Post by ulfmaer on Jan 20, 2019 7:34:33 GMT
Hey, so sorry in advanced if this isn’t the proper place for this thread, but I wasn’t sure where to put it. I’m about to hit y’all with a TLDR. This will be three parts. 1: my quick review of the Arbedo sword I purchased through Kult of Athena 2: my experience with Kult of Athena and their customer service 3: a poll where I’d love to get your feed back, and also an open invitation to share your experiences in the comments.
First I’ll start by saying that I absolutely fell in love with the Arbedo sword by windlass when I first saw pictures of it, then I saw the very affordable price, and then I found out that it was a recreation of a historical find, and that’s when it was settled that I needed to buy it! So overall the quality, and fit/finish of this sword isn’t bad; it’s not great either though. There’s an incredible amount of value there for what you’re paying, but your also not getting top of the line craftsmanship. In a sense you’re getting what you pay for, but also getting more if that makes sense. There’s the slightly too large gap filled with some sort of material between the blade and crossgaurd, the pommel isn’t perfectly in line, the peen is rough, etc. your normal budget sword type thingns. The handling of this sword is superb though, period. The cutting ability is great! The thrust capability is almost nonexistent though, which is strange for this typology; XVIIIa. This is due to the quite thin, and overly flexible blade. It’s not overly whippy though which was a problem with the original run of this sword. The central ridge going down the blade length isn’t as pronounced as I would like either. I know this isn’t by any means a thorough review, but that’s not what I’m shooting for. In my opinion this sword has two categories it fits into. 1: a cheap backward, single handed cutting champ that you can use, and abuse, and not fret to much over. 2: a cheap but exceptionally good looking piece of history to place on your wall and admire. It knocks it out of the park in both categories. I would buy this sword a thousand times over.... but not from Kult of Athena which is sad because they’re the only ones selling it...
Now for part two, and it brings me no pleasure to say such negative things, but it’s my experience that I feel needs to be put out there. I’ll start with my unboxing of my Arbedo sword. It’s also important to note that I ordered the sword with the sharpening service from Kult of Athena and all issues I had were a result of this and have no berring on the sword manufacturer. When I first opened it up, the very first thing I noticed was the ridiculous amount of scratches, marring, and scuffs across the entirety of the blade (on top of the mirror finish which is an important detail) I was astounded that Kult of Athena would let a sword leave in such a condition.(pictures of everything, it’s hard to capture everything on camera and the pictures do NOT do it justice imgur.com/a/wWOQqLG ) I mean I’m talking a crazy amount of marring. On further inspection I noticed that the tip profile had been mucked up pretty dang bad by the sharpening job as well. Then, after that, I started to see wobbles in the edge, and even worse, there were divots in the blade due to over-zealous sharpening that resembled the silhouette of a half ass, faintly done Moro kris. (I don’t remember ordering or seeing the “flamberge” sharpening option on the website) and to top it off it wasn’t even that sharp! I was quite upset with the horrendous state in which the sword was in, but I was willing to give KoA the benifit of the doubt, and assume this was due to the high volume of orders they were receiving at the time, of that sword especially. So I got in contact with them, shared all of my qualms with the sword, and right off the bat they denied any responsibility for the state the sword was in. (to their credit they did say upon further talking they would potentially exchange it for me) I then sent pictures, and explained to them how every issue was clearly a result of a badly done sharpening job, the marring all along the surface of the factory, mirror polish, indicating that it happened after the swords completion in the factory. All of the edge wobbles that are a result of a hastily, and half assed sharpening. The divots throughout the blade that come from a careless use of a grinder while sharpening a blade, etc. etc. Again they denied all responsibility, were very dismissive of my issues, and didn’t seem to mind that a sword had left their business in that condition, even if it wasn’t their fault it was in that shape (it was) I think everyone can agree that it is unacceptable to let a sword leave your facility in such a condition in the first place, and