Windlass Ashdown Viking Sword Review
Nov 3, 2021 23:35:35 GMT
Post by ArmedGinger on Nov 3, 2021 23:35:35 GMT
Introduction
So most swords I bought in my younger years were all Katana. I went through "that phase". My grandmother started telling me about some of our ancestors and their Viking heritage so I started getting into that as of late. The show "Vikings" of course didn't help. I finally decided I wanted to take a bite and buy my first "Viking Sword". I looked through a lot of them, read many reviews (most were from SBG), and watched many videos. Every sword seemed to have it's Pros and Cons. I didn't have a whole lot of money and told myself I didn't want to spend more than $500 Canadian ($400 USD) to my door.
The biggest problem of course being in Canada. Many places in the US won't ship swords here and with the whole COVID thing putting a hurt on shipping times I opted for buying in country. That left only two stores, Warriors & Wonders or Reliks. Now the first didn't have much for options, actually pretty much none. Relik had a few choices.
So I made some choices and started looking. I decided that I wanted something that wasn't a "wall hanger". I wanted the option to use it. Then of course came my price point. So those narrowed the field pretty good. My final choice was, I wanted something that looked "old". So many swords are absolutely great cutters but they just look too modern and new. So all that was left in my price point was the Ashdown from Windlass.
Historical overview
Even though I call this a "Viking" sword, it really isn't. These types of swords were on Frankish design and traded out of Francia or stolen by the "Vikings" during raids.
Now the Ashdown sword is supposedly similar to a sword used by a Prince Alfred (Alfred the Great) against the Vikings in 871 AD. The name Ashdown is from the Battle of Ashdown where, under the banner of King Æthelred , Alfred led his grandfather's forces to victory.
Full Disclosure
I purchased this sword for full price from Reliks.com. I had paid the extra $25 for their sharpening service which they screwed up on (multiple different angles on the edges, some 30 degrees, others 45 degrees). As such the sword is useless for cutting until I actually fix the problem. As such, I will try to keep any bias based on that out of the review.
Initial Impressions
So when the box arrived from Reliks it was a pretty plain cardboard box. Nothing special. The sword was wrapped in tissue paper and some styrofoam to keep it from moving around. When I pulled the sword out of the box it felt pretty decent. The leather was fairly nice on the scabbard and the grip of the sword felt comfortable. There isn't much to say about this part. Sorry didn't take any pictures at this point as I was just happy to get it.
Statistics
Blade Length: 31"
Handle Length: 4"
Overall Length: 37"
Weight: 2 lb 9 oz
Components
The Blade:
So drawing the sword and taking a look at the blade you can see that it's not shiny or fancy. It's mostly dull in color and that is what I wanted. Running your hands across the blade you can feel slight imperfections in the manufacturing process. Since these blades are supposed to be hand forged, this sort of affirms that. The blade is nice and straight and that is what matters most of all. The blade bends to 45 degrees and comes back perfectly straight both ways.
(The black mark on the edge about halfway was put there by me using a marker when trying to figure out the angle of the edge)
The Handle:
I have to admit I find the handle very comfortable. The grip is leather wrapped and is sewn together with probably a layer of glue underneath to keep it from coming undone or from shifting.
The Guard:
The Pommel:
The pommel is the same type of metal as the guard. It's peened on and sort of rough looking. I believe it's left like this to lend more to the "hand forged" aspect. It's on there tight and it's square to the blade so it's not going anywhere. Once again it's painted to look like it's aged. They have etched runes into the pommel that don't really make a lot of sense and I'm having a hard time translating them.
The Scabbard:
So one of the other reasons I went with the Ashdown is because the scabbard also has a belt attached to it. The scabbard is made of leather with no wood core. The leather is of course "cheap" leather from India but it feels nice to the hands. The scabbard is stitched up the back side although the stitching isn't perfect. But to me, it lends the look of something that was made in the 9th century. When the sword is sheathed, it slides in nice without any issues and sits in there pretty firmly. There is a little rattle towards the end of the scabbard at the tip of the blade when shaken.
