Vintage Windlass Ring Hilted Sword.

Image courtesy of Dave Kelly.

This nice looking Reitschwert was introduced in the 1999 - 2000 Windlass catalogue, according to Dave Kelly, the former owner. I saw it the first time a couple of years ago in a picture of his collection and wanted it ever after. When Dave had it up for sale I bought it directly. Why you may ask. Well, I prefer the older Windlass designs. Much bolder than the more bland output Windlass did these last couple of years. Though the Christ Imperator rapier as a recent design upholds much of the old Windlass flair, designs with a difference have become few and far between.


The leaf decoration crops up on a number of other Windlass swords like the Renaissance War sword. The quality of the casting is quite good and there are no grind marks.


The floppy leather scabbard must be seen as an extra. The nice furniture can be re-used on a good one.



Not that these designs are without fault. They fare for the most part not better than the regulars and suffer from the same taperless thin blades as the rest of them. Only the Munchen and the Christ Imperator and maybe a very few others stick their heads above the grass qua handling. So, for me the attraction lies foremost in the looks and I guess the somewhat better detailing and build than more recent merchandise. This thing is surely build as a rock.







I call this sword a Reitschwert, a Riding sword. I guess it could be called a side sword too. Why not? It falls in that murky category of huge numbers of two or more ringed swords, with short or long grips, with shorter or longer blades, some narrow, some broader, etc, etc, that every so often cross the line into rapier territory. I envy the Italians who called a sword a sword. Everything was a Spada. End of story. We have to suffer from some 19th C. Anglo - North European pathological labeling neurosis. The only people who are worse in this respect are the Japanese who have a name for every small crinkle or wrinkle in the patterns on their blades. Which is fine by me, as long as I don't have to do it too.
Now. To get back on track. The big question is of course: Is this Windlass any good? Not really.

Handling.
It handles much like many other generic Windlasses. Not very good and not very bad either, though handling is improved with one finger over the ricasso. That said, handling is awful without gauntlets. The grip is very slippery and though it is quite wide, it is quite flat too. There is not much to hold on to. The grip looks short, but I can assure you that there is ample room between guard and pommel. The spherical screw-on pommel does not bite the hand and It functions as a good stopper. In Cavalry mode, hammer gripped cutting and poking, it could be tiring. The balance makes it a sluggish mover.

The blade.
The flat diamond section blade, too thin to begin with, so distal taper is non existent, is rather stiff, which makes this sword a good thruster, but absolutely not a lightning fast fencer, even with the open grip. What the blade does good, is that it is, again, a good looker. Nicely fullered and slender, with just enough meat to cut medium targets. Much like most offerings from the brand, it suffers from the old Windlass adagio: Take a thin blade. Give it some taper to improve a bit on the weight and overall lines and plunk on a heavy hilt to improve handling. If the hilt is good looking (as is the case here ), so much the better. Let the Lord sort them out later.

The numbers.

The sword: 1600 gram.
The hilt components weigh: 975 gram.
BL: 86.5 cm.
BW: 3.5 m under the guard tapering to 2 cm at 1" from the tip.
GL: 12.5 cm from guard to the ring on the pommel.
Distal taper: Exactly none. It is 5 mm down the flat diamond blade.
POB: 9.5 cm under the guard, thanks to the rather heavy hilt.

Conclusion.

As is the case for all reviews you'll have to take the handling statements with a grain of salt. Those are personal. Some may find it excellent, some may find it handles worse. As I already stated a couple of times before, I think it is mediocre in that department, typical Windlass.
As to the looks I'd say it looks quite good. Windlass made a nice package from the slender blade and that nice hilt. Looking at the other Reitschwerter in Google images, it does play the part.
If you were to find one of these for a low second hand price, I'd say, go for it.
That nice hilt combined with a better blade of your choice could turn this mouse into a lion without much problems since this is a screw - on contraption with a good clean tang with a nice thick ( 8mm! ) and quite long threaded end, which is not welded on. What is more, the blade slot in the guard is very well made and deep. The blade sits rock solid.



If you want to have a look at the Reitschwert universe go here: sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/49667/windlass-ring-sword-context-reitschwert


Cheers.