Valiant Armory Special Edition Warsword
Jan 26, 2015 2:45:47 GMT
Post by Gakuseinozen on Jan 26, 2015 2:45:47 GMT
Introduction:
First, the usual disclaimer holds true: I have no affiliation with Valiant Armory, did not receive any compensation in return for writing this review and used my own funds to purchase this item.
Next, a little background... Around June or July of last year I started getting back into swords and wanted to add to my collection. I already had an Angus Trim 1315, which is a single handed arming sword, so my initial thought was to go for a longsword or some other two handed sword. I first looked at the Hanwei Tinker line and then some of the offerings from Darksword Armory. Out of the two, the offerings from Darksword were more aesthetically pleasing to me (specifically their 15th Century Gothic sword), but after reading reviews on some other pieces from DSA, I decided against it. I then stumbled upon Valiant Armory; their products had good reviews and all of them were packaged with beautiful scabbards and suspensions at a reasonable price. The Special Edition Warsword was most similar to what I had been looking for: a wide bladed, cut oriented sword with a long enough hilt for comfortable two-handed use.
I emailed Sonny and after a good deal of back and forth we hammered out the specifics on what it was that I wanted. The whole process was very smooth and, as has been noted in other reviews, Sonny was a pleasure to work with and very flexible on what could be customized. I ultimately chose the Warsword with tan for the grip and belt and cocoa brown for the scabbard. I had him swap out the stock guard for the one on the Crecy, and had the pommel, guard and chape blued to match the color of the scabbard as closely as possible. In order to accommodate the Crecy guard, I also had him change the mouth of the scabbard to match the one on the Crecy scabbard.
Since the sword was sort of a Christmas gift to myself, I had Sonny wait until the beginning of December to mail it to me. I opened it on Christmas and was initially very impressed by the work. The weekend after, I had some friends over to join me in cutting with it for the first time. I initially debated on whether to share what happened next, but since the purpose of this review (and the whole site/forum, for that matter) is to give potential customers a comprehensive overview of the product, I thought it best to include it. The cutting initially went great, but a cut on a particularly thick water bottle resulted in the tang snapping where the grip met the guard. A friend of mine was doing the cutting and I happened to be filming at the time. I also took some photos afterwards. I shared these photos with our fellow forumite, TomK, who advised me that the break was almost certainly due to a bad temper from the forge; the grain size visible in the tang's cross section is much larger than what would be present in a properly tempered blade.
I sent the photos and the video to Sonny later that day, and received a phone call from him almost immediately. He was very apologetic and said he would make it right. I received a pre-paid UPS label and sent the sword back to him the following Monday. Within about two weeks of sending it back to him, I had a brand new blade on my doorstep. The following review is of this second blade.
Although this incident does affect my view of the product, I understand that this kind of thing could have happened no matter where I ordered from. I also understand the nature of Valiant Armory's business: the blades are forged in China, and everything else is made and assembled at Sonny's shop in Texas. The forge is responsible for the bad heat treat. And while they likely have less focus on quality control than other forges in, say… the US, the cheaper labor costs result in a less expensive product. I knew all of this before I purchased thanks to the members here that have reviewed VA products in the past, and I hope that by sharing my experiences I can help inform someone else in return. What I don't want, however, is for this to cause a witch hunt. Ultimately it is up to each prospective buyer to weigh the pros and cons of each product and/or manufacturer, and if they are OK with the tradeoffs involved (like I was) then they can make their purchase accordingly.
Unboxing:
The sword arrived in a large cardboard box. Moving the box around did not cause anything to rattle around inside; a sign of a good packing job. Upon opening the top end of the box, I was greeted by a wad of packing paper. There was another one at the other end, sandwiching the contents firmly between them. Behind the paper was a thin cardboard 'envelope' in which the sword and scabbard was housed. After removing the envelope from the box, I spotted the belt the suspension straps inside a plastic bag taped to the outside. I opened the top of the envelope to find the sword inside the scabbard and both firmly sandwiched in the envelope. After some effort, I got both out. The scabbard was of course the same one I previously admired the first time around, so I put my attention toward the blade itself. Upon close inspection, I found several light scuff marks on the blade. Whether these were from the factory, or from the testing Sonny did on the blade (to ensure this one was properly heat treated) before sending it to me I could not say. Either way, the marks were very minor (I could not get them to show up on camera) and should come out quite easily with a little WD40 and a grey scotch-brite pad. After inspecting the surface of the blade, I grabbed a piece of paper which the blade made short work of... it was definitely sharp :) The unboxing photos can be found here.