The belt is pretty simple and really long, which is nice since being a large fellow it will still fit me. The belt clasp is the same metal as the guard and pommel and painted the same aged appearance. The leather wrapping at the top of the scabbard is just something to set it off from the plain scabbards of other swords. My only gripe is the bottom of the wrapping is just left dangling. It seems "unfinished" somehow. Finally the end cap on the scabbard with it's little design. This was the only piece that felt like it wasn't metal. I'm sure it is but it feels really light and is definitely not the same metal as everything else.
Handling Characteristics
Test Cutting
So as I mentioned before, the angle of the sharpening is off on this sword. I never realized that until I tried to cut with the sword. Using a 2 litre juice bottle filled with water provided some really poor cutting. Now this in my opinion has nothing to do with the sword itself but strictly the poor sharpening that was done on it. I will try more test cutting once I fix the blade.
Conclusions
So over all what do I think of the sword. So the sword set me back just over $500 Canadian after the "sharpening" service and the shipping. Ignoring the "sharpening" aspect of the sword, I believe it was worth the investment and will be a great cutter (eventually) and a great show piece.
Pros
- nice leather grip
- weight is correct for this type
Cons
The Bottom Line
So would I recommend this sword? I would actually. If someone is looking for a sword in this price point that is made to take some abuse and wants that "old" and not the new and modern look I would recommend this sword.
So most swords I bought in my younger years were all Katana. I went through "that phase". My grandmother started telling me about some of our ancestors and their Viking heritage so I started getting into that as of late. The show "Vikings" of course didn't help. I finally decided I wanted to take a bite and buy my first "Viking Sword". I looked through a lot of them, read many reviews (most were from SBG), and watched many videos. Every sword seemed to have it's Pros and Cons. I didn't have a whole lot of money and told myself I didn't want to spend more than $500 Canadian ($400 USD) to my door.
The biggest problem of course being in Canada. Many places in the US won't ship swords here and with the whole COVID thing putting a hurt on shipping times I opted for buying in country. That left only two stores, Warriors & Wonders or Reliks. Now the first didn't have much for options, actually pretty much none. Relik had a few choices.
So I made some choices and started looking. I decided that I wanted something that wasn't a "wall hanger". I wanted the option to use it. Then of course came my price point. So those narrowed the field pretty good. My final choice was, I wanted something that looked "old". So many swords are absolutely great cutters but they just look too modern and new. So all that was left in my price point was the Ashdown from Windlass.
Historical overview
Even though I call this a "Viking" sword, it really isn't. These types of swords were on Frankish design and traded out of Francia or stolen by the "Vikings" during raids.
Now the Ashdown sword is supposedly similar to a sword used by a Prince Alfred (Alfred the Great) against the Vikings in 871 AD. The name Ashdown is from the Battle of Ashdown where, under the banner of King Æthelred , Alfred led his grandfather's forces to victory.
Full Disclosure
I purchased this sword for full price from Reliks.com. I had paid the extra $25 for their sharpening service which they screwed up on (multiple different angles on the edges, some 30 degrees, others 45 degrees). As such the sword is useless for cutting until I actually fix the problem. As such, I will try to keep any bias based on that out of the review.
Initial Impressions
So when the box arrived from Reliks it was a pretty plain cardboard box. Nothing special. The sword was wrapped in tissue paper and some styrofoam to keep it from moving around. When I pulled the sword out of the box it felt pretty decent. The leather was fairly nice on the scabbard and the grip of the sword felt comfortable. There isn't much to say about this part. Sorry didn't take any pictures at this point as I was just happy to get it.
Statistics
Blade Length: 31"
Handle Length: 4"
Overall Length: 37"
Weight: 2 lb 9 oz
Components
The Blade:
So drawing the sword and taking a look at the blade you can see that it's not shiny or fancy. It's mostly dull in color and that is what I wanted. Running your hands across the blade you can feel slight imperfections in the manufacturing process. Since these blades are supposed to be hand forged, this sort of affirms that. The blade is nice and straight and that is what matters most of all. The blade bends to 45 degrees and comes back perfectly straight both ways.
