What is it with HEMA idiots always shilling Albion when someone wants to buy their first sword. You all got brainwashed hard by HEMA youtubers shilling a crappy overpriced sword company. Meanwhile a far better made(and better designed) chinese sword can be obtained for a fraction of the time and money.
They're decent but overpriced.
In the old days, you could get a sword from Angus Trim or Lutel that would be better than Albion for half the price.
Albion is like the Texas Roadhouse of swords. Not great, but always pretty decent, however basic. You "can't go wrong" when you recommend Albion, because they never ship swords that are total shit.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Who would you recommend that's better?
2 years ago
Anonymous
Better as in quality or quality for the price?
2 years ago
Anonymous
let's do quality first
2 years ago
Anonymous
I actually wasn't that anon. I was just clarifying for him and because I'm also interested
Now we have to wait for someone who knows things
Have a look at the swords at Kultofathena. The Hanwei Tinker line is decent if a bit plain looking at a good price. Some Windlass swords are okay but you have to research first. Arms and Armor, Albion, Angus Trim and the like are good choices but pricier.
There are some superb European smiths but I don't know enough about them to comment.
There are some superb European smiths but I don't know enough about them to comment.
I forgot about Cold Steel. The problem with Cold Steel is that they subcontract out to a bunch of different forges, so some of their swords will be much better than others. The 1796 Light Calvary saber is a good cutter and sturdy but not well-balanced, for example. Get the one with the leather scabbard rather than the steel scabbard so you don't dull the edge.
The French sabers from Cold Steel are fairly rugged, but they are badly balanced and not true to the types. At least with the British 1796 you are a bit closer.
Pretty much every sword and armor distributor that doesn't do it in house probably contracts out to some factory in india where children assemble butted mail with rusty pliers for their daily mud ration.
It used to be easier to figure out with Cold Steel in the past- their sabers were from India (Universal Forge, Windlass), their other swords from China (Dynasty Forge and maybe a couple other places). At least one of their sabers is from Dynasty Forge now (the 1815 French Officers).
I know swords are cool but I'm co-opting this to talk about other historical melee weapons. Anyone know who makes a good billhook? Even if it's just the head I don't mind supplying the shaft.
I bought pic related to fulfill my English footsoldier LARP while gardening but I need more!
Polearms are extremely baller, and I want to collect them. One small issue though. They're too fricking long to transport every where and you need an even bigger space to train with them. I just do bayonet drills to satisfy that itch, pic related me in the pajama force
I'd kinda want a curved sword if I were to get one. Maybe like a wallhanger katana that I sharpen pretty good so it slices clean through any gaijin home invader before shattering immediately after.
I'd love to have my own poleaxe. Maybe a kettle helmet and mail n stuff too.
I had a regenyei "Strong" pattern sabre for HEMA purposes. Eventually a delamination in the steel caused it to fail - a crack ran along the edge, lengthwise, probably a consequence of the rolling milled steel having trapped some oxygen during manufacturing. It's was a good sword til it died.
Interesting, did you contact Regenyei to fix the problem?
2 years ago
Anonymous
Nah, just retired the blade. It was like, 5 years of service before the steel split.
2 years ago
Anonymous
What did you use it for? What was it's service?
2 years ago
Anonymous
HEMA. Used both both military sabre, and occasionally as a standin when doing highland broadsword stuff as I didn't have one. Twice weekly use for 5 years, it's sure to cause stress/metal fatigue to set in.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Forgive my ignorance but what is HEMA exactly? You actually hit men in armor with your sword? Because if that's what I'm reading here I have just found a hobby.
2 years ago
Anonymous
My club doesnt do amor - a well fitted suit of armor costs in the range of 20k USD minimum. We use padded gear. But yeah, it's a form of sport fencing. Essentially you take a historical manual, then reconstruct the actions described or pictured within (cuts, parries, disarms, grappling, binds etc). It's done with blunt versions of historical swords, and with beefed up fencing masks and fencing gear. The gloves especially tend to be very cumbersome because broken fingers are a very common HEMA injury, especially in longsword.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Are there any other places with well made swords that are functional but beautiful? Albion seems good enough but I also feel like they're overpriced by just looking at them. I am willing to shell out $7-900 for a sword which is a lot to me for something I won't realistically use, but for that I feel it ought to be something I can show to a friend and be proud of.
How do I even begin to learn this and is it in America? In the Southern US?
There is tons of clubs in the USA. I dont know any cos I am not from there.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Well you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. This American thanks you. One last thing. Is it bloody? It seems like it could get out of hand and people could get their bones broken. More than a finger anyways.
2 years ago
Anonymous
There was a case where a coach accidentally put a rapier blade through someone's throat and into their spinal cord. I don't remember if they survived it. So yeah, with inadequate safety precautions or gear, it can be dangerous. Most clubs are pretty good with it, only allowing people to use steel swords once they have full protective equipment. A good mask, gorget, gloves, and strong, resistant padded jacket and pants are essential. While the swords are blunted and typically quite flexible for safety, constant edge contact can lead to sharp, jagged dents in the edge which can catch on skin or clothes and rip them - I have a couple minor scars from this sort of "caught skin" on my arms from before I had an adequate jacket.
2 years ago
Anonymous
edit: it was his eye, into his brain. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2018/09/man_stabbed_through_the_eye_by.html
2 years ago
Anonymous
Thanks for your help bro. I was looking at this for about $800 usd but now I'm not sure what type I want. Idk if this is a phase I'm going through because I've been watching so many relevant movies but I feel like every real man should own a sword.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Thing about Roman stuff is that the lack of sources (eg, no fighting manuals) means it's not really covered by HEMA, just experimental/ reconstructive archaeology. So I can't comment on the suitability of that gladius to your needs.
If you just want a gladius, sure, it's a fantastic choice. But if you wanna learn to use it, I'm not sure what options you have - especially given they were basically always used with scutum
2 years ago
Anonymous
Will it be hard for me to learn to use a claymore or some type of 2 handed sword? What do you think the timeframe to go from novice to pretty good is?
2 years ago
Anonymous
For two handed sword you got two major opinions longsword witch has a ton of references and manuscripts or zweihander/montante which has a few. I don't know if any claymore fencing manuscripts but 16th century longsword should work pick related.
2 years ago
Anonymous
claidheamh da laimh is definitely more doable. Lots of longsword manuals and half-and-a-half sword manuals out there, and longsword is the most common HEMA discipline both in clubs and competitions. It's also the best supported in terms of affordable training swords (federschwert). In terms of timeframe, it depends. training once weekly for 2 years is enough to understand what you're doing. The more often you train, the better, but most clubs meet weekly. I wouldnt expect anyone to hit competition levels in just a couple years.
2 years ago
Anonymous
>You actually hit men in armor with your sword?
That's buhurt/historical medieval battles.
2 years ago
Anonymous
Some hema clubs do armor. Mine does on occasion it's just kind of hard cuz not everyone fits into my instructors two sets of armor
I'm a gun guy, but I'm seriously considering joining the sword gang. Is there a company that you guys trust (someone said Albion) who actually has a smith making the swords by hand? What about steel, what's the best sword steel?
What do you mean by hand? Albion uses CNC mill to make the blades from stock, but there's a lot of hand-work involved beyond that to make a proper sword.
Universal Swords in India forges their blades and uses a power-hammer to shape them, and then moves to various power tools before hand finishing. Apart from the use of power it's pretty traditional, and they aren't terrible at the end, but I'd rather have an Albion.
I kind of want a blacksmith to make me a sword the old way. Like medeival period. Are all swords pretty much made with machines nowadays? I'm gathering information before my first sword.
If you go with someone like Gael Fabre, or Fabrice Cognat who make hearth steel for custom orders, at least the steel will be made from scratch. But machines are still used to shape it (eg power hammers). Same for someone like Peter Burt who does crucible steel
Some of the other posters would likely have more experience than me with the Eastern Euro swordsmiths. They may have a few that work that way. Keep in mind that even in the middle ages a lot of machinery was used to make swords.
In Germany, for example, they had massive grindstones powered by waterwheels and a sort of production line for their swords.
Albion isn't really "by hand". They use water jets, CNC machines to cut the correct geometry into blades out of steel bars, which is what allows them to be the industry leader in consistency. It also means Albion is one of the only companies out there doing proper distal taper for their swords, as they program it into the cnc cutting operations. They're then ground downs on belts / linishers and sharpened similarly.
It's not a bad thing though. Them using modern tech to shape their blade blanks gives them highly accurate, durable and consistent products. Plus they work with actual experts (eg Peter Johnsson) who have experience with the antiques and museum swords, so their measurements they base their swords on are good, too.
What's the best gladius pattern? Obviously the Mainz is the most aesthetic, but if I wanted something sharp and pointy to remove profligates with, do the Fulham, Pompeii, or Hispanic gladiuses bring anything to the table?
