Windlass Italian Ring Hilt Military Sword Rapier.
Dec 3, 2015 18:44:51 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Dec 3, 2015 18:44:51 GMT
Wow. That is a mouth full.
Another Windlass oldy from around 1999, from the line of design that gave us the Military Sword Rapier : sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/43071/windlass-military-sword-rapier?page=1&scrollTo=596996 . I bought this one second hand for Euro 150, all in. It sure is a looker and build like a tank. I suggest you hold on to that thought for a while. It will be made clear why further on. This type of sword or Feld Degen, it is a Cavalry sword, was en vogue around 1610-1620. Here is a picture of an original.
Good hand protection coupled with a quite broad and long blade for mowing down Infantry from horse back and having a fast blade in the melee, those were the characteristics of the type.
The Italian part comes from the bend guillons. The Spanish had their version too, but they favoured them long and straight. In fact they liked that quirk bad enough to hold on to that guillon type until the end of the 18th century. Go have a look at the Cavalry Bilbo. As to the rings, well, this one sports 5 and I have seen baskets having 7 rings and even more. This set up requires that other parts of the sword must be made just so, as to have a good balanced sword when everything is put together. Those long and broad blades must have had wonderful distal taper. Just imagine the weight of those ringed baskets. It requires a lot of tinkering to have as an end result a good nimble sword with a basket of this type, good for cutting and thrusting, that can be used in long sessions.
So. Now for the Windlass.
This is one good looker and it is very well put together. It rings like a bell. The nickel plated basket and cup have no lumpy welding spots. Nothing is out of whack and the plating is done very well too. Though after some 15 years little dark spots have formed here and there, there is no evidence of plate lifting. That said, this design is not very practical. The shallow cup prevents that. Cleaning this basket will take some time and how on earth they kept these baskets in good shape in the old days is anybodies guess. Maybe they dunked them in ,, Eau du Regiment''? The whole is put together in a way I recognise from period pieces. Hand work shows and that is as it should be for these are working tools.
There is ample room for the gloved hand and reaching the ricasso is easy. The grip is made from camel bone, is nicely turned and sports that fancy wire inlay also prominent on the Military Sword Rapier mentioned above.
The faceted pommel has nice proportions and it too is well made. It is a screw on and after that the tip of the tang was peened, though some of the flange broke off on this one. This is the first time I have seen this construction on a Windlass. Well done!
The blade is quite long at 95,5 cm from under the guard. Though the basket is build in a forward position to protect the ricasso, there is still some 86 cm of working blade left. The section is flat diamond and it is stiff enough to make a good thruster. Under the cup it is 35 mm wide. Temper is excellent.
The nasty bits.
Here is were that tank thought comes in. It sure is build like one. Bravo! It handles like one too. Not so good.
The blade has no taper. Under the cup it is 5+ mm thick. It stays that way for two thirds down the blade and at say 1" from the tip it still is 4+ mm thick. This, together with the weight of the basket gives a POB of 8,5 cm from the cup. Oh, you say, that is not so bad is it? We have seen much worse. No you don't. Remember that the basket is build forward. POB from the guard, were your hand sits, is a bloody 16 cm or 6.5"! Far too much for this type of sword. It handles like swinging an Abrams by the gun. With yer teeth! When I pulled it from the scabbard, a standard Windlass one by the way, my first thought was: Oops! I took a swing and the darn thing almost jerked me from my feet. A big no no, since the floors of Casa Ulahn are still littered with sharp steel implements. Recovery? What you talk about? Nimble? Hey, you a bloody ballet dancer? No, but I would like to just be able to swing this sword for more than 5 minutes without hurting my wrist, my dear fellow. Go do some training you wimp! Look here you peasant! I weigh 150 pounds, stand six feet two tall and do heavy lifting for two hours a day at least. I am better build and have more muscle and better condition than many a thirty something. And so on. All this bad balance is aggravated by the grip which is way too thin to hold in a hammer grip, even with gloves. It fairs better with a finger over the ricasso, but still, this sword will wear you out in no time, training or not.
It weighs 1505 grams. Dead weight that is.
So, what we got and what can we do about it?
Good looking, well build cavalry sword from the beginning of the 17th century. You will love seeing this replica on the wall if you can get a hold of one.
Handling is far below par, even for a Windlass and there is nothing you can do about that. Shaving off a mm on either side of the blade is risky since the stock is way too thin to begin with. There is simply no room at 5+ mm. Yes, I know these swords should have something like a flat oval sectioned blade, but taking that ridge off will not do much good. A thicker grip will make it handle better somewhat, even if you did this only to get a better hold on it, so it does not spiral far away, free style, after that cut and pin your cat to the wall. Looking at that thin grip I suspect the tang to be quite thin too and despite the peen, I see it break right under the pommel. Forces there must be quite enormous. No, there is only one solution and that is to start looking for a replacement blade if you want to turn this into anything useful. And I may take the plating off and dunk the basket in ,,Eau d'Ulahn'' for a week. Or silver it. Odd thing is I still like it too much to do anything about it....