(The black mark on the edge about halfway was put there by me using a marker when trying to figure out the angle of the edge)
The Handle:
I have to admit I find the handle very comfortable. The grip is leather wrapped and is sewn together with probably a layer of glue underneath to keep it from coming undone or from shifting.
The Guard:
The guard is metal. I can't say what kind of metal but at least it's not plastic. It has a sort of weird knot type casting into it and then painted to look aged. There isn't a whole lot of detail into the knotting and in my opinion doesn't do a whole lot for the sword. The fit of the guard is like most sub $1000 swords. The whole where the blade goes through is slightly oversized and filled with epoxy to make sure nothing rattles. Something most people won't ever notice unless you really look for it.
The Pommel:
The pommel is the same type of metal as the guard. It's peened on and sort of rough looking. I believe it's left like this to lend more to the "hand forged" aspect. It's on there tight and it's square to the blade so it's not going anywhere. Once again it's painted to look like it's aged. They have etched runes into the pommel that don't really make a lot of sense and I'm having a hard time translating them.
The Scabbard:
So one of the other reasons I went with the Ashdown is because the scabbard also has a belt attached to it. The scabbard is made of leather with no wood core. The leather is of course "cheap" leather from India but it feels nice to the hands. The scabbard is stitched up the back side although the stitching isn't perfect. But to me, it lends the look of something that was made in the 9th century. When the sword is sheathed, it slides in nice without any issues and sits in there pretty firmly. There is a little rattle towards the end of the scabbard at the tip of the blade when shaken.
The belt is pretty simple and really long, which is nice since being a large fellow it will still fit me. The belt clasp is the same metal as the guard and pommel and painted the same aged appearance. The leather wrapping at the top of the scabbard is just something to set it off from the plain scabbards of other swords. My only gripe is the bottom of the wrapping is just left dangling. It seems "unfinished" somehow. Finally the end cap on the scabbard with it's little design. This was the only piece that felt like it wasn't metal. I'm sure it is but it feels really light and is definitely not the same metal as everything else.
Handling Characteristics
So how does it handle. This is a hard one for me since I mostly dealt and reviewed Katana before this.
This sword being 2lbs 9oz has enough weight that it doesn't feel like cheap tin and yet isn't stupidly heavy like Hollywood wants you to believe all medieval swords were. Windlass tried to keep the sword as historically accurate in weight as they could and in my honest opinion it shows. You could swing this sword in battle and it won't strain your arm. It moves easily shifting from one swing to the other and feels fluid enough.
This sword being 2lbs 9oz has enough weight that it doesn't feel like cheap tin and yet isn't stupidly heavy like Hollywood wants you to believe all medieval swords were. Windlass tried to keep the sword as historically accurate in weight as they could and in my honest opinion it shows. You could swing this sword in battle and it won't strain your arm. It moves easily shifting from one swing to the other and feels fluid enough.
Test Cutting
So as I mentioned before, the angle of the sharpening is off on this sword. I never realized that until I tried to cut with the sword. Using a 2 litre juice bottle filled with water provided some really poor cutting. Now this in my opinion has nothing to do with the sword itself but strictly the poor sharpening that was done on it. I will try more test cutting once I fix the blade.
Conclusions
So over all what do I think of the sword. So the sword set me back just over $500 Canadian after the "sharpening" service and the shipping. Ignoring the "sharpening" aspect of the sword, I believe it was worth the investment and will be a great cutter (eventually) and a great show piece.
Pros
- nice leather grip
- weight is correct for this type
- beautiful blade with nice straight fuller
- nice leather scabbard that comes with a belt
- not overly expensive
- doesn't look modern and new
Cons
- leather stitching on scabbard isn't perfect
- epoxy filling in the guard
- The knotting on the guard doesn't lend anything to the sword and just looks off
- The knotting on the guard doesn't lend anything to the sword and just looks off
The Bottom Line
So would I recommend this sword? I would actually. If someone is looking for a sword in this price point that is made to take some abuse and wants that "old" and not the new and modern look I would recommend this sword.