The Windlass Eglinton Basket Hilted Backsword.
Apr 9, 2015 11:11:48 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Apr 9, 2015 11:11:48 GMT
So here it is, finally, with all the grease and goo still in place.
I got it from www.schwertshop.de/ , where a nice gentleman sharpened it for me. The whole affair cost me Euro 348,14, shipping and sharpening included.
Proforma Nota: I am a costumer and that is it. No strings attached.
When I lifted the Eglinton from its box the weight surprised me. This is one hefty one handed sword. With scabbard it weighs 1708 grams, without 1396 grams, that is about 3 of your pounds! For contrast: my Walloon with much longer blade, fat pommel and half basket weighs 1107 grams. It dwarfs the Windlass.
Where does all those grams come from? Well. this is the first one handed Windlass with a 7 mm thick blade at the ricasso. Surprise, surprise!
I liked the look of that, until I started looking down the blade..... At the point where the fullers end, the blade was still 5 mm thick! Bummer.
What Windlass gives at the ricasso, Windlass takes further up the blade. At that point, at the end of the fullers, there should not be more than 3mm tops of material. I know folks swooning about ,, authority'', but cutting with this blade will be compairable with dropping a piano on the poor bottles and that will be more fun too. I must say though that Windlass going for a 7 mm blade is a splendid thing for sure. I applaud that. It is about time too.
But the taper thing they still have problems with. They normally get away with that by adding huge pommels, as in this case and heavy guards, which they could not do here, because the basket is stamped and form fitted 2 mm thick sheet, which looks rather iffy on top of that blade. This is the first basket and I have a few, that looks downright scrawny. That was my first reaction: something is not working here, there should be more mass in the hilt.
The basket is nicely done though, no sharp corners and it fits the ( gloved ) hand very well, while not being oversized.
The weld on the inside is not very nice to look at.
The grip is thick at the pommel end and tapers down to the guard. That is a first too and historically correct. I have a cuttoe from the period with the same grip style. It works very well and the, as far as I can see, real ray sking grip cover, handles well and gives a steady grip, while not hurting the hand. It has well done wire, though the beginning and ending of it are wrong. That is easy to fix, because the sword is not peened.
For maintenance and cleaning the inside of the basket, one has to screw off that huge pommel. I have not done that yet, but will record what I find here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/40975/sword-construction-data-base
The seam in the ray skin is at the back of the grip where it belongs and by the looks of it, it has been chalked with quite a load of some goo. I do not really mind that at the moment since it is out of view. Maybe later on I will remove the black paint and see what the grip looks like then.
The scabbard is also in a new style. It is non floppy! It is stiff! Whether there is anything inside to give the leather some backing I cannot see at the moment, but I like this scabbard much better than the floppy ones. The fittings are robust iron affairs, with a good long baldrick hook at the one end and a good chape at the other.
Not elegand or fancy , they will last for years. On the inside of the throat piece you can see what looks like plastic flaps. A nice touch, though in scabbards of old these would have been made of spring steel. They hold the blade very well. It will not drop out.
So, what have we got for our money?
Let's start to say that this exemplaire is well build. It feels rock solid. As far as I can see at the moment, this sword will give you years of cutting. Even hard, heavy targets should be no problem with a blade like this. What it also will do is make your arm drop off, because of that dead weight.
It has nothing of flair, swiftness, agilety or whatever. It is a heavy bruiser without any finesse, with an underbuild hilt section.
Like I said above, dropping a piano on the bottles will be more fun. At least you will get the nice sound effects.
I am dissapointed right now? Yes and no. Yes, in seeing another Windlass fail to make the status of sword. As delivered here, it is no sword by any means.
No, because with all that meat on the blade, someone with good filing skills can make this Windlass sing. And a great song it could be too.
Let's call it the best Windlass work in progress on the market right now and with that I would say the $$$ are well spend.
The stats:
OL: 99cm.
BL: 83.5 cm.
Width: 35 mm.
Thickness: 7mm-5mm-5mm-3mm / at guard-half way-at end of fullers-2"" fom tip.
Weight: 1396 grams.
POB: 9.5 cm.