The scabbard & belt:
In short, these are gorgeous. Both the scabbard and the belt are decorated with matching crosses and scrollwork. In the case of the scabbard, it is in the form of raised inlays. I'm guessing this effect is generated by pressing the leather onto a kind of reverse-mold, but of course I'm not privy to this information so I can't be sure. Either way, the result is gorgeous and because the designs are raised it gives the leather a nice texture to it as well. The same crosses and scroll-work that adorn the scabbard are also present on the belt and suspension straps. This time, however, the designs appear to be burned in. I'm guessing that in order to save time a template is used, rather than doing it by hand. The result is that the designs are perfectly aligned and symmetrical throughout. For whatever reason, the marks are darker on the suspension straps than on the belt. Parts of the belt are also a bit more faded than others. I'm guessing that both of these inconsistencies are just due to the differences in the grain of the leather resulting in some parts taking the design more easily than others. Regardless, I don't find that it detracts much from the overall appearance.
The construction of the scabbard is well done. The wood core is sturdy and firm. The leather is wrapped tightly and the seam is unobtrusive. The chape is attractive, the bluing on it is well done and it is firmly attached to the scabbard. The mouth of the scabbard is neatly done, including the stitching around the edges of the rain-guards. The fit of the sword to the scabbard is excellent; tight enough that the sword doesn’t fall out if held upside-down, but not too tight as to hinder drawing it. The buckles for the two point suspension are well placed and the straps that hold them to the scabbard are laced around and then under the leather of the scabbard in a way that is both visually appealing and secure.
The entire belt and scabbard setup is comfortable to wear and requires just a bit of time to set up and configure for your personal preferences. The belt is long enough and has enough holes to accommodate a variety of waist sizes; I am about a 34 inch waist and when I put on the belt there is quite a bit of extra belt that I have to tie in the front. The belt comes with both suspension straps attached already, so all that needs to be done is deciding where and at what angle you want the sword to hang and then adjusting the straps and buckles accordingly.
I personally prefer the sword to hang at about a 45 degree angle. To get that angle I had to wrap the front strap around itself to shorten it enough to get the desired height on the front. The back strap required no modification; I simply attached the scabbard to the bottom hole so that it was as low as possible. I took some pictures of my setup so you can see what I’m talking about.
The two point suspension is convenient in that it allows you to adjust it to your preferences, but by nature it is less stable and moves around much more than an integrated belt would. This means that while walking around the sword will sway side to side unless you have your hand on the hilt. This isn’t much of an issue but definitely something I noticed since my other sword has an integrated belt. In my cutting video below, you’ll notice I wore the scabbard for a while and then took it off… this was not due to discomfort (quite the contrary, I hardly noticed it was there), but rather an effort to protect it from getting wet.
The hilt:
The guard and pommel are both made of mild steel and blued to match the chape on the scabbard. The pommel is a large type J and the guard is a type 6 variant. Both are nearly, but not perfectly, symmetrical; the upturned ridge in the guard is slightly off center on one side, and the circular protrusions on either side of the pommel are not exactly the same size. Some may prefer everything to be perfectly symmetrical, but I don’t mind; the minor differences are not immediately noticeable and give the fittings a hand-made feel.
Both the pommel and the guard are aligned with the blade, which I’m thankful for since that is one bit of asymmetry that would bother me. The slot in the guard is also well fit to the blade, which is surprising considering the guard was made for a different blade. I do have a gripe with have with the guard, however, and that is the presence of a few scratches which are either faint or quite visible depending the lighting. I believe this is due to the fact that Sonny used the same fittings as on the previous blade (which likely got scratched after it hit the ground) rather than making new ones. I would have preferred he make new fittings instead of re-using the old ones.
It is clear that the pommel was re-used as well. When the peen is examined, there is a slight indent under the peen where it looks like the end of the old tang was sawed off and removed. As for the peen itself, it is a bit rough in appearance and there is a mark on the pommel giving evidence of a missed hammer swing. Again, I would have preferred a new pommel and the hammer mark is a bit of an eye-sore but not something I will be looking at very often.
The grip has a nice oval cross section of sufficient diameter to make it comfortable for my average size hands. It is about 8 inches in length which gives me ample room for both hands with a bit of room to spare. The grip is what I have seen described as ‘bottle’ shaped, meaning that it tapers down a bit towards the pommel. I have no frame of reference as this is my first sword with a two-handed grip, but I find the shape both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. The leather on the grip is nicely textured and has risers at the top, middle, and bottom. The seam is well done, hard to spot and can’t be felt when gripped.
