Medieval Fightclub Practical Combat Sword First Impressions
Mar 16, 2018 12:08:29 GMT
Post by Veerdin on Mar 16, 2018 12:08:29 GMT
I've been a sword enthusiast since I was young, and have been collecting them (albeit very slowly) since I was 14 years old. But it wasn't until this year that I began learning HEMA for the first time. After just over a month of classes, I'm having a blast! And at the end of March this year, my classes will finally be moving away from dagger combat into one-handed sword. All the students, myself included, were told to "get our hands on a sword" before then so that we can jump right into the fun stuff when April rolls around.
And it is for this reason that I have gone and purchased my very first practical sparring sword! Up until now, all my functional swords were too dangerous or the wrong kind of sword to use for my classes. But when the package arrived today from Medieval Fightclub, that changed.
Let me introduce you to the Medieval Fightclub Practical Combat Sword:
Let's crack on with that review, shall we?
Price, Shipping and Delivery:
I'd already made one order from Medieval Fightclub prior to this; a pair of gothic articulated gauntlets (which I'll also be reviewing soon, hopefully) so I was expecting a smooth order process, and I wasn't dissapointed! The sword cost a mere $95.00 AUD with $21.50 AUD in shipping for a total price of $116.50 AUD ($90.60 USD/£64.88 GBP) Which is, needless to say, very affordable.
The shipping was incredibly fast, too. Being based in Australia often means that I have to spend huge amounts of money on swords, and wait very long periods of time to get my orders, because most sellers are located outside my country. But with Medieval Fightclub being based here down-under, I received my sword within a week of ordering it! As somebody who often has to wait upwards of three weeks for international packages, I greatly appreciated this.
Upon delivery, the sword was wrapped in three layers of insulated, padded plastic, and covered by a cardboard wrapping, but no box. As far as I can tell, the sword hasn't sustained any damage during transit and arrived oiled and ready to use!
Statistics:
Overall Length: 895mm/35.2in
Blade Length: 722mm/28.4in
Blade Width: 45mm/1.7in (hilt) - 30mm/1.1in (tip)
Fuller width: 13mm/0.5in
Weight: 1.28kg/2.82lbs
Point of Balance: 125mm/4.9in from guard
Blade Material: Slow tempered low-carbon steel
Hilt Material: Solid brass with leather cord wrapping
Edge Grind: Blunt with rounded tip
Appearance:
This sword isn't made to look pretty, it's made to be used, and used hard! If you're looking for a fancy blade to show off, you'll have to look elsewhere. The overall profile is similar to an Oakeshott Type XIIIb arming sword with a few variations; the fuller runs almost to the end of the blade, and the crossguard is slightly curved rather than cruciform. The blade is made of carbon steel, while the crossgaurd and pommel are solid brass, and the handle is wrapped with tightly braided leather cord. The blade has a simple, bare-metal finish, while the fittings are lightly polished and shiny, but not gleaming. The pommel is a basic disc, typical for swords of this type.
As this is a hand-made sword designed for heavy use in re-enactment and sparring, not much effort has been put into applying a neat finish. The blade still has a few work marks on it and the brass is a little marred around the fitting points. But considering what I'll be putting this sword through in due time, I'm not at all bothered by this.
Overall, it's about as simple and straightforward a sword as you can get. But if I'm being honest? I actually kind of like that. This sword makes no bones about what it's supposed to be used for; it's a cheap, basic, solidly-built brute of a weapon, and I'm looking forward to earning it a few battle scars as I progress with my studies through the year.
The only change I would make to this sword's visuals is to have the brass fittings either finished with a dark grey or silver tone, or replaced with slightly different ones made of steel. But that's neither here nor there, and is entirely based on my own personal aesthetic tastes.
First Impressions:
Right out of the box (or wrapping, rather) this sword feels tough. With a surprisingly beefy feel and a good amount of heft, you can really feel this thing moving when you swing it around! The bulk of the weight is in the hilt, however, so even weighing in at more than a kilo, the sword has pretty good edge control and agility. Swinging it around will certainly build up my wrist muscles, but it doesn't feel clumsy or hard to control, which is about as ideal as you can hope for with a sparring sword.
Due to the blunted, heavy-use nature of this sword, it actually weighs more than a very similar sword I own - an Agincourt style arming sword (purchased from the now sadly closed Millenium sword shop way back in 2007) - which conveniently also has brass fittings and almost identical proportions. Using this practice sword puts a bit more strain on my arm, but not enough to stop it being usable. If anything, the added weight will help me develop my skills better than a lighter sword would. This sword will make sure I know I've been using it!
The leather cord wrapping is surprisingly comfortable on the hand, and provides an excellent grip on the weapon. I've done some swings with both gloved and un-gloved hands, and both feel just fine! Much softer and gentler than the wire-wrapped Agincourt sword I'm using as a point of reference. A small bit of mercy from an otherwise meaty design.
As you can probably see from the picture, my hands aren't big enough to entirely close the gap in the handle, but even despite this, the sword feels good when used one-handed. I do, however, have the ability to get my other hand over the pommel and part of the grip, bastard-sword style! The disc shaped pommel isn't very conducive to this, but if I needed to, I could use a two handed stance to get a bit of extra control over the movements.
The blade, being made of slow tempered, low-carbon steel, is fairly easy to flex and could potentially bend or warp slightly with heavy use. However, this is all fully disclosed on the site I bought it from, and is actually preferable for a sword designed for re-enactment and sparring. A bent blade is much easier to fix than a chipped or cracked one, after all, and it will also be a little gentler on my fellow student's swords during the many blade-on-blade techniques I'll be learning.
The edge has a good millimeter (0.03in) worth of slightly rounded leeway, and the tip is rounded out entirely, meaning that this isn't a "deadly" sword in the conventional sense. You'd need to spend several long hours with a grinder to turn this into a cutting tool, and even then, the low carbon steel likely wouldn't hold an edge very well. Needless to say, this sword has been designed from the ground-up to be safe for sparring and re-enactment.
That said, it's still a steel sword, and getting hit with a full-force strike could definitely break bones and cause some nasty internal damage. So be sure to wear proper sparring gear when you use this! Just because it won't cut you open doesn't mean it's not a dangerous weapon!
Overall, I'm very excited to give this bad boy a swing around later in the year. The site listed it as a "Practical" combat sword, and based on my initial handling, I'm inclined to believe it!
Conclusion:
I'll be updating this review later in the year (probably some time next month or the month after) after having used it for a while. Things I'm going to be keeping an eye on are the sword's overall durability in the face of full-contact sparring, how easy it is to repair any damage such as bends or warps to the blade, and how the sword feels to use for long periods of time. My hopes are high, but as with all things, it's best to go forward with caution! Look forward to that update.
Hope you all enjoyed this review, and that it was helpful and knowledgeable! If you're in Australia and want to get a hardy beater that you can reliably use for practice, sparring and re-enactment without having to spend ridiculous amounts on shipping costs, this may just be the sword for you! It's no wall-hanger and it may not win any beauty contests any time soon, but for what it's built for, I strongly suspect this sword will deliver wonderfully.