I have spent the last few days mining the archives and other places trying to find some specific information as to how long or short a Katzbalger would have been. I'm hopping some of you would be able to help me out with this problem.

I'm also wondering if the Katzbalger offered by Windlass is any good or should I not bother and wait till I can get a better quality product?

Thanks,
Kevin Frost

Idepend if you're searching for the two handed or the single handed.
try this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katzbalger
or this: http://www.arms-n-armor.com/2000/catalog/item914.html

Well I just comissioned a Katzbalger from Mr. Pavel Moc (CZ) and the originals he showed me he would use for the replica state that the blade lenght is about 60cm. I think all in all the sword will be around 70-75cm as the handle/hilt are quite short with this sword

You'll find at them at most every length common to infantry swords of the period. The shorter ones tend to be very broad and multi-fullered. The longer ones are a bit narrower, but still with a round-ish tip or mild point and parallel edges. You won't see any strongly tapering Katzbalger blades or blades of diamond section. That's a problem with the MRL Katzbalger--it has that ugly diamond distal section. If I had one of those I'd grind that section to thin lozenge and round off the tip. The pommel and grip are terrible, in my opinion, but could be fixed with serious grinding/filing and a new grip. Like most MRL pieces, I consider it a fair deal for a sword kit.

Just an fyi for Kevin:

Even through they're still listed on the site, the MRL katzbalgers have been discontinued and MRL is out of them. I had the last two that were available, but they've both moved on to new homes already ...

The fit and finish were good, part of the growing trend of MRL getting better the last couple of years. (I really wasn't impressed with most of the early-Windlass era swords). Using a brass throat on the scabbard for a sword with all-steel fittings was a bit of a head scratcher. My first impression of the blade was that it was about 2" too long, but I'll admit I started liking it more after handling it a while. The super-long ricasso also made me wonder about it a bit at first. I asked one of the MRL design guys, who said that it was a purposeful copy of a "hey, that's interesting!" museum piece - but I could never get a specific reference on the original.

I guess the katzbalger wasn't a big seller for MRL - the "in production" lifespan was under two years. I had/sold the very first one to hit the US (the exact one pictured in the MRL catalog and website), three or four of the standard production line, and the last two from the final production run.