Leon Paul Razer feder
Apr 30, 2021 12:12:54 GMT
Post by tinker60 on Apr 30, 2021 12:12:54 GMT
I’m new to HEMA and for the first few months used the club’s various Regenyei feders, so I know what “a good one” feels like. I’ve only had the Razer for 6 months. It’s seen half a dozen robust sparring bouts at the club, and has been hitting my pell (hard!) at least a couple of times a week, some weeks every day (here's a link to the pell). Only time will tell how it will stand up to long term abuse, but here are my impressions so far.
This sword sings!! I noticed it first at home on the pell, then my sparring partners also commented, so it’s not just wishful thinking 😉 I’m not sure what that means, but I’ve always loved a knife or cleaver that rings, and my Pappa always used to say “Good steel!” when he heard it, so I like it. So regardless of whether or not it means anything, it’s a point in favour for me 😊
I bought mine for $215AU when Leon Paul had a half price shipping deal, so $285AU delivered (which at the time was only $189US) For comparison, a Regenyei Standard Feder was going to cost almost $400AU plus delivery. I discovered why it was so cheap when I went to order a second one for backup, after being satisfied that it wasn’t complete rubbish at the price – I couldn’t buy one for love or money and still can’t. It seems they were dropping the line and quitting stock.
Anyway, it arrived within a week with damaged corners on the cardboard boxing, but no damage to the sword as it was well supported. Not bad considering it travelled half way around the world. After a few experimental cuts and thrusts which felt good, not surprising as the Razer has the same length and weight specs as the Regenyei Standard Feder, knowing that the sword was assembled with screws, the first thing I did was strip it down so I could put it back together properly.
The first thing I noticed handling the blade itself, was how square the edges were compared to the Regenyeis, and their potential for harm, as well as chip-ability. So first job was rounding the edges, achieved with a #2 Bastard and what I thought an appropriate amount of elbow grease (much harder than mild steel but not stupid hard)
I really like Razer’s screwed hilt assembly for ease of disassembly for inspection, repair, and customisation potential.
It came in handy for this job as I could hold the tang in the vice while I filed. The downside is that the threaded pommel, locked with a nyloc nut, still kept coming loose which made the cross-guard rattle, and needed re-tightening after each session…
At first I really liked the innovative rubber tip which was secured by two Allen screws and nyloc nuts. But after dissembling it, I didn’t like how little material was left at the already narrow tip, because of the holes required for the screws, and saw it as a potential failure point. Plus, even nyloc nuts come loose with enough shock, vibration and time… I decided I wouldn’t want someone swinging that assembly at me, so I immediately cut the tip off just behind the holes, folded the tip over with heat, 7-day epoxied a 10mm circle of 3mm thick leather on the end, then wrapped it all in insulation tape. This shortened the blade from 100cm to 95cm. It wasn’t until I used the shortened blade that I realised the 100cm Regenyeis felt relatively unwieldy – perfect! (I've since discovered that Keith Farrell who is an inch shorter than me prefers a 95-98cm blade)
Then after a couple of months, the rubber sheath on the grip kept slipping back towards the pommel, or more accurately, the sword kept slipping away from me… On removing the rubber cover I discovered the wooden grip underneath was unwrapped (!) softwood (!) and had split almost the whole length.
