myArmoury.com - A question about the straightness of a sword's blade

Posts: 22 Location: Alamogordo, NM

Mon 03 May, 2004 6:16 pm

A question about the straightness of a sword's blade

I just received my long awaited Albion Mainz Gladius today :D and the first thing I did was to inspect it. Not for manufacturing mistakes but for possible problems caused in shipping. As with all Albion swords it's beautiful. One thing I did notice, as with every sword I have seen up close, is a slight warpage when looking down the blade edge-on. Has anyone else noticed the same thing about their swords? How much is acceptable?

On my gladius the warp starts at the widest part of the blade swell, causing the tip to end up about 1.5mm to 2mm off center. I found this out by resting the blade only on my coffee table. Is this a negligible amount of warpage?

I am sure that given the heat treating process this is quite a common occurence. I read somewhere that if a sword's blade is perfectly straight it wasn't handmade and/or it was made of stainless steel.

I just need someone to reassure me that everything will be ok :cry: ;)

Thanks
Andrew

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Craig Johnson

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Posts: 1,422 Location: Minneapolis, MN, USA

Mon 03 May, 2004 6:51 pm

Variance

Hello Andrew

In my opinon 1.5 to 2mm of variance in the bowing of a blade is pretty dang slight and would fall into just about everyones normal range of working. I do not want to put words in Albions mouth, but to be honest I am not sure how one could measure that true a deflection and be sure it was not some element in the measuring system as apposed to the blade. For instance if the table is wood it could easily be that far off true.

In the context of historical swords I have rarely seen any piece that is within that close a perimeter of absolute square and true of line.

Best
Craig

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Angus Trim

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Posts: 870 Location: Seattle area

Mon 03 May, 2004 9:59 pm

Re: A question about the straightness of a sword's blade

Andrew Rosario wrote:

I just received my long awaited Albion Mainz Gladius today :D and the first thing I did was to inspect it. Not for manufacturing mistakes but for possible problems caused in shipping. As with all Albion swords it's beautiful. One thing I did notice, as with every sword I have seen up close, is a slight warpage when looking down the blade edge-on. Has anyone else noticed the same thing about their swords? How much is acceptable?

On my gladius the warp starts at the widest part of the blade swell, causing the tip to end up about 1.5mm to 2mm off center. I found this out by resting the blade only on my coffee table. Is this a negligible amount of warpage?

I am sure that given the heat treating process this is quite a common occurence. I read somewhere that if a sword's blade is perfectly straight it wasn't handmade and/or it was made of stainless steel.

I just need someone to reassure me that everything will be ok :cry: ;)

Thanks
Andrew

Hi Andrew

A bit of warpage is moderately common. That's a bit more than I ussually see, but its not that uncommon. If you have a slight warp, sometimes you're better off leaving the blade alone rather than try and straighten it. Its quite possible to screw a blade up straightening it.

The funny thing about some warpage, particularly in machined blades, is sometimes it happens several days after heat treat.. I've had blades check out nearly dead straight on the granite table, and a week later have an .08 inch deflection {2mm}. An extreme case nearly two years ago had an EKS leave here to go to the SFI MS shipping point, left here dead straight. Was shipped from there to New York, dead straight. Arrived in New York City, and when it was taken out of the box, it was like it was a spring and was "released"..... it was curved like a "C", some 70 degrees out of true. The sword was not damaged in any way, it just warped like that while in shipping...... Strange but true......

Needless to say, I replaced the sword. The warped one was straightened with heat, and became a shop demo and test cutting sword for several months.........

The thing about the slight warpage is whether it bothers you. I've replaced blades with slight warpage before {and other slight aesthetic flaws} and would again to please a customer. So will Albion, their customer support is world class........

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Michael Sigman

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Posts: 275 Location: New Glarus, WI

Tue 04 May, 2004 6:52 am

Sorry about the trouble Andrew!!! Send it back and we will take care of it for you. :cry:

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