Some ideas for modding: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/46942/diy-windlass-eglinton-mods-lazy
Cheers.
I got it from www.schwertshop.de/ , where a nice gentleman sharpened it for me. The whole affair cost me Euro 348,14, shipping and sharpening included.
Proforma Nota: I am a costumer and that is it. No strings attached.
When I lifted the Eglinton from its box the weight surprised me. This is one hefty one handed sword. With scabbard it weighs 1708 grams, without 1396 grams, that is about 3 of your pounds! For contrast: my Walloon with much longer blade, fat pommel and half basket weighs 1107 grams. It dwarfs the Windlass.
Where does all those grams come from? Well. this is the first one handed Windlass with a 7 mm thick blade at the ricasso. Surprise, surprise!
I liked the look of that, until I started looking down the blade..... At the point where the fullers end, the blade was still 5 mm thick! Bummer.
What Windlass gives at the ricasso, Windlass takes further up the blade. At that point, at the end of the fullers, there should not be more than 3mm tops of material. I know folks swooning about ,, authority'', but cutting with this blade will be compairable with dropping a piano on the poor bottles and that will be more fun too. I must say though that Windlass going for a 7 mm blade is a splendid thing for sure. I applaud that. It is about time too.
But the taper thing they still have problems with. They normally get away with that by adding huge pommels, as in this case and heavy guards, which they could not do here, because the basket is stamped and form fitted 2 mm thick sheet, which looks rather iffy on top of that blade. This is the first basket and I have a few, that looks downright scrawny. That was my first reaction: something is not working here, there should be more mass in the hilt.
The basket is nicely done though, no sharp corners and it fits the ( gloved ) hand very well, while not being oversized.
The weld on the inside is not very nice to look at.
The grip is thick at the pommel end and tapers down to the guard. That is a first too and historically correct. I have a cuttoe from the period with the same grip style. It works very well and the, as far as I can see, real ray sking grip cover, handles well and gives a steady grip, while not hurting the hand. It has well done wire, though the beginning and ending of it are wrong. That is easy to fix, because the sword is not peened.
For maintenance and cleaning the inside of the basket, one has to screw off that huge pommel. I have not done that yet, but will record what I find here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/40975/sword-construction-data-base
The seam in the ray skin is at the back of the grip where it belongs and by the looks of it, it has been chalked with quite a load of some goo. I do not really mind that at the moment since it is out of view. Maybe later on I will remove the black paint and see what the grip looks like then.
The scabbard is also in a new style. It is non floppy! It is stiff! Whether there is anything inside to give the leather some backing I cannot see at the moment, but I like this scabbard much better than the floppy ones. The fittings are robust iron affairs, with a good long baldrick hook at the one end and a good chape at the other.
Not elegand or fancy , they will last for years. On the inside of the throat piece you can see what looks like plastic flaps. A nice touch, though in scabbards of old these would have been made of spring steel. They hold the blade very well. It will not drop out.
So, what have we got for our money?
Let's start to say that this exemplaire is well build. It feels rock solid. As far as I can see at the moment, this sword will give you years of cutting. Even hard, heavy targets should be no problem with a blade like this. What it also will do is make your arm drop off, because of that dead weight.
It has nothing of flair, swiftness, agilety or whatever. It is a heavy bruiser without any finesse, with an underbuild hilt section.
Like I said above, dropping a piano on the bottles will be more fun. At least you will get the nice sound effects.
I am dissapointed right now? Yes and no. Yes, in seeing another Windlass fail to make the status of sword. As delivered here, it is no sword by any means.
No, because with all that meat on the blade, someone with good filing skills can make this Windlass sing. And a great song it could be too.
Let's call it the best Windlass work in progress on the market right now and with that I would say the $$$ are well spend.
The stats:
OL: 99cm.
BL: 83.5 cm.
Width: 35 mm.
Thickness: 7mm-5mm-5mm-3mm / at guard-half way-at end of fullers-2"" fom tip.
Weight: 1396 grams.
POB: 9.5 cm.
Some ideas for modding: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/46942/diy-windlass-eglinton-mods-lazy
Cheers.