The blade:
Length: 34 and ¼ inches
Width: 2 and ¼ inches at the cross, 1 and ¾ inches at the end of the fuller
Fuller length: 25 inches
COP: ~25 inches from the cross
POB: 6 and ½ inches from the cross
Weight: ~3 pounds, 5 ounces
The blade is an especially wide type XIIa, coming in at two and a quarter inches wide at the cross. It is about thirty-four and a quarter inches long, and has very little profile taper, maintaining its exceptional width all the way to the center of percussion which makes it very well suited to cutting. It has a shallow fuller running about two thirds of the way down the blade. The fuller itself is quite straight but is not free of blemish; if looked at in the right light the grind marks are clearly visible. The cross section is of lenticular variety with a slight central ridge running from the end of the fuller to the tip. The tip itself, while not designed for thrusting is pointy enough to make such attacks effective. The edge, as far as I can tell, transitions very smoothly from the blade with only a hint of a possible secondary bevel. It is paper cutting sharp out of the box. The blade has a good amount of distal taper and while I don’t have the tools to gather exact measurements, I can say that it is quite noticeable when looking down the edge of the blade.
The weight of this piece comes in at around 3 pounds, 5 ounces. The point of balance is six and a half inches from the cross, giving it a hefty blade presence. While not unwieldy by any means, it is clear that this sword lends itself to large cleaving blows.
The blade is polished to a nice matte finish with only the few minor scuffs mentioned earlier. Geometrically, it is about as perfect as a hand forged blade can be; all lines are straight and even with no hint of waviness. The fuller is well placed in the center which makes it easy to admire the rest of the symmetry when looking down the blade.
Photos:
The full gallery can be found here.
Cutting:
For test cutting, I used plastic bottles of varying thickness and milk jugs. This is my first two handed sword so my form is not great; I found edge alignment much more difficult than with the 1315. I have not studied any historical manuals, either, so I just do what comes most natural.
I was initially a bit underwhelmed with the way this sword performed, and thought that it might be due to the edge not being sharp enough. With practice, however, it quickly became apparent that it was due to poor form and edge alignment rather than the sword itself. You’ll notice in the video that cuts came more naturally with time and the results improved as well. All but the thickest plastic cut easily with proper form. The bottles made with especially thick plastic continued to give me difficulty even when my form began to improve, however. It may be possible that the edge needs a bit of refinement but it could just be that perfect form is required. I plan to take a strop to the edge and continue to practice and see if I have better luck next time.
I did attempt, briefly, to use the sword one-handed and while it helped with my edge alignment, it was not ideal. The blade is just too big to be used in this way for more than a few cuts. This sword has ample grip space for two hands and that is where it shines. When using a two-handed grip in combination with proper form and footwork, it delivers devastating cuts. This sword would be capable of making short work of an unarmored or lightly armored opponent; I’m sure quite a few unlucky souls lost limbs to this kind of blade throughout the time period when its type was popular.
As mentioned above, the tip is broad but pointy enough for thrusts. I tried quite a few of these and found tip control to be easy despite the size and weight of the blade. This was the only kind of attack that worked against the thicker targets, and this scenario also tested the flexibility of the blade. Even with a heavy target skewered to the end of the blade, the amount of flex was pretty minimal, meaning the blade is quite stiff overall. The temper was proven to be quite good this time around as well; after flexing the blade always returned to true and no matter how many targets I batted across the yard due to poor form, everything remained solid and intact.
Below is a video I put together of some of the highlights.
Conclusion:
All things considered, I am happy with the final product even after what I went through to get it. I have to be honest, the first blade breaking the first time I used it was a huge bummer. I felt I should give Sonny a second chance, however, and I’m glad I did. It seems like the faulty blade was just a fluke; in all the reviews and all the word of mouth I’ve heard about Valiant Armory I have never heard of anything like that happening. I suppose I was just unlucky enough to get a lemon.
The fit and finish of the final product I received suffered due to the decision to reuse the fittings from the first blade, but that is really the only thing I can hold against it which says a lot for Sonny’s work.
Pros:
Cons:
First, the usual disclaimer holds true: I have no affiliation with Valiant Armory, did not receive any compensation in return for writing this review and used my own funds to purchase this item.
