Albion Steward
Jul 4, 2015 8:24:09 GMT
Post by Iradei on Jul 4, 2015 8:24:09 GMT
The Albion Steward
Time is ripe for some more reviews ! I indeed purchased the Steward quite a while ago and now I have just got out of the hospital I was kept in because of the indescribable shock endured when I first held it in my hands.
Wahh! You must be wondering : does that mean it was an awesome sword or, on the contrary, was it a downright disaster ? Was it broken ? Does it portend the end of the world ? Has the leprechaun invasion finally begun? I genuinely want to read this review !
Hell of an intro right ? Now let’s get started.
For all the decent replicas available on the market, there is to my eyes solely one cutting-sword stereotype which perfectly combines both aesthetic elegance and staggering charisma : The Steward
As stated on the Albion site, this sword was classified as a type XIIIa by beloved Ewart Oakshott in his prominent Records of the Medieval Swords. Notwithstanding the fact that the Steward bears tremendous resemblance with the antic it was based upon, quite a few modifications were made
which unquestionably set them apart.
which unquestionably set them apart.
I would even go as far as to say that the sword presently under consideration is nothing short of an improved replica of the original type XIIIa which figures in the Oakeshott’s previously mentioned book (page 101). The reasons for such a statement will be plainly accounted for in the following parts below. Here are respectively photos of both the Albion Steward and the antic which inspired its makers.
Primarily due to such a massive-looking blade from whence the whole essence and charms of this weapon emerges, this sword type has been estimated to have come into both existence and use from 1250 up until 1350. There is little doubt that the slow development of effective plate armour in the 14th century rendered its wide cutting edges obsolete. Accordingly, blades endowed with more acute points were required which marked the beginning of both type XVI and XVIa.
This is but the second Albion sword that I have in my keeping and I have no affiliation whatsoever with the Albion Company. As a regular customer I purchased the sword in question directly via their site on : www.albion-europe.com/
An unexpected delay
Before we delve any further into the review, a few words must be devoted to waiting time I had to “endure” after the sword at stake was added to the production queue :
I had originally placed an order for both the Ringeck (already reviewed here : sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/41346/) and the Steward so as to save on shipping costs. Søren Niedziella and I had indeed agreed that they were to send both swords in one package. Furthermore, as an answer for the approximate waiting time I would have to face prior to receiving the said swords, I was informed in a mail that there was currently a 3 to 4 month waiting period. Little did I know then that I would have to restrain myself from hewing bamboos with my pocket knife for a much longer time. As a matter of interest, it so happened that when the Ringeck was ready, that is 6 months after my order was made, the Steward was far from being finished at all. As a result they sent the package containing the Ringeck without the Steward in it, contrary to what we had planned in the beginning.
Long I lingered helplessly with a hole in my heart that would never be filled. Long I roamed aimlessly from place to place without the slightest hint as to why life had been given to us all, until suddenly, some 3 months later, lo and behold ! there came, at last, the long-expected Steward !
That’s right ! I had to wait for 9 months instead of the 3 or 4 predicted in the first place !
Though I can easily put up with a little postponement (say a month at the most), 5 months behind schedule is far too long a delay for my liking. And even though they told me they ended up being late on the grounds that they encountered problems when making the pommel I think a 9 month waiting period is pushing it, especially for an item that pricy. Not to mention that I had to send them at least one mail a month to know whether the making of the Steward was getting to a close. I deem this lack of responsiveness to be, yet again, unjustified for so high a price.
Fortunately enough, I had to pay the shipping cost only once. However that may be, I was quite disgruntled with them. Mark my words, they shall taste my ruthless wrath in the next life !
Package, finish and initial impression
The Steward arrived in the customary cardboard box, tightly secured by two pieces of plastic foam in the middle and at the base of the blade. The package the Albion Company provides is genuinely beyond reproach. Unless the delivery driver is involved in a car accident, there is no way an Albion sword could ever get damaged. As usual, the weapon came to me unscathed and with no scratches whatsoever. When I opened the box, the sword was covered with an even coating of oil to prevent its surface from rusting during transport.
I would have called the whole weapon to be in pristine condition if it were not for a goodly number of rusty spots, all located on the peen block. I trust this issue primarily comes from the fact that they neglected the rivet when oiling the iron parts prior to shipping the sword. Be that as it may, only upon thorough inspection did I notice the rust in question. In truth, unless one looks closely enough at the pommel, they are scarcely discernible to the naked eye.
