I just uploaded four high-res photos of Steve Maly's new Riccard viking sword from ArmArt. Steve sent me the photos and I added them to the photo album database.

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From all accounts, it sure looks like a very nice sword.

What do you think of it?

Photo 1
Photo 2
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Photo 4

Much more to my taste than the ones on the Armart website. Looks very well done. Any other specs. available?

I saw pictures of that elsewhere and it looks great.

ArmArt can put out some fine looking, fairly historically accurate swords. I hope to see more stuff like this from them when they get their backlog cleared up.

FWIW, my ArmArt is one of my favorites.

Nice hilt, ugly point. Looks better than most other ArmArt Vikings. Peter J handled an ArmArt "Sword of Prayer" a while back. He wasn't impressed by it.

I think it's very nice, and I'm glad to see someone getting satisfaction from ArmArt.

I don't care for how the grip was done, and I'd prefer to see just a hint more taper towards the point. That's all just personal preference though. All in all it looks like a quality piece.

This is a review that I did on an undecorated version of the sword of prayer that I had at the time:

Armart Knightly Sword

Overall Length: 39 inches
Blade Length 33 inches
Point of Balance: 7 inches from cross
Center of Percussion: 21.5 inches from cross
Weight:2.9 lbs
Pommel type: B
Cross type 1
Blade type XII

Performance Review:
This sword was a customer's so I did not do any cutting with it. However I did dry handle it quite a bit. It seemed to be a bit blade heavy but not prohibitively so rather it strikes me as being balanced as a cutting sword rather then a thrusting sword. I would also wear gauntlets if I was going to use this sword for any extended period of time since the pommel can rub uncomfortably on the hand.

Appearance:
Armart appears to excel in the aesthetics department. This sword does not have the decoration of some of their other offerings but it is very cleanly executed. The fittings are nicely done and tightly fitted. The peening of the pommel is very clean. The fullers match on both sides of the sword and are nicely executed with only very minor ripples. All in all a very nicely done piece.

What was the total cost of this piece ?

Thanks, Mac

The Czech Republic is developing very fast. Their costs/salary are already only 50 % under that of the neighbouring EU-countries (from under 1/4 around 1991). By 2010 (current estimates) they will be on nearly the same level. Expect quite some price-increases from other makers there too.

I have a Viking sword from them, and for the price it is very nice. It has a good balance (as a cutting sword) and great fit and finish. The only pet peeve I have with it is that it is not really sharp (despite ordered so), and that it is a bit unhistorical (longer grip, shorter fuller).
I would surely not say that it feels dead - but it does not feel as good as a ATrim (may be a preference thing, since my XVIII-ATrim is of course completly differently balanced).

I am still waiting for one sword from them (Bronze Vollgriffschwert), which is about 4 month overdue (so is a sword of another major maker, so I don't have much of a problem with it).
The new prices make me hestiate to order from them - considered 1 year of wait minimum and the offerings of other makers (and the favourable Euro-exchange-rate with the Dollar).

Yes I have made some. They are not very good, but here they are :

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I'll try to post them properly when I have access to my ftp (to resize them) in the afternoon (Z-time)

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It is a very good looking sword. But for $1000+ they should have been able to make the etching on the pommel straight.

Thank you Roger...I didn't want to be the first.

I noticed this sword on ArmArt's website a week or so back and was bothered by this. The sword is major step back in the right direct for them, and someone put some major time and effort into this one. Attention to detail is what I look for in more expensive work, it looks like they did a pretty decent job at this till the engraving process. I'm anal about these kind of things, but it would have looked better to me if it had just been left off.

Now I'm sure some out there are already thinking that period stuff wasn't perfect either. It took some time, but I developed a taste for the "Frankish" floral decorations found on some viking age swords. These are probably some of the farthest from perfect, you can tell the tool and technics used were very crude. Really I have never noticed one that I would say was off center or anything, possibly because something like that would have been incorporated. I'm really interested to see how Albion handles the Frankish style on their Clontarf. If they get people saying that it looks like someone carved it with a hammer and nail, and other saying it looks spot on then they did a good job.

Shane

Gus, are you saying that they intentionally made that etching crooked so that it would seem more in keeping with an antique? :D

On the "dead" issue - I've got an Armart, the type XIX pictured over there in my Avatar. It feels very much "alive" when I wield it. It is a terrific sword (except for the ##$%% etching on the ricasso, which they didn't do to the amplitude that I had requested of them) In fact, I heard through Genise of SFI that Armart thought it the finest sword they had ever made. (as of April 2002). I'm not saying that Nathan and Peter Johnsson were wrong in their assessments. The quality probably depends on the model, or even the individual sword within the model.