I was looking at getting the gladius from Albion similar to yours pictured. Noob question, but is the gladius that they sell sharp or was it just a piercing weapon? Is there an edge?
In general their products come "sword sharp" - not sharp enough to cut paper, but sharp enough to cut someone while still being able to withstand edge contact with shields, armor, etc.
Their "Maestro" line are explicitly for training and ship dull accordingly, and they strongly discourage attempting to put an edge on them.
I wonder what happens if you put an edge on the training blade
2 years ago
Anonymous
My assumption is "it'll take way more work than you'd expect, and someone will get hurt (but not in the way you intended)"
2 years ago
Anonymous
typically the issue is you need to remove a ton of material, which is either very slow or risks overheating the blade and thus ruining the heat treatment. Additionally, the geometry of the blunts is set up for being a blunt, so removing the amount of material needed to turn it into a sharp eventuates in it being the wrong geometry to work well as a sharp - i.e, too flexible or too little cross sectional mass for that type of sword.
That guys was dumb for chasing people with a short sword. You can defend yourself with a sword especially if your opponents don't have any guns. However he shouldn't have ran around and exposed his back to people, medieval manuscripts talk about putting your back to a wall so your opponents have to come at you from the same direction. And if you're going to use a short sword like that you you're probably use a shield or something with it. Also of course armor. And before any of you even start yes he should of had a gun. Guns are more effective than sword in 99% of situations. But swords are cool and it's not like they lost the ability to kill or injure people in the last 100 years
swords are pointy and sharp haha
i like sword
I also like swords and armor
loser weapon axes and hammers are far superior
No armor, no shields, still think so? maybe if you said spear but you didn't!
Another loser who is unable to hold more than one weapon on his person
Pleb take.
Swords are based and noble, and often decorative.
Damascus and Wootz are a meme
So’s yer mum chum.
I've been thinking about getting a sword as a wall hanger that I could also potentially kill someone with. What's a good place to get nice swords?
COLD STEEL
Besides cold steel
So kreig wasn't rambling about some inane bullshit
Albion
https://www.albion-swords.com/
Sick, thanks
What is it with HEMA idiots always shilling Albion when someone wants to buy their first sword. You all got brainwashed hard by HEMA youtubers shilling a crappy overpriced sword company. Meanwhile a far better made(and better designed) chinese sword can be obtained for a fraction of the time and money.
On what? Amazon? They probably shill that for the consistency more than anything else
They're decent but overpriced.
In the old days, you could get a sword from Angus Trim or Lutel that would be better than Albion for half the price.
Albion is like the Texas Roadhouse of swords. Not great, but always pretty decent, however basic. You "can't go wrong" when you recommend Albion, because they never ship swords that are total shit.
Who would you recommend that's better?
Better as in quality or quality for the price?
let's do quality first
I actually wasn't that anon. I was just clarifying for him and because I'm also interested
Now we have to wait for someone who knows things
Have a look at the swords at Kultofathena. The Hanwei Tinker line is decent if a bit plain looking at a good price. Some Windlass swords are okay but you have to research first. Arms and Armor, Albion, Angus Trim and the like are good choices but pricier.
There are some superb European smiths but I don't know enough about them to comment.
Hanwei tinker line is plain looking but it's also customisable - theprintedarmoury for example does fittings for it. pic related
I forgot about Cold Steel. The problem with Cold Steel is that they subcontract out to a bunch of different forges, so some of their swords will be much better than others. The 1796 Light Calvary saber is a good cutter and sturdy but not well-balanced, for example. Get the one with the leather scabbard rather than the steel scabbard so you don't dull the edge.
The French sabers from Cold Steel are fairly rugged, but they are badly balanced and not true to the types. At least with the British 1796 you are a bit closer.
Pretty much every sword and armor distributor that doesn't do it in house probably contracts out to some factory in india where children assemble butted mail with rusty pliers for their daily mud ration.
It used to be easier to figure out with Cold Steel in the past- their sabers were from India (Universal Forge, Windlass), their other swords from China (Dynasty Forge and maybe a couple other places). At least one of their sabers is from Dynasty Forge now (the 1815 French Officers).
swords are cool
i liek em
My lord only allows nobles to possess swords 🙁
Rise up and run him through, lest ye be cowardly and a dog! Oh wait, you can't and are.
Anime sword thread?
>The JDAB
>The Sideslicer
>The MOAS
>The Daisy Cutter
And just like that they became less lame, crazy what giving them a cool name can do
Hillary looked so much hotter with long hair. Damn Bill, I wish she'd kept it.
do nanomachines count?