For the record I did not even bother to remove them for fear that I might damage the satin finish or worse, create unsightly scratches. Should I want to, it wouldn’t be very difficult since it is but very light surface rust which would be most likely to fade away quite easily. One might therefore add that the rusty portions of the rivet are not that big of a deal, so to speak. Yet, even though it is not nearly as important a problem as the aforesaid delay, it deserved mention nonetheless.
As alluded to right at the outset, I was utterly bewitched from the very moment I opened the package and laid eyes upon the splendid artifact it contained. Seldom have I beheld such a perfect balance between the stupendous magnificence of aesthetic properties and the sheer effectiveness of its form as a weapon; between the intricacy of harmoniously intertwined parts, and such simplicity in their respective shape. Everything, from the aforementioned rivet up to the very tip of the blade is nothing but a flawless and seldom achieved marriage between beauty, effectiveness and simplicity. As reflected by its impressive blade along with its general bulk, the mere sight of this sword immediately conveys a most powerful presence. The seam, though barely noticeable, can still be seen as the following photo can tell
In regards to the Steward’s shape and proportions, nothing seems to be out of place. There is nothing to add and nor to remove. Solely one word befits such staggeringly elegant forms; solely one word can possibly sum it all up : Perfection
Feeling in the hand and balance
No matter how gorgeous a weapon is should it be unwieldy. As far as the Steward is concerned, balance definitely not an issue. The whole sword indeed benefits from an altogether exquisite balance and although it is assuredly a broad-bladed weapon, it is by no means blade-heavy. As a matter of interest, it is quite the contrary : the flat and fullered blade makes for a stunningly light weapon. In fact I would even go as far as to claim that this sword feels lighter and livlier in the hand than a goodly number of one-handed swords.Holding this sword or a small laptop feel the same to me.
By the same token, even though its thick guard, its hefty pommel along with its overall bulk would foreshadow a slow-moving wieldability, the Steward is extremely swift which enables to go from one position to another in a blink of an eye. The fact of the matter is that when I subsequently grabbed the Ringeck with its narrow blade and needle sharp point, the latter seemed a far heavier and less maneuverable weapon, even though it definitely is not. Despite the fact that the sword feels exceedingly light and nimble when held, it still retains much power and authority in the blade. When I first held the Steward in my hands, I was completely struck with astonishment. It was bewildering to experience how light and agile it felt and the blade was as ready to strike an opponent down as a loaded gun would be to shoot its owner’s foe. Its excellent wieldability rivals its beauty as it were.
A most alluring blade
The blade is endowed with two paper-cutting-sharp edges which run almost parallel to within some 10 centimeters of the tip, where they gracefully meet one another in an even spatulate point. Its paper-thin thickness comes in utter contrast with the general stoutness of the entire sword. In its center lies a deeply cut fuller which exhibits two sharp ridges, thereby providing both strength and stiffness to the weapon. This clearly-marked groove occupies 2/3 of the blade and is 1.5 centimeter wide near the guard. I for one never liked shallow fullers. They look indeed quite dreary and definitely lack the character and shape that a steep fuller with well defined boundaries can boast. As a result the blade is not excessively flexible and doesn’t feel floppy when used to cut with. The blade has an original breadth of 4.5 cm at the base, 4 cm in the middle and 3.5 cm a little more than 15 centimeters away from its end. There is also a faint distal taper along its length (5 mm at the base which then comes down to barely 0.2 mm thick near the tip). The blade therefore gets narrower both in terms of thickness and in terms of breadth as it comes closer to the tip which, though it is round in shape, still unveils an acute and well defined point.
As one could instantly tell by looking at the above photos, the fullers of the antic run half way down to the center while that of the Steward stretch over three quarters of the total blade length. This sizeable fuller lengthening enables to reduce the overall weight of the weapon and can consequently be only beneficial. Furthermore, the last third of the blade remains plain and flat thus providing enough heft near the tip for powerful blows.
No doubt the whole sword mostly draws its stunning handiness from such a cunningly-executed blade.
The hilt, a complex geometrical masterpiece
The only thing I can say is that there’s more to this sword than meets the eyes. The parallelism created by both the virtually straight edges of the blade and the equally parallel fullers are but hinting at a complex geometrical bond; all the more magnified in the hilt which conveys the very character this sword embodies.
The cross-guard and the grip
The 17 cm grip is long enough for two hands and bears two neat risers in its center. The cord imprints onto the uniformly-blackened leather along with the said risers genuinely come in handy when it comes to delivering blows by preventing one’s hands from sliding down. In addition to increasing frictions for the wielder’s convenience, both the cord imprints and the two risers are aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Without them the grip would both feel and look altogether dull and plain. As a feature of paramount importance, the section of the grip at stake is octagonal and harmoniously swells in its center, reaching the maximum thickness between the two risers. Both these characteristics make for a very comfortable grip and are in tune with the cross-guard shape.
Indeed, to match with this shapely and charismatic grip, the guard section was also made octagonal. Such a bond between these essential parts indubitably echoes to the geometrical theme that reverberates through the whole weapon. Additionally, the guard too swells towards the grip, thus forming a delicate curve at midpoint between both arms of the guard. As they come closer to their extremity, both quillons get narrower and then gently flare until they finally end up in a flat octagonal end. The slight curves at work along the guard therefore create a most beautiful wavy pattern which forms yet another aesthetic bond. The mentioned curves are indeed in utter harmony with the previously described rounded shape of the spatulate point.
By comparison, while the cross-guard appears to be an exact and accurate replica, flawlessly faithful to the original, the Steward grip is slightly longer than that of the antic. This elongation allows for better balance and, ultimately better control of the entire weapon. Furthermore, as biased as it is, I genuinely think that aesthetically speaking a longer grip is no bad thing. As a matter of fact, the handle on the antic sword seems, to my eyes, disproportionately small compared to the weapon as a whole. This brings into consideration a most important question, namely : Was the original sword intended to be a one-hand-and-a-half sword ? Its grip being slightly long for the average one-handed length and, conversely, being relatively shorter than that of a bastard sword, one cannot deny that this specific sword is quite ambiguous.
The pommel : the completion of a geometrical bond
As faithful replica of the original the Steward was given the common wheel pommel with a flat, round plane whose rim is surrounded by a circular and deeply concave slope. As stated above, there are a few light rust spots on the rivet. Apart from this minor point I could complain about, this iron counterweight is admittedly well and evenly made. By its circularity, such a classic and yet quite handsome pommel is once again highly reminiscent of the rounded point of the blade along with the aforesaid curves the cross-guard is characterized by. Likewise, the narrowing peen block ends in a perfect, flat square with four distinct edges, quite evocative of the octagonal theme repeated both in the cross-guard section and that of the grip.
On the one hand, the curving theme of this sword ending in a flawless circular pommel and, on the other, the parallelism conveyed by both the blade and the hilt, all the more emphasized by the square shape of the rivet put to the fore how the chunky pommel exquisitely completes a most attractive geometrical bond. All of the features in this sword echo to one another by their harmonious shapes, from the elegant rivet down to the very tip of the blade. Such well-conceived geometrical bonds definitely account for the inherent beauty of the sword at stake.
Conclusion
!-_-!
I would first begin to say that the Steward is a genuine masterpiece in its own right, which incidentally fully offsets both Albion’s impressive delay and the slightly rusted rivet stated above. Being a broad-bladed weapon which conveys an indisputable massive presence and yet remaining stunningly light; and, equally, being exceedingly simple in its shape, despite boasting exquisitely-proportioned and harmoniously-related parts, this sword is beyond doubt a weapon of contrast.
One definitely needs to take into account the geometrical bond to be found in every single component this particular Albion sword is made of to unravel its very sense, its very character, its very soul.
It goes without saying that such a well-conceived weapon is no coincidence; it can only reflect the countless hours of research Albion’s staff spent and the toilsome work they went through to provide their customers with this alluringly gorgeous type XIIIa. That is why, we, sword-lovers, are so fond of this company; not only is any Albion sword synonym of unfailing historicity in terms of balance and proportions, but one can be equally trustful of the harmony and the painstaking details that were put into the making of such weapons.
As a one-of-a-kind weapon whose charisma goes hand in hand with grace I can only say this sword is well worth the price. A genuine “épée de guerre” with nary a flaw to be accounted for. For my part I have yet to find another sword to upstage the Steward in my shrine.