Next, a little background... Around June or July of last year I started getting back into swords and wanted to add to my collection. I already had an Angus Trim 1315, which is a single handed arming sword, so my initial thought was to go for a longsword or some other two handed sword. I first looked at the Hanwei Tinker line and then some of the offerings from Darksword Armory. Out of the two, the offerings from Darksword were more aesthetically pleasing to me (specifically their 15th Century Gothic sword), but after reading reviews on some other pieces from DSA, I decided against it. I then stumbled upon Valiant Armory; their products had good reviews and all of them were packaged with beautiful scabbards and suspensions at a reasonable price. The Special Edition Warsword was most similar to what I had been looking for: a wide bladed, cut oriented sword with a long enough hilt for comfortable two-handed use.
I emailed Sonny and after a good deal of back and forth we hammered out the specifics on what it was that I wanted. The whole process was very smooth and, as has been noted in other reviews, Sonny was a pleasure to work with and very flexible on what could be customized. I ultimately chose the Warsword with tan for the grip and belt and cocoa brown for the scabbard. I had him swap out the stock guard for the one on the Crecy, and had the pommel, guard and chape blued to match the color of the scabbard as closely as possible. In order to accommodate the Crecy guard, I also had him change the mouth of the scabbard to match the one on the Crecy scabbard.
Since the sword was sort of a Christmas gift to myself, I had Sonny wait until the beginning of December to mail it to me. I opened it on Christmas and was initially very impressed by the work. The weekend after, I had some friends over to join me in cutting with it for the first time. I initially debated on whether to share what happened next, but since the purpose of this review (and the whole site/forum, for that matter) is to give potential customers a comprehensive overview of the product, I thought it best to include it. The cutting initially went great, but a cut on a particularly thick water bottle resulted in the tang snapping where the grip met the guard. A friend of mine was doing the cutting and I happened to be filming at the time. I also took some photos afterwards. I shared these photos with our fellow forumite, TomK, who advised me that the break was almost certainly due to a bad temper from the forge; the grain size visible in the tang's cross section is much larger than what would be present in a properly tempered blade.
I sent the photos and the video to Sonny later that day, and received a phone call from him almost immediately. He was very apologetic and said he would make it right. I received a pre-paid UPS label and sent the sword back to him the following Monday. Within about two weeks of sending it back to him, I had a brand new blade on my doorstep. The following review is of this second blade.
Although this incident does affect my view of the product, I understand that this kind of thing could have happened no matter where I ordered from. I also understand the nature of Valiant Armory's business: the blades are forged in China, and everything else is made and assembled at Sonny's shop in Texas. The forge is responsible for the bad heat treat. And while they likely have less focus on quality control than other forges in, say… the US, the cheaper labor costs result in a less expensive product. I knew all of this before I purchased thanks to the members here that have reviewed VA products in the past, and I hope that by sharing my experiences I can help inform someone else in return. What I don't want, however, is for this to cause a witch hunt. Ultimately it is up to each prospective buyer to weigh the pros and cons of each product and/or manufacturer, and if they are OK with the tradeoffs involved (like I was) then they can make their purchase accordingly.
Unboxing:
The sword arrived in a large cardboard box. Moving the box around did not cause anything to rattle around inside; a sign of a good packing job. Upon opening the top end of the box, I was greeted by a wad of packing paper. There was another one at the other end, sandwiching the contents firmly between them. Behind the paper was a thin cardboard 'envelope' in which the sword and scabbard was housed. After removing the envelope from the box, I spotted the belt the suspension straps inside a plastic bag taped to the outside. I opened the top of the envelope to find the sword inside the scabbard and both firmly sandwiched in the envelope. After some effort, I got both out. The scabbard was of course the same one I previously admired the first time around, so I put my attention toward the blade itself. Upon close inspection, I found several light scuff marks on the blade. Whether these were from the factory, or from the testing Sonny did on the blade (to ensure this one was properly heat treated) before sending it to me I could not say. Either way, the marks were very minor (I could not get them to show up on camera) and should come out quite easily with a little WD40 and a grey scotch-brite pad. After inspecting the surface of the blade, I grabbed a piece of paper which the blade made short work of... it was definitely sharp :) The unboxing photos can be found here.
