Wulflund: Schiavona and Schiavina, Cavalry Version.
Jul 19, 2015 12:40:04 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Jul 19, 2015 12:40:04 GMT
So, there they are, at last.
Wulflung assures me this was a one off event and as they are in business for some years, I think they are speaking truth here.
Were this a regular occurrence they would not have survived. With that out of the way, let's get down to business.
The ,,mission'' I set myself was a reaction to the happenings surrounding Windlass earlier this year.
I thought there must be an alternative, at least for people in Europe, to the Windlass source of swords and Wulflund could be it.
They have a great number of models and the price is right. Importing their wares into the US could be a stumbling block though, for the cost of shipping might turn some people off.
Never mind that, I see KOA took care of that and has some Wulflund models in their catalogue by now.
So, I thought, take one for the team and order some interesting stuff and see what they can do, review them and see what happens.
I ordered the two Schiavonas because I like basket hilts and because those baskets are quite complicated and so not easy to make.
Having a number of basket hilts from Windlass, Cold Steel and Hanwei and seeing the cooky cutter stamped and formed thin plate hilts from up close, with the awfull Eglinton as outstanding bummer of the year, I was very interested in what Wulflund had to offer in this regard. As an aside I ordered the blades to be 95 cm long, so what you see here are the Cavalry versions of the standard Infantry models on the website.
What is immediately obvious is that the grips are longer than the grips on the standard models shown on the website.
I have a period Walloon where this was done, but there the pommel is heavy enough to make a difference.
Why this is so, I do not know. I could speculate that this was done to get the POB back a little, but the pommels are too light and small to merit that.
Maybe the smith took some bastard sword blades and forgot to shorten the tang. Who knows? I will shorten those tangs though. The pommels are not peened as far as I can see, so that will be easy.
I say that though the long grips, at 11.2 cm, look rather outlandish, in handling this is not a negative.
My hand almost takes the whole grip, most certainly when sporting gauntlets, even with one finger over the guard on the ricasso there is not much room left.The pommel does not function as a stop to the hand, that is all. It feels good this way, because that pommel has some corners that could be uncomfortable. What does not feel good is that the grips are too thin. The profile is okay, but there could be more meat on there to have a better controlled grip.
The baskets are clearly hand made. Thick stock was used, not too thick, just right. No cookie cutter thin plate here. This is as close to originals as it gets, with the same graceful lines.No electric welding as far as I can see. Everything is done the way it used to be done and very well too. These baskets are very strong, can stand direct hits and the beauty of it all is that they are not overly roomy.
For me they are just perfect. What might be a negative for people used to Windlass et all, or more upmarket A & A, is that the baskets are only polished to stage one. As I have some antiques to compare these hilts with and many pictures of swords made for the common soldier at that time, I can assure you, that this is what the standard was at that level.
Rather raw. Functional. No frills. Dependable. Though on the Wulflund website the hilts look more polished at first sight, a closer look at detail shows the handy work there too.
I like the hilts very much and say ,, Kudos to the smith who made them''. For me these are worth the price of the whole thing.
Now we get to the blades and here something interesting is going on.
They are quite thin. I get 4mm! All over. No taper. Like you now, I went ,,what the f$!k'' too when I unpacked them.
For starters, the temper and the flex are excellent. They use some steel called CSN 14260 with a hardness of 52 - 54 HRC and whatever that steel is, it is very good. They even guarantee for braking. These are re enactment blades, stage battle blades. For what they are, they are worth every penny, but are as far away from originals as is possible.
For the cutter amongst us this is not a problem. I ordered them sharp and very sharp they are, with a small appleseed bevel. There is no whippyness at all, nothing floppy.
I think them better than Windlass in terms of temper and flex. Here they are very close to originals. Hell, my Bilbo, compared to this, behaves in the
same way. The other, shorter, ones I got all share the same characteristics as these blades. There are hammer marks all over when held to the light in a certain way and one of the fullers has a slip, where the guy doing the fullering had to sneeze or something. Again compared to the old stuff I have from this soldier class, nothing out of the ordinary.
Lovers of Albion need not waste time here. This is good old hand work, but as far as taper and thickness are concerned, well, modern. Stage battle.
So, how do they handle? That is tricky, because I can only try to sort out my feelings here, so nothing is objective as results may vary per person.
I would say: Not very fast. Though my oldies share the flex and many characteristics, even the Bilbo, with that long Cavalry blade, feels faster.
