Behold! My Albion Munich is completed, and she is a thing of dark, lethal beauty. My thanks and compliments to the magicians at Albion for creating this sword, and to Christian Fletcher, who made m'lady's fetching ballgown. Strong are they in the Force.

So, this is both my first Albion and my first commission with Christian, but I feel confident in saying that it will not be my last of either. I can't wait to see this blade in person.

Next up is the Knecht. Curse this linear flow of time! I want them all now! :D

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What a great looking sword/scabbard! The black and silver is very striking. Congratulations on your new acquisition.

She's a beauty !
and CF work are stunning as always.
Now I am even more eager to receive my own Munich, I have also settled for the wiregrip.

Very nice rig, Sam. Congratulations. I hope the wait for your next leave isn't too long!

Oh that's a very fine peice. Allen is quite right aobut the color working so well. The first time I saw that grip style was on an MRL sword, which was not impressive.

This one is.

Very attractive sword and scabbard and the pic makes it look very rich in colour and texture.

Oh, how does the 'half wire grip' feel? The bottom hand being a material different then the top hand?
Any reflections or thoughts on why this might have been done in period?

Beautiful rig, Sam!

I own a Munich with the half-wire wrap. For me, I barely know the difference... but understand the disclaimer that I have fairly calloused hands from using swords all the time with my bare hands. Still, the wire is reasonably smooth as far as wire wraps can be.

As for historical reasoning, that's a good question. I don't know why they would wrap only that half with wire, but it seems to have been fairly common. Functionally it doesn't make a very big difference other then that it looks great.

I imagine Addison will chime in as well, but I just got to do some cutting with his new Mercenary which has the half wire grip. The wire wrap is of a fairly fine gauge so I didn't find the difference between the wire and leather at all distracting. You could feel the difference, but it was minor to my rather soft and un-calloused hands :)

What an elegant sword. It is tough to find a way to make one's sword personal, yet maintain a dignity about the weapon. You have acheived what looks to me like the perfect balance. That may just be YOUR sword. You will own others, but this one will be hard to rival.

Congratulations. I am now, unbelievably jealous.

That is so very beautiful :eek:

I'd like to add that to my collection some day.

That is easily one of the most beautiful swords I've ever seen -- it's the perfect marriage of function and flair. I normally don't go for swords of this style, but that stunning black-and-silver color scheme is enough to make me jealous!

Congratulations! :D

Thats a wicked sword you have there.

Could you tease us with more pictures of it? At least then I could dream I had a sword like it and hope for the future...

Thank you all for your kind comments. As you may have guessed, I am very happy about this weapon. Sadly, she will spend the next five or six months with swordsitters in California, until such time as I can come and exercise visitation rights. Greek law being what it is, I can’t bring her out to live with me. (To answer your question, Steve, the word is interminable. :cry:)

But this is an occupational hazard I’ve grown accustomed to. I shall claim her in good time and then introduce her to some tatami mats. I promise that more pictures will follow when I do.

The more I look at the picture, the more I appreciate the design of both sword and scabbard. The sword’s proportions are just flawless, like the Bayerisches sword that inspired her design. And Christian’s scabbard fits it with the same understated elegance. I was a bit worried about how the trefoil chape cutout would translate from my sketch into steel, and how that would blend with the chape finial, but clearly I worried in vain. The entire package is exactly what it should be. Nothing necessary is left out, functionally or aesthetically, and nothing superfluous is added. I look forward to seeing my next two projects come to life in the hands of such master craftsmen.

Christian has the AT/CF Venetian Sidesword I bought here and is fitting it with a scabbard and a new grip, and he will have my Knecht as soon as Albion finishes it. Hopefully, they’ll all be done when I take leave again, and I can return to veritable revels of swordy goodness. :cool: