Jean, sorry I forgot the little smiley at the end, its meant to be light hearted.

It is my feeling that alot of what has been put forth in this thread is based on perceptions that lack concrete evidence. Perceptions based on "belief". Short of overwhelming undeniable evidence, changing ones "beliefs" concerning anything is one of the more difficult things to try and accomplish. Sooner climb My Everest successfully. Many folks in the sword community hold to different "beliefs" (whether factual or not) concerning all sorts of aspects of our common interest. Only time and research will tell the end of this tale....

Actually, the heat treat COULD be tested on the Brescia original with very little detriment to the sword in a practical sense when considering a hardness evaluation. Granted, even the best high quality hardness tester dimples the material (part of the process). Still, this is very unlikely to happen.

I think somehow we got way off the subject, the question was " Does Albion live up to the hype". The answer is simple, YES. I hope Michael didn't give up on us and go to another sword forum.

This discussion has included many interesting points that really got me thinking and I wanted to add a few comments.

For me, Albion definitely lives up to the hype. I say this mainly based off of the research that I know goes into every one of their swords. Not to take away from other companies that have extensive research into their product, but Albion simply has many more examples from the period that I am interested in than any other company out there right now. I only own 1 Albion sword and the main reason I purchased it was because I was able to handle a few Albion swords, speak with some Albion staff, and most importantly speak with PJ at an event and realize the extent of his knowledge on swords. I consider myself a decent craftsman and my intent is to one day make my own swords. With the exhaustive research that PJ has done I consider handling and understanding the properties of the Albion swords just as good, if not better than being able to examine period originals! In handling a few Albion swords of a certain type I can get an idea of what that type should be because those few were modeled after the numerous originals researched first hand. So to me the value of Albion's swords lies in their research and dedication to creating swords that are true to the past.

As to the discussion of old vs. new. As an engineer who knows a little about steel, I can say that modern steel is definitely more consistent, homogeneous, and free of defects. Using this and a stock removal method should produce consistent, quality blades with few surprises. However, this does not automatically make the blades better. It could be that slight variations in chemistry, grain flow, or heat treat throughout the overall blade introduced by hand forging in an uncontrolled environment combine in a positive manner to improve the blade. Just look at Wootz steel as an example. The properties varied hugely throughout the entire blade and that variation is exactly what made those blades exceptional and unique.

Great thread and great discussion.

Did any of the people concerned about topic wandering stop to think that their ruminations on topic wandering are in fact off-topic?

:)

As always, if you have a concern about a thread's direction, use the tools we've created to contact a moderator. That's a better course of action than complaining about it after the fact.

In this case, separating out the thread once it moved into other areas of discussion would have been difficult or impossible as many posts contained both on- and off-topic thoughts (do they get put into the split-off thread or stay where they were? Etc.). Plus, some threads are organic in nature and as in human discussions, evolve over time.

Nearly every thread goes off-topic at some point. It's the nature of human conversation. Sometimes it's necessary for us to step in and steer it back. Here we chose not to as it covered a lot of interesting ground. Also, how we judge modern products vs. antiques is indeed relevant to the original question.

To the original question: I find that Albion swords do live up to the hype. Granted, they are not cheap, but like others have mentioned, a lot of the price comes from the research involved in the design phase. I have handled a majority of the next gen line, and all of the museum line pieces at one time or another, and have liked nearly everyone of them. I've personally owned two, although both have been sold to cover other expenses. One good thing about them, that you may not have thought of, is that they hold value fairly well. If you do purchase one, but decide to resell it down the line, you will find that it has retained a good portion of it's original value.

I do not feel qualified to comment on the modern vs antique discussion, but suffice it to say that Albions, are in my opinion, worth the money. In fact, I put an order in for a new one this very afternoon. :D