they wouldn’t even accept that fact either. After all of this I saw the futility in arguing any further so I sought to come to an agreement to solve all of it. I honestly did not want to go through the trouble of shipping the sword back to them, and honestly just figured I’d slap the sword on the wall with my others as no one but me would notice all the marrings and such anyways, so I proposed instead of sending the sword back for an exchange (at my own expense of course..) that I buy a separate, new sword at a slightly reduced cost. This way I would be appeased, get a new sword in better shape, they wouldn’t be taking a loss through an exchange, and they would be making a profit (all be it somewhat reduced) on a different sword. They immediately shot it down, and didn’t seek to try and come to any other sort of agreement. They refused to work with me at all. I do understand that by no means are they required to agree to some sort of alternate compensation, but come on, it was a win win for both sides, and it seemed more out of spite or something that they denied this (that is just conjecture and opinion on my part though and in no way am I stating that, that was their motivation as fact) after this I just lost hope and dropped the whole thing. I did however see to it that I left a review on their website of the sword, and remark on all the issues due to the sharpening job, and spoke on the experience I had in dealing with them. After a few days I still wasn’t seeing the review, so I got in contact with them again asking why my review wasn’t posted, and they responded with something like “oh someone has to approve it, and it takes time, but it’ll be posted eventually” it never showed up... so I wrote a new review... which never showed up... so I, AGAIN, got in contact with them, and they outright refused to post my review, as they said I was lying, making false claims, etc. and they did this in a very unprofessional, disparaging fashion. After this I lost all hope, and ended all interactions with Kult of Athena as there was nothing more I could do. I no longer do business with KoA, and don’t plan on it in the future either. I am not, in anyway though, encouraging anyone else to boycott KoA or anything like that. I’m simply sharing my experience, and opening up a dioluge for others to share theirs, or converse about mine. So take the poll, and let me know y’alls thoughts, and share your experiences! I’m curious to hear from everyone!
Cheers,
Trevor aka Ulfmaer
Edit: so looking back and reading through this, a thought has occurred to me. I was intentionally exaggerating when talking about the blade divots, saying it looked like a Moro Kris/flamberge just as a spat of humor, and to get my point across, but in case someone where to take that literally I want to say: yes my sword has unacceptable divots that make the blade wavy, but not *actually* like a flamberge blade. I know this probably goes without being said, but I want to make sure I’m being as fair, and honest as possible.
First I’ll start by saying that I absolutely fell in love with the Arbedo sword by windlass when I first saw pictures of it, then I saw the very affordable price, and then I found out that it was a recreation of a historical find, and that’s when it was settled that I needed to buy it! So overall the quality, and fit/finish of this sword isn’t bad; it’s not great either though. There’s an incredible amount of value there for what you’re paying, but your also not getting top of the line craftsmanship. In a sense you’re getting what you pay for, but also getting more if that makes sense. There’s the slightly too large gap filled with some sort of material between the blade and crossgaurd, the pommel isn’t perfectly in line, the peen is rough, etc. your normal budget sword type thingns. The handling of this sword is superb though, period. The cutting ability is great! The thrust capability is almost nonexistent though, which is strange for this typology; XVIIIa. This is due to the quite thin, and overly flexible blade. It’s not overly whippy though which was a problem with the original run of this sword. The central ridge going down the blade length isn’t as pronounced as I would like either. I know this isn’t by any means a thorough review, but that’s not what I’m shooting for. In my opinion this sword has two categories it fits into. 1: a cheap backward, single handed cutting champ that you can use, and abuse, and not fret to much over. 2: a cheap but exceptionally good looking piece of history to place on your wall and admire. It knocks it out of the park in both categories. I would buy this sword a thousand times over.... but not from Kult of Athena which is sad because they’re the only ones selling it...
