Can a sword degrade significantly during shipping?
Aug 3, 2019 22:17:51 GMT
Post by whattheheck on Aug 3, 2019 22:17:51 GMT
I am a new member of this forum, but I have been reading posts from here for a while before I joined and I am hoping that the collective experience of the members here can provide some insight to this question.
I will provide some background here so that you can understand why I am no longer asking the manufacturer who sold me the sword my questions, but, if you just want to read and consider my question, please feel free to skip past the Background and down to the Question part of my post.
Also, as it is not my goal to start a post bashing the manufacturer, I will not include their name in this post and I will try not to go too much into their past troubles. I just want to be able to discuss this idea with anyone who might have some good thoughts about it.
Background
I purchased a sword in April 2019 from a well known manufacturer and vendor of swords and armor. They have had a spotty past in recent years and I have seen a lot of posts, blogs, and YouTube videos from people who were really upset about issues they had with products made by this manufacturer. However, the manufacturer has admitted they had a problem and has released statements saying that they had taken steps to resolve it.
Obviously the bad reviews made me quite cautious, but, since I really liked one of their products, I wanted very much to trust their statements that they had improved manufacturing quality and/or quality control. Also, there were not many recent reviews of their products which I hoped meant that they had cleaned up their act since I figured there would still be lots of posts about them if they had not. The product I liked was listed as being In Stock on their website, so I placed an order to give myself a nice birthday present and thinking from the delivery estimates (roughly two weeks) on their website that I should easily have it in time for my birthday.
I ended up contacting the manufacturer in mid-May to inquire about shipping after the first estimate passed and was reassured they had already started working on it and that I would have it in 3-4 weeks. I gave up on the idea of receiving it in time for my birthday and waited another 6 weeks before I began to wonder again about the fate of my purchase. I emailed them again to confirm whether they had already shipped it. I was advised that I should have it by the end of July. They did meet this third shipping estimate and I received my sword on July 29th, 2019.
The first thing I did upon opening the package was look the sword over thoroughly. I did this because of the quality/safety issues they have had in the past, my growing lack of trust of the manufacturer over their lack of commitment to meeting their shipping promises, and most importantly because this manufacturer has a very short return period (48 hours). I noticed a few issues that I would not complain about, but, when I looked down the blade, the sword was obviously bent from the base to the tip leading to the blade being off center by about 5 - 10 degrees. I have never received a sword that was bent nor have I ever had one bend on me so I was certain that it must have set that way when they tempered and quenched the sword. I was not happy about this and I emailed the manufacturer within two hours of opening the package and included a picture of the bent blade. I expected them to tell me they would take it back and send me a new one since I had contacted them within a couple hours of opening the sword and definitely within their 48 hour return period.
I received a reply back telling me that I would need to resolve the issue on my end as they would not take back a sword that had been used as they could not be sure what level of abuse to which it had been subjected. They advised me to bend it back slowly and that it would not break if I did this. They also assured me that it was straight when they sent it out.
As I had not used the sword and had not said anything one way or the other about having used the sword in my email to them, I responded back expressing my displeasure with the fact that they seemed to be placing the blame on me for having received a defective product. In this email, I stated clearly that I had not used the sword nor was I responsible for it being bent. I also stated that as it is was within the 48 hour return window that I want to return the sword for either a full refund or a new copy of the sword that had been responsibly checked by Quality Control. The company replied back two days ago advising that they understood from my email that I had told them I had used it. I replied again advising them a second time that I had not used the sword. My last email was sent two days ago and I am currently waiting for their reply. I am hopeful that the manufacturer will do the right thing, but these interactions with them are really making me wonder.
Question
So, this leads me to my question: is it possible for a sword to degrade noticeably in quality over 3 days of shipping?
I can see a sword corroding over that time period if subjected to too much humidity and, in fact, this one arrived with a few small spots of corrosion that I assume are from that time period. However, the sword I received fails two of the tests that the manufacturer lists on the quality control checklist that was included with the sword: it failed the Paper Cutting Test (it is not butter knife dull, but will not cut paper unless you count further tearing a cut that was already started) and it failed the Pommel, Guard, & Blade Alignment inspection (the blade is obviously bent to the naked eye).
I believe the most obvious explanation is that it was mailed to me that way by the manufacturer, but, since they are saying the blade was straight when they shipped it, I would like to be fair and also consider the other possibilities. Could the humidity it might have been exposed to during shipping caused the metal along the edge to corrode to the point where a sword that would cut paper before shipping, will not do so 3 days later? And, for a package that arrived without any noticeable damage and where the sword within was sheathed in cardboard and heavily wrapped in plastic wrap, is there any force that could occur during shipping that would cause a well made sword to be bent along the entire blade's length? I ask that because, except under conditions of uniform geometry and composition, it is my understanding that an object like this should bend to a greater degree at the closest weak point or point of impact instead of along the entire blade (the blade is bent smoothly from base to tip).
