The Windlass Christus Imperat Rapier.

Great read Ulahn, thanks for doing the review! I received my Christus Imperat this week as well and I'm very pleased with it. I was worried that the blade would have too much flex, but it does not. The blade on mine does whip side to side quite a bit when I wave the rapier back and forth, but it has a VERY nice temper. When I smack my palm against the pommel, the blade flexes about 2-3 inches (5-7.6 cm) right, then left, and then snaps back to dead center. To me, the blade is a perfect example of proper flex vs the hated "whippyness" that is so often proclaimed of windlass! As you also demonstrated, the amount of flex doesn't affect the ability to thrust at all. I did a quick test on a plastic milk jug and it felt like I was thrusting the blade through air, and that's not an exaggeration!

I completely agree with Ulahn on this one. If you were on the fence about this rapier, you should definitely get it!

Thank you both for the positive comments.
One question for Corvus: you do not have trouble with the sharp edges of the pasdanes bars when doing an open grip?

I think the Imperat would suit you just fine. I do not have the Pilsen, though it is on my wishlist for a long time already,the two have a very different character. This is based on your videos of the Pilsen.
I did not order it sharp, but it came sharp anyway. The bevel needs some work to make it smooth. I think the cut you can see in the Medieval video is done with KOA sharpening. I do not think the bevel was worked on, since there was no statement made about that.
Anyway, the cut was good and clean and vicious, secondary bevel or not, while the jug was in free fall. That is something!

I will have a look. One moment please.... There is some, but you have to look very, very close to see it. I do not think it is 1.3 cm on mine. Far less. Normally one would not notice at all. And for a blade of this design such a little droop of 1.3 cm is quite normal and to be expected considering its length of 97.5 cm.

No problem. Happy to be of service Corvus. May you have tons of fun with it.

Dave: remember what I said: My first impression when I lifted the Imperat from the box was: WOW! Heavy!
One needs to get the hang of its character and that takes some time playing with it for a couple of hours. It grows on you.
I truely hope you will like it.

Wasn't this on Deal of the Day just a few weeks ago? Horrible miss for me. Would've been a perfect first rapier.

Windlass has an electrical oven for tempering. They had it for ages. Though it is known that every now and then a mellon turns up, their tempering is of a consistent and reliable 45 - 50 HRC. I would not worrie too much about that 4.7 mm.
Here is a picture of the original. A side shot, so you can see the thickness. Just for fun, with a little brain power one could deduce the thickness of the original blade, if one has one constant. Lets take the grip length of the Windlass as that constant. I get exactly 9 cm for the wired part of the grip. On the monitor the grip is, lets say 18 cm. So every cm on the monitor is 0.5 cm in reality. Meassure the thickness and voila.
I get a blade thickness of about 6.86 mm on the original. Given the fact that tempering and steel quality in the old days was not very reliable, I have quite a few long bladed antiques where I had to correct the blade by bending it in shape again, without too much effort, I am ready to entertain the notion that the Windlass blade might be of far better quality than the 6.8 mm blade on the original.
Again, I would not worrie too much about that 4.7 mm.

I just did my Rheinfelden with Ren Wax and so could compair it with the Imperat.
Compaired with the Rheinfelden, the Imperat is as stiff as a board.