By this stage I had developed a liking for square-section twin-waisted grips, so after gluing the split, I reshaped the grip
Added a ridge and wrapped it with string and PVA glue
And covered it in leather
Freshly oiled, with the original rubber cover beside
Since remanufacturing the grip, the hilt assembly lasted a couple dozen sessions before needing re-tightening. At this stage I’m not sure if it’s because the softwood is compressing or the locknut not locking. I suspect it’s the former – the wood is really soft and no amount of string and glue is going to hold those kinds of compressive forces. I’ll report back after I pull it apart again so I can make a new even better shaped hardwood grip 😊
So now both my training and real swords have almost identical blade length, weight, PoB, and the waist ridges are in the same place so the front hand feels the same. The only real difference is the longer grip on the training sword so we don’t hit our training partners too hard, which is kinda’ counter-productive for a real sword…
Here's a link to my (also customised) real sword
This sword sings!! I noticed it first at home on the pell, then my sparring partners also commented, so it’s not just wishful thinking 😉 I’m not sure what that means, but I’ve always loved a knife or cleaver that rings, and my Pappa always used to say “Good steel!” when he heard it, so I like it. So regardless of whether or not it means anything, it’s a point in favour for me 😊
I bought mine for $215AU when Leon Paul had a half price shipping deal, so $285AU delivered (which at the time was only $189US) For comparison, a Regenyei Standard Feder was going to cost almost $400AU plus delivery. I discovered why it was so cheap when I went to order a second one for backup, after being satisfied that it wasn’t complete rubbish at the price – I couldn’t buy one for love or money and still can’t. It seems they were dropping the line and quitting stock.
Anyway, it arrived within a week with damaged corners on the cardboard boxing, but no damage to the sword as it was well supported. Not bad considering it travelled half way around the world. After a few experimental cuts and thrusts which felt good, not surprising as the Razer has the same length and weight specs as the Regenyei Standard Feder, knowing that the sword was assembled with screws, the first thing I did was strip it down so I could put it back together properly.
The first thing I noticed handling the blade itself, was how square the edges were compared to the Regenyeis, and their potential for harm, as well as chip-ability. So first job was rounding the edges, achieved with a #2 Bastard and what I thought an appropriate amount of elbow grease (much harder than mild steel but not stupid hard)
I really like Razer’s screwed hilt assembly for ease of disassembly for inspection, repair, and customisation potential.
It came in handy for this job as I could hold the tang in the vice while I filed. The downside is that the threaded pommel, locked with a nyloc nut, still kept coming loose which made the cross-guard rattle, and needed re-tightening after each session…
At first I really liked the innovative rubber tip which was secured by two Allen screws and nyloc nuts. But after dissembling it, I didn’t like how little material was left at the already narrow tip, because of the holes required for the screws, and saw it as a potential failure point. Plus, even nyloc nuts come loose with enough shock, vibration and time… I decided I wouldn’t want someone swinging that assembly at me, so I immediately cut the tip off just behind the holes, folded the tip over with heat, 7-day epoxied a 10mm circle of 3mm thick leather on the end, then wrapped it all in insulation tape. This shortened the blade from 100cm to 95cm. It wasn’t until I used the shortened blade that I realised the 100cm Regenyeis felt relatively unwieldy – perfect! (I've since discovered that Keith Farrell who is an inch shorter than me prefers a 95-98cm blade)
Then after a couple of months, the rubber sheath on the grip kept slipping back towards the pommel, or more accurately, the sword kept slipping away from me… On removing the rubber cover I discovered the wooden grip underneath was unwrapped (!) softwood (!) and had split almost the whole length.
By this stage I had developed a liking for square-section twin-waisted grips, so after gluing the split, I reshaped the grip
Added a ridge and wrapped it with string and PVA glue
And covered it in leather
Freshly oiled, with the original rubber cover beside
Since remanufacturing the grip, the hilt assembly lasted a couple dozen sessions before needing re-tightening. At this stage I’m not sure if it’s because the softwood is compressing or the locknut not locking. I suspect it’s the former – the wood is really soft and no amount of string and glue is going to hold those kinds of compressive forces. I’ll report back after I pull it apart again so I can make a new even better shaped hardwood grip 😊
So now both my training and real swords have almost identical blade length, weight, PoB, and the waist ridges are in the same place so the front hand feels the same. The only real difference is the longer grip on the training sword so we don’t hit our training partners too hard, which is kinda’ counter-productive for a real sword…
Here's a link to my (also customised) real sword