I know swords are cool but I'm co-opting this to talk about other historical melee weapons. Anyone know who makes a good billhook? Even if it's just the head I don't mind supplying the shaft.
I bought pic related to fulfill my English footsoldier LARP while gardening but I need more!
Polearms are extremely baller, and I want to collect them. One small issue though. They're too fricking long to transport every where and you need an even bigger space to train with them. I just do bayonet drills to satisfy that itch, pic related me in the pajama force
You could always collect just the heads though, and then have a shaft of different lengths handy?
I'd kinda want a curved sword if I were to get one. Maybe like a wallhanger katana that I sharpen pretty good so it slices clean through any gaijin home invader before shattering immediately after.
I'd love to have my own poleaxe. Maybe a kettle helmet and mail n stuff too.
Anyone own a Regenyei sword? Fully custom made in Hungary for under $400 seems like a steal compared to Albion
Answer me queers
I had a regenyei "Strong" pattern sabre for HEMA purposes. Eventually a delamination in the steel caused it to fail - a crack ran along the edge, lengthwise, probably a consequence of the rolling milled steel having trapped some oxygen during manufacturing. It's was a good sword til it died.
Interesting, did you contact Regenyei to fix the problem?
Nah, just retired the blade. It was like, 5 years of service before the steel split.
What did you use it for? What was it's service?
HEMA. Used both both military sabre, and occasionally as a standin when doing highland broadsword stuff as I didn't have one. Twice weekly use for 5 years, it's sure to cause stress/metal fatigue to set in.
Forgive my ignorance but what is HEMA exactly? You actually hit men in armor with your sword? Because if that's what I'm reading here I have just found a hobby.
My club doesnt do amor - a well fitted suit of armor costs in the range of 20k USD minimum. We use padded gear. But yeah, it's a form of sport fencing. Essentially you take a historical manual, then reconstruct the actions described or pictured within (cuts, parries, disarms, grappling, binds etc). It's done with blunt versions of historical swords, and with beefed up fencing masks and fencing gear. The gloves especially tend to be very cumbersome because broken fingers are a very common HEMA injury, especially in longsword.
Are there any other places with well made swords that are functional but beautiful? Albion seems good enough but I also feel like they're overpriced by just looking at them. I am willing to shell out $7-900 for a sword which is a lot to me for something I won't realistically use, but for that I feel it ought to be something I can show to a friend and be proud of.
How do I even begin to learn this and is it in America? In the Southern US?
Thanks anons
there's a number of HEMA club finders online.
https://hroarr.com/train/clubs-gear/club-finder/
https://historicaleuropeanmartialarts.com/hema-club-finder/
https://www.hemaalliance.com/club-finders
There is tons of clubs in the USA. I dont know any cos I am not from there.
Well you sir, are a gentleman and a scholar. This American thanks you. One last thing. Is it bloody? It seems like it could get out of hand and people could get their bones broken. More than a finger anyways.
There was a case where a coach accidentally put a rapier blade through someone's throat and into their spinal cord. I don't remember if they survived it. So yeah, with inadequate safety precautions or gear, it can be dangerous. Most clubs are pretty good with it, only allowing people to use steel swords once they have full protective equipment. A good mask, gorget, gloves, and strong, resistant padded jacket and pants are essential. While the swords are blunted and typically quite flexible for safety, constant edge contact can lead to sharp, jagged dents in the edge which can catch on skin or clothes and rip them - I have a couple minor scars from this sort of "caught skin" on my arms from before I had an adequate jacket.
edit: it was his eye, into his brain. https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2018/09/man_stabbed_through_the_eye_by.html
Thanks for your help bro. I was looking at this for about $800 usd but now I'm not sure what type I want. Idk if this is a phase I'm going through because I've been watching so many relevant movies but I feel like every real man should own a sword.
Thing about Roman stuff is that the lack of sources (eg, no fighting manuals) means it's not really covered by HEMA, just experimental/ reconstructive archaeology. So I can't comment on the suitability of that gladius to your needs.
If you just want a gladius, sure, it's a fantastic choice. But if you wanna learn to use it, I'm not sure what options you have - especially given they were basically always used with scutum
Will it be hard for me to learn to use a claymore or some type of 2 handed sword? What do you think the timeframe to go from novice to pretty good is?