Now for part two, and it brings me no pleasure to say such negative things, but it’s my experience that I feel needs to be put out there. I’ll start with my unboxing of my Arbedo sword. It’s also important to note that I ordered the sword with the sharpening service from Kult of Athena and all issues I had were a result of this and have no berring on the sword manufacturer. When I first opened it up, the very first thing I noticed was the ridiculous amount of scratches, marring, and scuffs across the entirety of the blade (on top of the mirror finish which is an important detail) I was astounded that Kult of Athena would let a sword leave in such a condition.(pictures of everything, it’s hard to capture everything on camera and the pictures do NOT do it justice imgur.com/a/wWOQqLG ) I mean I’m talking a crazy amount of marring. On further inspection I noticed that the tip profile had been mucked up pretty dang bad by the sharpening job as well. Then, after that, I started to see wobbles in the edge, and even worse, there were divots in the blade due to over-zealous sharpening that resembled the silhouette of a half ass, faintly done Moro kris. (I don’t remember ordering or seeing the “flamberge” sharpening option on the website) and to top it off it wasn’t even that sharp! I was quite upset with the horrendous state in which the sword was in, but I was willing to give KoA the benifit of the doubt, and assume this was due to the high volume of orders they were receiving at the time, of that sword especially. So I got in contact with them, shared all of my qualms with the sword, and right off the bat they denied any responsibility for the state the sword was in. (to their credit they did say upon further talking they would potentially exchange it for me) I then sent pictures, and explained to them how every issue was clearly a result of a badly done sharpening job, the marring all along the surface of the factory, mirror polish, indicating that it happened after the swords completion in the factory. All of the edge wobbles that are a result of a hastily, and half assed sharpening. The divots throughout the blade that come from a careless use of a grinder while sharpening a blade, etc. etc. Again they denied all responsibility, were very dismissive of my issues, and didn’t seem to mind that a sword had left their business in that condition, even if it wasn’t their fault it was in that shape (it was) I think everyone can agree that it is unacceptable to let a sword leave your facility in such a condition in the first place, and they wouldn’t even accept that fact either. After all of this I saw the futility in arguing any further so I sought to come to an agreement to solve all of it. I honestly did not want to go through the trouble of shipping the sword back to them, and honestly just figured I’d slap the sword on the wall with my others as no one but me would notice all the marrings and such anyways, so I proposed instead of sending the sword back for an exchange (at my own expense of course..) that I buy a separate, new sword at a slightly reduced cost. This way I would be appeased, get a new sword in better shape, they wouldn’t be taking a loss through an exchange, and they would be making a profit (all be it somewhat reduced) on a different sword. They immediately shot it down, and didn’t seek to try and come to any other sort of agreement. They refused to work with me at all. I do understand that by no means are they required to agree to some sort of alternate compensation, but come on, it was a win win for both sides, and it seemed more out of spite or something that they denied this (that is just conjecture and opinion on my part though and in no way am I stating that, that was their motivation as fact) after this I just lost hope and dropped the whole thing. I did however see to it that I left a review on their website of the sword, and remark on all the issues due to the sharpening job, and spoke on the experience I had in dealing with them. After a few days I still wasn’t seeing the review, so I got in contact with them again asking why my review wasn’t posted, and they responded with something like “oh someone has to approve it, and it takes time, but it’ll be posted eventually” it never showed up... so I wrote a new review... which never showed up... so I, AGAIN, got in contact with them, and they outright refused to post my review, as they said I was lying, making false claims, etc. and they did this in a very unprofessional, disparaging fashion. After this I lost all hope, and ended all interactions with Kult of Athena as there was nothing more I could do. I no longer do business with KoA, and don’t plan on it in the future either. I am not, in anyway though, encouraging anyone else to boycott KoA or anything like that. I’m simply sharing my experience, and opening up a dioluge for others to share theirs, or converse about mine. So take the poll, and let me know y’alls thoughts, and share your experiences! I’m curious to hear from everyone!
Cheers,
Trevor aka Ulfmaer
Edit: so looking back and reading through this, a thought has occurred to me. I was intentionally exaggerating when talking about the blade divots, saying it looked like a Moro Kris/flamberge just as a spat of humor, and to get my point across, but in case someone where to take that literally I want to say: yes my sword has unacceptable divots that make the blade wavy, but not *actually* like a flamberge blade. I know this probably goes without being said, but I want to make sure I’m being as fair, and honest as possible.