for a while now, I want too own a Classic greek sword.
Has anyone here ever tried out a Hoplite Sword? How did it handle?
I've found this sword: http://www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=1843&step=4 and it looks nice,
but I've read that not everybody is too happy with Windlass.
Anyone have any opinions/ info on this sword or another greek sword?
thanks!

Just two thoughts:

1.) Windlass: typical quality for the price. The blades are pretty light and quite flexible, but the temper quality is always a bit of a gamble. Biggest drawback however is that the fittings are not very nice; e.g. the lower guard often has a square cutout instead of being adapted to the blade section. And often you get glue squishing out there.
So I repeat, when looking for a sword in this price class, you always have to accept a quality tradeoff.

2.) Question: did there actually used to be steel, leaf shaped, fighting swords? I don't know about the Greek, but what I know so far is that leaf-shape and steel sort of excluded each other. The only exception I'm aware of are some Hallstatt swords that are steel and leaf-shaped, but an archeologist told me these were not made for fighting - in fact just "for looks".

I have this sword. It's pretty decent for the price. It has an acceptable temper. It's well balanced, but there's no distal taper, so the pommel is much too big. It's still light enough, though. It came with an axe edge, which I sharpened with only a stone. It had that nasty Windlass laquer on the blade, but it came off with some oil and a scotch brite. The grip is dark brown, not black, and is a wound leather thong. No glue squishing :) The blade is set into a recession in the guard, through a hole which does indeed look punched. I see no evidence of a peen, so I'm assuming the tang is threaded, but the pommel hasn't come loose...yet.

The scabbard is useless. Ugly junk, just something to put the blade in. It only halfway fits because I squeezed the brass chape so its narrower at the tip. Of course, I suppose any leafblade is ging to be tough to fit in a scabbard, just cause of the shape.

I don't think any Greek ever carried anything like this, but I like it as a general short leafy :) It cuts boxes well enough with the edge I put on it, and the shape is just oh so sexy ;)

Leaf shape and steel do not exclude each other. There are many modern made leafblades that are very good. Historically you have the gladius that sometimes have a waspwaisted profile. You have the slightly longer gladius hispanensis. You have the Greek Xiphos but I don't remember if that was a bronze or steel weapon. Nevertheless if it works in bronze it works in steel too.

There is nothing historically accurate about this sword, at all. Well, the blade looks like a decent Mainz-pattern gladius blade (in fact, much better than the blade MRL/WS uses on their "Maintz" gladius). But a Greek hoplite sword?

Here's the most historically-accurate reproduction of a Greek Hoplite Xiphos I could find:
http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?item_id=245
Manning Imperial also makes this sword with 18 and 14 inch (Spartan-style) blades.

The Deepeeka Greek swords are somewhat better than the Windlass sword in terms of historical accuracy. The blades are not as "leafy" as I'd prefer, though. They do make a steel "sandwich" hilt version as well as a solid brass hilt version (the "sandwich" hilted versions seem to be more common, but solid metal hilts are known):
http://www.hellenic-art.com/armour/sword.htm
http://www.esford.com/armouryroman_greek.htm
(Note these aren't the only places they're available -- but the Esford site has the best pics)

Even this Alexander movie tie-in sword looks pretty good, in terms of blade shape and scabbard (don't know what kind of steel it's made of, though...):
LINK


Anyway, even this sword looks more accurate than the Windlass....

Jurian,
You might want to try the bronze age foundry. Their prices are competitive with MRL swords, but I think the quality is better and the swords are more historically accurate. I've never handled one of their swords, but they look good to me.
http://www.bronzeagefoundry.com/



Ben

thanks for the advise, your right the sword I found is not very historically-accurate.
but as Eric said the shape looks sexy and I've already some authentic bronze-age (and a medieval) swords, and it would be nice too swing with a sword for a change
(strange thing is that the swords I bought are less expensive than reproductions, altough I know that simple bronze-age greek and luristan swords are not very rare :)
thanxs for the links David those swords looks beter .

I'd be interested in taking one of those deepkas -the Trojan, if I had my druthers- and re-grinding the blade to more accurate dimensions.
The hilt construction looks very good, there's pleanty of room to work in, and they're not TOO expensive to mess around with! Sounds like a good buy to me! :D

I purchased one of the celtic style leaf blades from http://www.bronzeagefoundry.com and found is to be very nice quality. I need to hilt it and have no hands on experience with expensive bronze repros but i am entierly satisfied with my purchase. I may post some pictures when i hilt it though the foundry already has good photos.

Nathan Cole

I'd like some input on these xiphos offerings from Kult of Athena:

[url]http://www.kultofathena.com/swords-ancient.htm [/url]

"Greek Brass Hilt Hoplite Sword" (row 6, column 1)

"Greek Hoplite Sword" (row 11, column 2)

The brass hilt job looks like those offered above by Esford and Hellenic Art, except less expensive. Is it the same item marked down, or a cheaper knockoff?

(I really like the Manning Imperial stuff, but I'm on a budget.)

Here are some journal articles which related to historic greek swords. You should be able to get to these through your local university.

Metals in the Greek World; M. Y. Treister: The Role of Metals in Ancient Greek History. (Mnemosyne Supplement, 156.) Pp. xiv + 481, 50 pp. ills. Leiden, New York, and Cologne: E. J. Brill, 1996.

Footwork in Ancient Greek Swordsmanship; Brian F. Cook
Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 24, 1989 (1989), pp. 57-64

Swordplay: an exercise in rotational dynamics; Mark Denny 2006 Eur. J. Phys. 27 943-950

The tale of the sword - swords and swordfighters in Bronze Age Europe; Kristiansen;
Oxford Journal of Archaeology, Volume 21, Number 4, November 2002, pp. 319-332(14)

A Greek Sword Sheath of a Scythian King; Gisela M. A. Richter
The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 26, No. 2 (Feb., 1931), pp. 44-48

2002 The Archaeology of Early Iron Age Thessaly (ca. 1100-700 BC), Ph.D. thesis, Ioannis Georganas

Ara

Thanks for all the info, everyone. Ara, the university library I visit carries Mnemosyne, so I'm going to check out that article in the supplement.