The scabbard & belt:
In short, these are gorgeous. Both the scabbard and the belt are decorated with matching crosses and scrollwork. In the case of the scabbard, it is in the form of raised inlays. I'm guessing this effect is generated by pressing the leather onto a kind of reverse-mold, but of course I'm not privy to this information so I can't be sure. Either way, the result is gorgeous and because the designs are raised it gives the leather a nice texture to it as well. The same crosses and scroll-work that adorn the scabbard are also present on the belt and suspension straps. This time, however, the designs appear to be burned in. I'm guessing that in order to save time a template is used, rather than doing it by hand. The result is that the designs are perfectly aligned and symmetrical throughout. For whatever reason, the marks are darker on the suspension straps than on the belt. Parts of the belt are also a bit more faded than others. I'm guessing that both of these inconsistencies are just due to the differences in the grain of the leather resulting in some parts taking the design more easily than others. Regardless, I don't find that it detracts much from the overall appearance.
The construction of the scabbard is well done. The wood core is sturdy and firm. The leather is wrapped tightly and the seam is unobtrusive. The chape is attractive, the bluing on it is well done and it is firmly attached to the scabbard. The mouth of the scabbard is neatly done, including the stitching around the edges of the rain-guards. The fit of the sword to the scabbard is excellent; tight enough that the sword doesn’t fall out if held upside-down, but not too tight as to hinder drawing it. The buckles for the two point suspension are well placed and the straps that hold them to the scabbard are laced around and then under the leather of the scabbard in a way that is both visually appealing and secure.
The entire belt and scabbard setup is comfortable to wear and requires just a bit of time to set up and configure for your personal preferences. The belt is long enough and has enough holes to accommodate a variety of waist sizes; I am about a 34 inch waist and when I put on the belt there is quite a bit of extra belt that I have to tie in the front. The belt comes with both suspension straps attached already, so all that needs to be done is deciding where and at what angle you want the sword to hang and then adjusting the straps and buckles accordingly.
I personally prefer the sword to hang at about a 45 degree angle. To get that angle I had to wrap the front strap around itself to shorten it enough to get the desired height on the front. The back strap required no modification; I simply attached the scabbard to the bottom hole so that it was as low as possible. I took some pictures of my setup so you can see what I’m talking about.
The two point suspension is convenient in that it allows you to adjust it to your preferences, but by nature it is less stable and moves around much more than an integrated belt would. This means that while walking around the sword will sway side to side unless you have your hand on the hilt. This isn’t much of an issue but definitely something I noticed since my other sword has an integrated belt. In my cutting video below, you’ll notice I wore the scabbard for a while and then took it off… this was not due to discomfort (quite the contrary, I hardly noticed it was there), but rather an effort to protect it from getting wet.
The hilt:
The guard and pommel are both made of mild steel and blued to match the chape on the scabbard. The pommel is a large type J and the guard is a type 6 variant. Both are nearly, but not perfectly, symmetrical; the upturned ridge in the guard is slightly off center on one side, and the circular protrusions on either side of the pommel are not exactly the same size. Some may prefer everything to be perfectly symmetrical, but I don’t mind; the minor differences are not immediately noticeable and give the fittings a hand-made feel.
Both the pommel and the guard are aligned with the blade, which I’m thankful for since that is one bit of asymmetry that would bother me. The slot in the guard is also well fit to the blade, which is surprising considering the guard was made for a different blade. I do have a gripe with have with the guard, however, and that is the presence of a few scratches which are either faint or quite visible depending the lighting. I believe this is due to the fact that Sonny used the same fittings as on the previous blade (which likely got scratched after it hit the ground) rather than making new ones. I would have preferred he make new fittings instead of re-using the old ones.
It is clear that the pommel was re-used as well. When the peen is examined, there is a slight indent under the peen where it looks like the end of the old tang was sawed off and removed. As for the peen itself, it is a bit rough in appearance and there is a mark on the pommel giving evidence of a missed hammer swing. Again, I would have preferred a new pommel and the hammer mark is a bit of an eye-sore but not something I will be looking at very often.
The grip has a nice oval cross section of sufficient diameter to make it comfortable for my average size hands. It is about 8 inches in length which gives me ample room for both hands with a bit of room to spare. The grip is what I have seen described as ‘bottle’ shaped, meaning that it tapers down a bit towards the pommel. I have no frame of reference as this is my first sword with a two-handed grip, but I find the shape both comfortable and aesthetically pleasing. The leather on the grip is nicely textured and has risers at the top, middle, and bottom. The seam is well done, hard to spot and can’t be felt when gripped.
