"New" sword day (well, new for me, bought second hand from a fellow collector... 😉)!

A custom made "Kriegsmesser" sword made by Viktor Berbekucz, Hungary, complete with scabbard handmade by the pre-owner.

With the new Windlass made Cold Steel model of this sword running at german retailers for a crazy 700 Euros and even when ordered in the USA (due to expensive FedEx shipping and german import taxes/customs fees) still running at 620 Euro i decided to give this one a shot. I havent planned anything new at this time due to a little car accident, but this occasion was too good to let it pass. So i asked the lady for a credit... 😉

The sword is more whopping than the CS version or the Albion Knecht which clearly was the inspiration for these weapons - but thats exactly what i like. Fit & finish is rougher, everything looks clearly handmade with lots of little imperfections; but thats OK at the negotiated price. This doesnt contradict my CLEAR opinion on the crazy discussions that one can follow lately on certain social media sword groups that even a super expensive high-end sword MUST have imperfections - and the fact that this attitude is often used only to justify sloppy work and/or quality control (hear me, Albion? I have two old SQUIRE line swords here that look better than three of your Next Generation Line pieces i acquired through the last two years...)!

The data:

Material: 6150 (51CRV-4) hardened to 52-54 HRC
Length blade: 905 mm / 35.6 in
Length total: 1180 mm / 46.5 in
Width blade near hilt: 47 mm / 1.85 in
Thickness blade near hilt: 8 mm / 0.31 in
Thickness blade at end of "ricasso": 6 mm / 0.24 in
Thickness blade at end of fullers: 5 mm / 0.20 in
Thickness blade near tip: 2,5 mm / 0.1 in
Weight: 1900 g / 4.2 lbs
POB: 125 mm / 5 in

https://i.imgur.com/2bXliHn.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/aapY2I3.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/u2G2A56.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/7vu1Zpl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/baWo23J.jpg

It's been a slow year for collecting, but here's my latest. You might be surprised who made this fine sword.

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I finally got my Epee Royale wire-wrapped sword. It's a very good-looking piece and only weighs 18 ounces (510g). However, it's a bit blade-heavy for me due to having little distal or profile taper. (I'm sure it has nothing to do with the fact that I haven't done pushups for months!)

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I finally bought my second Albion, after almost 15 years!

This time it’s actually the Albion Ljubljana, a sword that’s close to me in some form for more than 20 years now! I live just 25 km away from Ljubljana. I saw the drawings of the original N4516 sword from National Museum of Slovenia back in 2002 or 2003, made a digital reconstruction of it in 2005 and posted it here in this forum (that thread is unfortunately without images now), posted a photo of me holding the original sword in 2009, and that raised an interest in it from Peter Johnson that eventually lead to Albion making a Museum Line reproduction back in 2012.

The sword was way too expensive for me back then, but I thought I’d eventually buy it from Albion Europe - but when that died in 2015 I kind of thought that’s it. But the opportunity presented itself, and here it is now, in all its glory (only a bit diminished by being a used sword).

I have to make a scabbard now, and I hope to finish it in time for an event in our National Museum in January. No pressure. :p

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I got this Deepeeka English half-basket hanger with the intention of rehilting it as a 17th-century German hunting sword, but now I'm in two minds about it. The blade has no distal taper at all; it has a decent balance due to its heavy pommel, but with only a thin pommel plate like the hidden-tang German hunting swords hand, it might wind up handling like a crowbar. So I'm sort of inclined to keep the pommel, replace the basket and turn it into a short Scottish backsword, which was a project I've had in mind for a while.

OTOH I have a bunch of overlapping projects planned right now and a basket hilt might wind up being redundant. If so, I may put this one up for sale unmodified.

Edit: In my blunderings about the Internet I've come to realize this hanger is based on a Walloon sword variant, albeit not very well reproduced.

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