords, like their basket hilts, can be swapped around freely. But even as that would not be the case, the system Darkwood designed works very well indeed. Thus far I could not find raports of major disasters happening with Darkwood swords.
Could the system be bettered?
Not if one wants to keep a ,,Dynamic'' system, dynamic meaning the ,,safe swap'' function. Me, I have no need to swap blades, my needs are so to say ,,Static''. So, I do not like that theaded part under the pommel as seen in the picture above and I would like a nut under said pommel, sitting in a hollow in the top of the grip and a tube of Locktite to secure the whole lot.
Also, I would like to clean up the cut outs, cover the grip with something, wire maybe and put some ornamentation on the flats of the pommel, sharpen the blade and clean up the fullers and let us not forget a scabbard. But that is me, a neurotic maniacal tinkerer, rather fond of what Mr. Dave Kelly so eloquently calls: ,,Pimpsticks''.
Aside from those small improvements, I can find no fault with this rapier ,,as is'' and I can happily recommend the Darkwood Espada Ropera to all readers of this epistle.
Thank you.
Statistics.
Length oa : 109 cm.
Blade length : 93 cm.
Blade width at ricasso: 2.8 cm.
Thickness at ricasso : 6 mm.
Taper : 6 mm - 3 mm at 1" from the tip.
POB : 13.5 cm.
Grip length : 9.3 cm.
Weight : 1177 grams.