The blade:
Length: 34 and ¼ inches
Width: 2 and ¼ inches at the cross, 1 and ¾ inches at the end of the fuller
Fuller length: 25 inches
COP: ~25 inches from the cross
POB: 6 and ½ inches from the cross
Weight: ~3 pounds, 5 ounces
The blade is an especially wide type XIIa, coming in at two and a quarter inches wide at the cross. It is about thirty-four and a quarter inches long, and has very little profile taper, maintaining its exceptional width all the way to the center of percussion which makes it very well suited to cutting. It has a shallow fuller running about two thirds of the way down the blade. The fuller itself is quite straight but is not free of blemish; if looked at in the right light the grind marks are clearly visible. The cross section is of lenticular variety with a slight central ridge running from the end of the fuller to the tip. The tip itself, while not designed for thrusting is pointy enough to make such attacks effective. The edge, as far as I can tell, transitions very smoothly from the blade with only a hint of a possible secondary bevel. It is paper cutting sharp out of the box. The blade has a good amount of distal taper and while I don’t have the tools to gather exact measurements, I can say that it is quite noticeable when looking down the edge of the blade.
The weight of this piece comes in at around 3 pounds, 5 ounces. The point of balance is six and a half inches from the cross, giving it a hefty blade presence. While not unwieldy by any means, it is clear that this sword lends itself to large cleaving blows.
The blade is polished to a nice matte finish with only the few minor scuffs mentioned earlier. Geometrically, it is about as perfect as a hand forged blade can be; all lines are straight and even with no hint of waviness. The fuller is well placed in the center which makes it easy to admire the rest of the symmetry when looking down the blade.
Photos:
The full gallery can be found here.
Cutting:
For test cutting, I used plastic bottles of varying thickness and milk jugs. This is my first two handed sword so my form is not great; I found edge alignment much more difficult than with the 1315. I have not studied any historical manuals, either, so I just do what comes most natural.
I was initially a bit underwhelmed with the way this sword performed, and thought that it might be due to the edge not being sharp enough. With practice, however, it quickly became apparent that it was due to poor form and edge alignment rather than the sword itself. You’ll notice in the video that cuts came more naturally with time and the results improved as well. All but the thickest plastic cut easily with proper form. The bottles made with especially thick plastic continued to give me difficulty even when my form began to improve, however. It may be possible that the edge needs a bit of refinement but it could just be that perfect form is required. I plan to take a strop to the edge and continue to practice and see if I have better luck next time.
I did attempt, briefly, to use the sword one-handed and while it helped with my edge alignment, it was not ideal. The blade is just too big to be used in this way for more than a few cuts. This sword has ample grip space for two hands and that is where it shines. When using a two-handed grip in combination with proper form and footwork, it delivers devastating cuts. This sword would be capable of making short work of an unarmored or lightly armored opponent; I’m sure quite a few unlucky souls lost limbs to this kind of blade throughout the time period when its type was popular.
As mentioned above, the tip is broad but pointy enough for thrusts. I tried quite a few of these and found tip control to be easy despite the size and weight of the blade. This was the only kind of attack that worked against the thicker targets, and this scenario also tested the flexibility of the blade. Even with a heavy target skewered to the end of the blade, the amount of flex was pretty minimal, meaning the blade is quite stiff overall. The temper was proven to be quite good this time around as well; after flexing the blade always returned to true and no matter how many targets I batted across the yard due to poor form, everything remained solid and intact.
Below is a video I put together of some of the highlights.
Conclusion:
All things considered, I am happy with the final product even after what I went through to get it. I have to be honest, the first blade breaking the first time I used it was a huge bummer. I felt I should give Sonny a second chance, however, and I’m glad I did. It seems like the faulty blade was just a fluke; in all the reviews and all the word of mouth I’ve heard about Valiant Armory I have never heard of anything like that happening. I suppose I was just unlucky enough to get a lemon.
The fit and finish of the final product I received suffered due to the decision to reuse the fittings from the first blade, but that is really the only thing I can hold against it which says a lot for Sonny’s work.
Pros:
- Top quality scabbard and suspension system that is both beautiful and functional. This item alone would cost about ¾ of the total price I paid if I got it somewhere else.
- Hand forged, 1060 blade with excellent geometry including distal taper (which is not always present in this price range).
- A wide range of customization options, including colors and hilt furniture – all at no extra charge. (Correction: the bluing was an extra $50)
Cons:
- Blade was not given the same care and quality check as the rest of the product. I am aware that this is the reason these packages are priced so affordably, so it’s a necessary trade-off but still a con.
- The fittings were re-used from the first product I received, resulting in a less than stellar overall finish.
- Some minor inconsistencies in the scrollwork on the belt and suspension straps.