My friend is looking to get into the mid-range sword market, and he has his eye on an Albion Mark Hastings. I am more familiar with Nextgen, can anyone comment on the differences between the two lines?

Thanks

Quite frankly, there is plenty of difference between the Albion Marks and the Next Gens. Primarily it was 1: the Albion Mark swords utilized a design philosophy that lacked a more inimate understanding of European sword volumes, proportion and dynamic qualities as well as construction methods. While decent weapons for the time in which they were produced by Albion they pale in comparison with the Next Gens as they stand now as well as when they first came out. The primary issue was "just not knowing" and not having large access to raw data concerning just really how swords looked, felt, design aspects that are overlooked or completely missed due to a lack of 3 dimensional information. Also Albion has done everything to improve it's heat treat, materials, processes and techniques and continues to do so.

If your friend wants a sword from the "Norman" era he should really look into the Reeve, Norman, Senlac, Bayeaux, and Stamford. These outstrip the Hastings in too many ways, IMO. Happy sword hunting!

I own a First Gen Hastings and NG Senlac and Reeve. I honestly think your friend would be much, MUCH better off saving his money and buying a NG. I personally find the Hastings dead feeling compared to the NGs. I have the Windlass Classic Medieval, and find even the lower priced Windlass to feel better in the hand than the Hastings, though this may in part due to the grip. The grip on the Hastings is inadequately small for most mens hands. I have a fairly small hand for a man my size, and even I find the grip too small for comfortable use. This makes the sword very tiring to hold or use for any period of time, though a heavy glove can help some. The blade is odd too. Although it looks somewhat like a Xa (long thin fuller), the over all shape is unlike any historical Xa I have seen.
All in all, if I had it to do over, I would not have bought the Hastings. I am planning to hold on to the one I have, aleast until my collection gets alittle bigger. But when my collection gets to an unwieldy size, the Hastings will most likely be the first on the chopping block.
I will be getting a digital camera this week (old one is dead). I had promised I was gonna post pics of my Reeve and Senlac along with scabbard from Greg Griggs. If you would like some side by side comparisons, I'd be happy to oblige...

He bought it. the ebay auction ended 20 minutes before your response. :lol: Frankly I'm suprised that my friend even considered it. It takes some folks a long time to transition from low cost SLOs to more expensive midrange functional swords, so I'm glad to see he is taking an interest in more historical swords.

It may have some design flaws, but I think it's a step in the right direction. Thanks for the responses guys.

Well, honestly I think you should suggest a potential grip rewrapping. I am seriously considering it for my Hastings, as I think it would address one of my biggest gripes.
Don't get me wrong, the Hastings is still a decent piece. Mine served me well in the several month wait for my Senlac and Reeve. Perhaps what happened to me will happen to your friend. I started with Windlass, moved on to the Hastings, and after getting a small taste I had to buy a Next Gen. In fact, I think I had owned my Hastings for less than a month when I had committed to buying a Senlac. Once I had it in my hands, the call of its Next Gen cousins began to be too strong to resist. At the very least the Hastings is a step in right direction...