For two handed sword you got two major opinions longsword witch has a ton of references and manuscripts or zweihander/montante which has a few. I don't know if any claymore fencing manuscripts but 16th century longsword should work pick related.
claidheamh da laimh is definitely more doable. Lots of longsword manuals and half-and-a-half sword manuals out there, and longsword is the most common HEMA discipline both in clubs and competitions. It's also the best supported in terms of affordable training swords (federschwert). In terms of timeframe, it depends. training once weekly for 2 years is enough to understand what you're doing. The more often you train, the better, but most clubs meet weekly. I wouldnt expect anyone to hit competition levels in just a couple years.
>You actually hit men in armor with your sword?
That's buhurt/historical medieval battles.
Some hema clubs do armor. Mine does on occasion it's just kind of hard cuz not everyone fits into my instructors two sets of armor
I've never owned one of there sharps but there feder is good
i have sword yes
I'm a gun guy, but I'm seriously considering joining the sword gang. Is there a company that you guys trust (someone said Albion) who actually has a smith making the swords by hand? What about steel, what's the best sword steel?
What do you mean by hand? Albion uses CNC mill to make the blades from stock, but there's a lot of hand-work involved beyond that to make a proper sword.
Universal Swords in India forges their blades and uses a power-hammer to shape them, and then moves to various power tools before hand finishing. Apart from the use of power it's pretty traditional, and they aren't terrible at the end, but I'd rather have an Albion.
I kind of want a blacksmith to make me a sword the old way. Like medeival period. Are all swords pretty much made with machines nowadays? I'm gathering information before my first sword.
If you go with someone like Gael Fabre, or Fabrice Cognat who make hearth steel for custom orders, at least the steel will be made from scratch. But machines are still used to shape it (eg power hammers). Same for someone like Peter Burt who does crucible steel
Some of the other posters would likely have more experience than me with the Eastern Euro swordsmiths. They may have a few that work that way. Keep in mind that even in the middle ages a lot of machinery was used to make swords.
In Germany, for example, they had massive grindstones powered by waterwheels and a sort of production line for their swords.
Albion isn't really "by hand". They use water jets, CNC machines to cut the correct geometry into blades out of steel bars, which is what allows them to be the industry leader in consistency. It also means Albion is one of the only companies out there doing proper distal taper for their swords, as they program it into the cnc cutting operations. They're then ground downs on belts / linishers and sharpened similarly.
It's not a bad thing though. Them using modern tech to shape their blade blanks gives them highly accurate, durable and consistent products. Plus they work with actual experts (eg Peter Johnsson) who have experience with the antiques and museum swords, so their measurements they base their swords on are good, too.
I have recently been enjoying weird and curve swords, such as this.
What's the best gladius pattern? Obviously the Mainz is the most aesthetic, but if I wanted something sharp and pointy to remove profligates with, do the Fulham, Pompeii, or Hispanic gladiuses bring anything to the table?
I was looking at getting the gladius from Albion similar to yours pictured. Noob question, but is the gladius that they sell sharp or was it just a piercing weapon? Is there an edge?
In general their products come "sword sharp" - not sharp enough to cut paper, but sharp enough to cut someone while still being able to withstand edge contact with shields, armor, etc.
Their "Maestro" line are explicitly for training and ship dull accordingly, and they strongly discourage attempting to put an edge on them.
I wonder what happens if you put an edge on the training blade
My assumption is "it'll take way more work than you'd expect, and someone will get hurt (but not in the way you intended)"
typically the issue is you need to remove a ton of material, which is either very slow or risks overheating the blade and thus ruining the heat treatment. Additionally, the geometry of the blunts is set up for being a blunt, so removing the amount of material needed to turn it into a sharp eventuates in it being the wrong geometry to work well as a sharp - i.e, too flexible or too little cross sectional mass for that type of sword.
Fulham
There's a swap meet down by the dog park and a knife guy has swards. One iscreally cool and it's like $50. I'm gonna buy it this weekend.
I cant take swords seriously after the Dallas texas sword guy got mugged and beat to a pulp durring the riots
There was you sword guys at the riots no one talks about this one https://youtu.be/i5VBeLvwo4Y
That guys was dumb for chasing people with a short sword. You can defend yourself with a sword especially if your opponents don't have any guns. However he shouldn't have ran around and exposed his back to people, medieval manuscripts talk about putting your back to a wall so your opponents have to come at you from the same direction. And if you're going to use a short sword like that you you're probably use a shield or something with it. Also of course armor. And before any of you even start yes he should of had a gun. Guns are more effective than sword in 99% of situations. But swords are cool and it's not like they lost the ability to kill or injure people in the last 100 years
why were viking swords shaped like that without a sharp needle point? needle point swords had already existed long before