I own a couple Albion swords that I am very happy with. I also like some offered by Arms and Armour (particularly the Black Prince). I have never handled a sword by them or seen one in person. I am concerned about the hilt construction of the Arms and Armour swords. I initially thought they were assembled with a hot peen like and Albion but not I'm not sure if they are threaded with a screw on pommel or cold peened. I can't help but noticing that the Arms and Armour tang seems to have less meat on it than a similar sword from Albion. If anyone has pics of a disassembled Arms and Armour sword that would be great.

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Arms and Armour Irish sword

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Albion Gallowglass

There is nothing to worry about the construction of A&A swords. Any allusions to the contrary are hype.

A&A swords are peened. Hot or cold? Who cares? I don't know. It differs across their line. Many of their products, if I understand correctly, are also threaded before peening.

As far as I know, all (or at least most) of their swords have a compression fit. This is to say that the grip is bored-through, placed on the tang, and the pommel is peened, creating a compression fit that keeps all together.

Albion uses a sandwiched grip that is placed on after the cross and pommel are peened (and wedged?) into placed. I really like this method.

Both methods can be found historically. Both are strong. We all may have a preference for one or the other, but both are strong, appropriate, and nothing to cause concern.

That's my two-cents.

(the two swords you posted above: one is a single-handed sword, the other is a hand-and-a-half sword)

The construction of our pieces vary by the type of sword. For the broad bladed weapons almost all of them have a pass through guard for the tang, a wooden core grip that is roached to fit the tang and then a keyed pommel that slides down the tang to the top of the grip. Then a pommel nut is made that threads to the end of the tang and the tang end is peened at the back of the nut. This allows for more surface area holding the peened sword tight than a normal peen would.

This of course can be left unpeened for those who prefer to break down their swords periodclly for travel or maintenance.

Best Regards
Craig
A&A Inc.

BTW, I have a feeling that sometimes the photographs in the A&A website are not entirely accurate to the end product, in the sense that some of them seem to depict older versions of the products currently in the market. In other words, they're not exactly accurate because the actual product is likely to be better than the photographs--at least if we go by the recent reviews of A&A products in this site, many of which show swords that look both more beautiful and more solid than the comparable pictures in A&A's own website. Or maybe that's just a function of photographic skill and circumstances?