Alternatives for Neil Burridge bronze swords?

This was brought up on a recent post:

sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/69853/deepeeka-celtic-bronze-sword

Apparently the Warrior Bronze swords are a bit heavier than they should be, but still good.

There's also Viking Bronze and Craft Bronze out of Ukraine.

The Viking Bronze on Etsy looks pretty good! Well polished and finished and solidly built...good fit and finish. Any group members ever try them? They aren't cheap, but it seems much better than Deepeeka and less than half the price of a Burridge. I'm definitely considering it...

youtu.be/wTJ9p-iAosg

That's true. Even if it says Bronze, it's often recycled or bronze of a different percentage than bronze age bronze. They say tin content in bronze age swords was typically 10-12%. Usually a sword was only cast once. There's evidence of recasted swords, but they are all broken. Neil Burridge waits until the copper is well melted and hot before adding the tin, then pours it soon after. From what I've experienced, fresh cast 11% bronze in this way is tougher than bronze where the tin is more oxidized. It even feels like steel when sharpening and polishing it, which I didn't expect. If it's going to sit on your wall though, then bronze or brass, recast or not doesn't matter!

Ah, not really. I wouldn't trust anything that wasn't fresh cast from copper and tin in the traditional manner with actually cutting things. Tin oxidizes over time, and the bronze becomes brittle. The Deepeka for sure are made from recycled bronze. I'm not sure about Craft Bronze and Viking Bronze, but I wouldn't trust them. A custom maker could sharpen and polish a Deepeka sword, but I still wouldn't trust it to cut. If you really wanted a good cutting bronze sword, I think the best is to make it yourself.

My understanding is that the smiths used to intentionally bend the spine a small amount, then bend it back a few times in order to harden it. Then, the edges were sharpened, and then work hardened on both sides of the edge with a special tool (basically a bronze linear punch). I agree this is necessary to be done for a functional replica, but I'd only try this on bronze that was freshly cast with 10-12% tin, and not letting the tin oxidize too much in the melt before casting. It's pointless to do this on your standard bronze that's been recast 100 times (and is a strange shade of brown), or on any of the fashionable alloys like aluminum bronze. Neil Burridge used to do all this, but there hasn't really been anyone to do it now that he's stopped shipping out of the UK. I've cast 11% bronze the right way for a chisel, and it's quite resilient, even like steel, and it has a gorgeous golden colour you don't get on modern bronzes. I polished it with stones, and even without work hardening, it functioned like a steel chisel in all the tests done on it. This spring/summer I'm going to try again to cast a bronze long sword, and if I'm successful, maybe I'll cast a few more and sell the raw casted blades to those interested!

Whole lotta info about Greek bronze swords:
www.salimbeti.com/micenei/weapons1.htm
Type A to H isn't good marketing, Xiphos were steel already. 

Bronze and iron are pretty similar when you make a blade out of it (I have people even liken them to low carbon steel, but I don't know), primarily though it's easier to cast 10 bronze swords than forge 10 iron ones, that's why bronze and iron coexisted for a few hundread years with only steel later really taking over.

Actually, bronze swords made correctly are pretty tough. There's been cutting tests with Neil Burridge swords and they hold up surprisingly well. There's lots of archaeologists who think they were just for show, but I think they'll hold up. Don't worry, I'll do my share of cutting and let you guys know! Supposedly they were made so long to make it easier to thrust over the opponent's shield (there's pottery decorations to this effect). I think they'll do pretty well with cutting though too. But you never know, you may be right!