Cheers.
Another Windlass oldy from around 1999, from the line of design that gave us the Military Sword Rapier : sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/43071/windlass-military-sword-rapier?page=1&scrollTo=596996 . I bought this one second hand for Euro 150, all in. It sure is a looker and build like a tank. I suggest you hold on to that thought for a while. It will be made clear why further on. This type of sword or Feld Degen, it is a Cavalry sword, was en vogue around 1610-1620. Here is a picture of an original.
Good hand protection coupled with a quite broad and long blade for mowing down Infantry from horse back and having a fast blade in the melee, those were the characteristics of the type.
The Italian part comes from the bend guillons. The Spanish had their version too, but they favoured them long and straight. In fact they liked that quirk bad enough to hold on to that guillon type until the end of the 18th century. Go have a look at the Cavalry Bilbo. As to the rings, well, this one sports 5 and I have seen baskets having 7 rings and even more. This set up requires that other parts of the sword must be made just so, as to have a good balanced sword when everything is put together. Those long and broad blades must have had wonderful distal taper. Just imagine the weight of those ringed baskets. It requires a lot of tinkering to have as an end result a good nimble sword with a basket of this type, good for cutting and thrusting, that can be used in long sessions.
So. Now for the Windlass.
This is one good looker and it is very well put together. It rings like a bell. The nickel plated basket and cup have no lumpy welding spots. Nothing is out of whack and the plating is done very well too. Though after some 15 years little dark spots have formed here and there, there is no evidence of plate lifting. That said, this design is not very practical. The shallow cup prevents that. Cleaning this basket will take some time and how on earth they kept these baskets in good shape in the old days is anybodies guess. Maybe they dunked them in ,, Eau du Regiment''? The whole is put together in a way I recognise from period pieces. Hand work shows and that is as it should be for these are working tools.
There is ample room for the gloved hand and reaching the ricasso is easy. The grip is made from camel bone, is nicely turned and sports that fancy wire inlay also prominent on the Military Sword Rapier mentioned above.
The faceted pommel has nice proportions and it too is well made. It is a screw on and after that the tip of the tang was peened, though some of the flange broke off on this one. This is the first time I have seen this construction on a Windlass. Well done!
The blade is quite long at 95,5 cm from under the guard. Though the basket is build in a forward position to protect the ricasso, there is still some 86 cm of working blade left. The section is flat diamond and it is stiff enough to make a good thruster. Under the cup it is 35 mm wide. Temper is excellent.
The nasty bits.
Here is were that tank thought comes in. It sure is build like one. Bravo! It handles like one too. Not so good.
The blade has no taper. Under the cup it is 5+ mm thick. It stays that way for two thirds down the blade and at say 1" from the tip it still is 4+ mm thick. This, together with the weight of the basket gives a POB of 8,5 cm from the cup. Oh, you say, that is not so bad is it? We have seen much worse. No you don't. Remember that the basket is build forward. POB from the guard, were your hand sits, is a bloody 16 cm or 6.5"! Far too much for this type of sword. It handles like swinging an Abrams by the gun. With yer teeth! When I pulled it from the scabbard, a standard Windlass one by the way, my first thought was: Oops! I took a swing and the darn thing almost jerked me from my feet. A big no no, since the floors of Casa Ulahn are still littered with sharp steel implements. Recovery? What you talk about? Nimble? Hey, you a bloody ballet dancer? No, but I would like to just be able to swing this sword for more than 5 minutes without hurting my wrist, my dear fellow. Go do some training you wimp! Look here you peasant! I weigh 150 pounds, stand six feet two tall and do heavy lifting for two hours a day at least. I am better build and have more muscle and better condition than many a thirty something. And so on. All this bad balance is aggravated by the grip which is way too thin to hold in a hammer grip, even with gloves. It fairs better with a finger over the ricasso, but still, this sword will wear you out in no time, training or not.
It weighs 1505 grams. Dead weight that is.
So, what we got and what can we do about it?
Good looking, well build cavalry sword from the beginning of the 17th century. You will love seeing this replica on the wall if you can get a hold of one.
Handling is far below par, even for a Windlass and there is nothing you can do about that. Shaving off a mm on either side of the blade is risky since the stock is way too thin to begin with. There is simply no room at 5+ mm. Yes, I know these swords should have something like a flat oval sectioned blade, but taking that ridge off will not do much good. A thicker grip will make it handle better somewhat, even if you did this only to get a better hold on it, so it does not spiral far away, free style, after that cut and pin your cat to the wall. Looking at that thin grip I suspect the tang to be quite thin too and despite the peen, I see it break right under the pommel. Forces there must be quite enormous. No, there is only one solution and that is to start looking for a replacement blade if you want to turn this into anything useful. And I may take the plating off and dunk the basket in ,,Eau d'Ulahn'' for a week. Or silver it. Odd thing is I still like it too much to do anything about it....
Cheers.