The Vindaaris (Dark Sword Armory)

And that is how it starts..

I mentioned this in a previous thread on DSA - someone asks an innocent question and the first post sets the tone for confrontation and a downhill discussion..

KNOWN ISSUES

Some years ago Darksword Armory was embroiled in a controversy on the Sword Forum International. Complaints were brought up by a few individuals, words were exchanged, and DSA and Eyal left the table with an injured reputation that lasted for a few years. Recently with their partnership with SBG more light has been shone on this situation.

Here is a statement from DSA about the incidents:

“We started getting bad reviews from SFI forum by two members, one of them who purchased a 35$ apprentice made dagger, and from another user who had never purchased a sword from our company. Their comments resulted in a “snowball” effect on the SFI, resulting in about 20 different posts. We obviously took the reviews very seriously and took appropriate steps to find the source of the reviews, the reason behind them, and to correct the problem. After several days of research we found that the second author was actually a competitor of ours, also located in Montreal. The review was written after we received our first order from ARMA, who had initially ordered their swords from our competitor, but after an ARMA member purchased one of our swords, the group decided to switch over. His reviews were specifically intended to curb our activities (but failed).”

Since then, some controversy has raged on internet sword forums challenging the claim that the swords are actually hand made in Canada. While initially reluctant due to a break in and theft of all materials from the forge many years ago, Darksword eventually responded to this claim releasing several videos documenting the shop and it’s equipment, yet still some protagonists are not satisfied.

The most recent controversy has had to do with their tangs - and it is true that older models were a bit on the thin side, but were within historical tolerances. The main issue may actually have been one of modern demands for more robust tangs as standard, so in response they have beefed up their tangs - and are showing pictures of the tangs on their site - something no other sword manufacturer has had to do. Yet despite all this, vicious rumors still persist..

Related Article: The Infamous Darksword Tang Issue

All controversies aside, the swords themselves may have some grind marks, hammer marks, blade misalignment or other cosmetic defects that do not truly effect performance – however the most common complaint currently is to do with their sharpening service.

By default, Darksword Armory swords come unsharpened, however the in-house sharpening service is considered by many sword enthusiasts as rudimentary at best to totally ineffective at its worst and often requires additional sharpening to be able to cut standard lightweight targets such as water filled bottles, tatami, etc.