If you have any thoughts on this (other than that I talk too much ), I welcome them.
I will provide some background here so that you can understand why I am no longer asking the manufacturer who sold me the sword my questions, but, if you just want to read and consider my question, please feel free to skip past the Background and down to the Question part of my post.
Also, as it is not my goal to start a post bashing the manufacturer, I will not include their name in this post and I will try not to go too much into their past troubles. I just want to be able to discuss this idea with anyone who might have some good thoughts about it.
Background
I purchased a sword in April 2019 from a well known manufacturer and vendor of swords and armor. They have had a spotty past in recent years and I have seen a lot of posts, blogs, and YouTube videos from people who were really upset about issues they had with products made by this manufacturer. However, the manufacturer has admitted they had a problem and has released statements saying that they had taken steps to resolve it.
Obviously the bad reviews made me quite cautious, but, since I really liked one of their products, I wanted very much to trust their statements that they had improved manufacturing quality and/or quality control. Also, there were not many recent reviews of their products which I hoped meant that they had cleaned up their act since I figured there would still be lots of posts about them if they had not. The product I liked was listed as being In Stock on their website, so I placed an order to give myself a nice birthday present and thinking from the delivery estimates (roughly two weeks) on their website that I should easily have it in time for my birthday.
I ended up contacting the manufacturer in mid-May to inquire about shipping after the first estimate passed and was reassured they had already started working on it and that I would have it in 3-4 weeks. I gave up on the idea of receiving it in time for my birthday and waited another 6 weeks before I began to wonder again about the fate of my purchase. I emailed them again to confirm whether they had already shipped it. I was advised that I should have it by the end of July. They did meet this third shipping estimate and I received my sword on July 29th, 2019.
The first thing I did upon opening the package was look the sword over thoroughly. I did this because of the quality/safety issues they have had in the past, my growing lack of trust of the manufacturer over their lack of commitment to meeting their shipping promises, and most importantly because this manufacturer has a very short return period (48 hours). I noticed a few issues that I would not complain about, but, when I looked down the blade, the sword was obviously bent from the base to the tip leading to the blade being off center by about 5 - 10 degrees. I have never received a sword that was bent nor have I ever had one bend on me so I was certain that it must have set that way when they tempered and quenched the sword. I was not happy about this and I emailed the manufacturer within two hours of opening the package and included a picture of the bent blade. I expected them to tell me they would take it back and send me a new one since I had contacted them within a couple hours of opening the sword and definitely within their 48 hour return period.
I received a reply back telling me that I would need to resolve the issue on my end as they would not take back a sword that had been used as they could not be sure what level of abuse to which it had been subjected. They advised me to bend it back slowly and that it would not break if I did this. They also assured me that it was straight when they sent it out.
As I had not used the sword and had not said anything one way or the other about having used the sword in my email to them, I responded back expressing my displeasure with the fact that they seemed to be placing the blame on me for having received a defective product. In this email, I stated clearly that I had not used the sword nor was I responsible for it being bent. I also stated that as it is was within the 48 hour return window that I want to return the sword for either a full refund or a new copy of the sword that had been responsibly checked by Quality Control. The company replied back two days ago advising that they understood from my email that I had told them I had used it. I replied again advising them a second time that I had not used the sword. My last email was sent two days ago and I am currently waiting for their reply. I am hopeful that the manufacturer will do the right thing, but these interactions with them are really making me wonder.
Question
So, this leads me to my question: is it possible for a sword to degrade noticeably in quality over 3 days of shipping?
I can see a sword corroding over that time period if subjected to too much humidity and, in fact, this one arrived with a few small spots of corrosion that I assume are from that time period. However, the sword I received fails two of the tests that the manufacturer lists on the quality control checklist that was included with the sword: it failed the Paper Cutting Test (it is not butter knife dull, but will not cut paper unless you count further tearing a cut that was already started) and it failed the Pommel, Guard, & Blade Alignment inspection (the blade is obviously bent to the naked eye).
I believe the most obvious explanation is that it was mailed to me that way by the manufacturer, but, since they are saying the blade was straight when they shipped it, I would like to be fair and also consider the other possibilities. Could the humidity it might have been exposed to during shipping caused the metal along the edge to corrode to the point where a sword that would cut paper before shipping, will not do so 3 days later? And, for a package that arrived without any noticeable damage and where the sword within was sheathed in cardboard and heavily wrapped in plastic wrap, is there any force that could occur during shipping that would cause a well made sword to be bent along the entire blade's length? I ask that because, except under conditions of uniform geometry and composition, it is my understanding that an object like this should bend to a greater degree at the closest weak point or point of impact instead of along the entire blade (the blade is bent smoothly from base to tip).
If you have any thoughts on this (other than that I talk too much ), I welcome them.