And that is funny, because at the other hand it feels heavier too somehow, though it is some ounces lighter than the fattest of the swords reviewed here. The Schiavonas have 95 cm long blades and that you are going to feel anywhich way. Because there is no taper you cannot say they are point heavy, a main characteristic of Cavalry swords. The baskets are the sole counter weight, so they feel ,,vague''. There is no zing, no spirit in these swords. Nothing that would make me shout ,, ooooh, yes!''.
I am sure a trained Stage Battle actor can wield these for hours, the weight is acceptable, but once in motion they are not easy to stop and that takes its toll on the wrist, mine at least.
Like I said, fancy sword play can be done, but you will have to do some training. It takes some force to direct these and to make them do what you want. They do not really want to. As straight up and down cleavers, choppers or stabbers, they are adequate, will do the work, are dependable as tools should be, but that is it. No more. And that right there is the main difference with the antiques in handling. Good for show combat, where everybody does certain moves at a certain time, like ballet, but inadequate for real battle were one has to react or act in a split second and nothing is rehearsed.
The Saga describing the heroic and tragi comic efforts of various parties to get them can be savoured here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/44069/wulflund-saga-arrived .
As this is meant to be a review of weapons, I will try not to be influenced by the above mentioned affair.Note that Wulflund is the vendor of products made by the Czech firm Arma Epona and I have no relations with either one.
Maybe the smith took some bastard sword blades and forgot to shorten the tang. Who knows? I will shorten those tangs though. The pommels are not peened as far as I can see, so that will be easy.
I say that though the long grips, at 11.2 cm, look rather outlandish, in handling this is not a negative.
same way. The other, shorter, ones I got all share the same characteristics as these blades. There are hammer marks all over when held to the light in a certain way and one of the fullers has a slip, where the guy doing the fullering had to sneeze or something. Again compared to the old stuff I have from this soldier class, nothing out of the ordinary.
This is the best I can do and I hope anybody who reads this will make up their own mind.
Conclusion.
Am I happy? Yes and no.
The no is in the blades. I did not expect these. There is absolutely nothing wrong with them technically and they are better in some ways than what Windlass et all have to offer.
The no sits in the dullness, that vague feeling, like there is no beginning or an end, though this will improve with a shorter and fatter grip and wearing gauntlets. The yes sits in those baskets, big time. These are no replicas, these are forged only a couple of hundred years too late.
There are some tool marks that I will remove sometime later, but they are worth every penny I laid out on Wulflund.
So, though the swords reviewed here are a little over the price of Windlass, I can recommend them as an alternative and though this might sound over the top: I have the A & A Dresden set. Beautiful and all. But personally I feel that A & A fell into the trap of overly polished product. For an A & A to get some life in there, to become alive and have a soul of their own, that will take a long time scratching, denting, banging about, polishing out and so on and so on.
This morning, seeing the Dresden next to the Schiavonas I thought: That Dresden is gonna have to go, it is a replica!
Wulflund is definitely worth looking into. They have a great many models and a range of blades and more expensive stuff too. The product, as far as I can see with these two swords, is certanly worth the money. Where Hanwei often gives me a feeling their swords are going to fall apart at first impact, these feel as solid as they come. Go check them out!
Stats:
Blade length: 95 cm.
1 Broadsword - 1 Backsword.
Length overall: 103 cm.
Weigth: 1481 grams for the Broadsword. 1525 grams for the Backsword.
Pob: 11.5 cm for the Broadsword and 14 cm for the Backsword.
Blade width: 3.5 and 3.7 cm, with a thickness of 4mm.
This morning, seeing the Dresden next to the Schiavonas I thought: That Dresden is gonna have to go, it is a replica!
Wulflund is definitely worth looking into. They have a great many models and a range of blades and more expensive stuff too. The product, as far as I can see with these two swords, is certanly worth the money. Where Hanwei often gives me a feeling their swords are going to fall apart at first impact, these feel as solid as they come. Go check them out!
Stats:
Blade length: 95 cm.
1 Broadsword - 1 Backsword.
Length overall: 103 cm.
Weigth: 1481 grams for the Broadsword. 1525 grams for the Backsword.
Pob: 11.5 cm for the Broadsword and 14 cm for the Backsword.
Blade width: 3.5 and 3.7 cm, with a thickness of 4mm.