I do not want to blame Hanwei for anything. Practical swords are relatively cheap and are expected not to last forever. And some of them even last for a long time. I just would like to know, why?! Why not just make things right?! It is not difficult at all!

Now the story. On one of Hanwei practical knightly swords the hilt started rattling terribly after approximately 2 months of relatively gentle use. The crossguard and the wooden core of the handle moved about 1 cm back and forth. Needless to say that such sword was not usable at all. So we desided to remove the handle and see if the problem could be fixed. And that's what we saw. For comparison I've put a brand new blade of a Hanwei practical viking sword next to the "patient". The "patient's" tang should be same. And it was same once, until somebody cut the tang with an angle grinder, making it approximately 1 cm narrower at the crossguard then it originally was. But the slot in the crossguard was made for the wide tang! And so was the handle. And the resulting holes were not even filled with glue! Why would one cut almost half of the tang's width off? If it was too wide to fit the crossguard, why not grind the required amount of metal off? Grinding off 0.5-1 mm of steel would take same or even less time. We have filled holes between tang and crossguard with epoxy and will make a new handle. Will see how long it will last after such repair. But the blade is hopelessly damaged. The tang is now narrow and so the sword should not be used for full-force practice because it may break. And the crossguard will most likely start rattling again when the epoxy breaks because of constant vibration.

I repeat again, that I do not blame anybody. But this thread may be of some help to others who face same problem. And it may also help improving QC at Hanwei forge. Practical swords are excellent training tools, and are probably the best available choice for a beginner who does not want to spend USD 300+ on a higher-end sword. And they will become much better if they can be made tougher without significantly increasing the price.

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Photo of the tangs [ Download ]

I have followed the production of Hanwei for quite a bit and while they gradually got better ideas about how a sword should handle, the quality sank considerably. Not only with regard to workmanship but mostly with regard to consitency. You can get everything from total crap to pretty decent swords. The tolerances seem to be huge - if there are any at all. Weights and flexibility of the blades vary considerably.

All in all I understand that there is more pressure on the market but usually you would expect this to lead to better products, not worse.

I don't recommend them much any more - not even for beginners.

Herbert

Yeah their products seem to just get worse. I saw one of the practice knightly swords and bought it about three years ago (i think) back when it first came out, mine was one of about the first run to hit the market. I paid around $100 and it still works just fine. I thought it would turn out to be pretty crummy but it is not much worse then when I got it. I have seen others that people I know have and they are awful, hilts falling off, grips made out of cracking plastic, sword blades warping/breaking. Guess I was lucky. Mine turned out to be a pretty decent investment. What I would suggest though is not to buy this lower end stuff, it is much cheaper to buy an A&A or Albion blunt once then it is to buy a few crummy Cas Iberia ones that just break. When I first got mine I told everyone about it, but after seing ones that other people have I tend to tell people to steer clear of these.

I have had a pretty good experience with the Hanwei Knightly. I was beating a 16 gage knee a few weeks ago. I expected some damage but the sword held together well. No loosening of the grip. It left two nice line-dents in the knee. The knee was suspended on a pell that was free swinging.

I have seen some pictures however of a really bad batch of Hanwei practical Knightly's that were too soft and the edge had warped just from hard blade to blade drilling. So you are correct in that QC is inconsistent. Still at $100, not bad for light drilling work.

On ebay they come up at like $75
at a price like that you can abuse them... and they make nice swords for dry handling and solo practice, but my advice to any one would be to spend more money once then less money multiple times

I've had a lucky run with hanwei's products so it seems this year I got a spear a celtic short sword and a godfred sword
all brand new and I havent had any problems from thier product they were all able to strike samples of wood and come out with out any ill effects infact it took full force strike to a concrete floor when I missed a downward strike in slashing test to blunt the tip of my spear and even then it was able to penetrate wood with ease

This is why buying from a trusted retailer is critical for hanwei products - you can get replacements (this happened to me once with their new gambeson - the new one is fine).

I've been using my hanwei hand and a half practical in drills (and once, vs a huge pumpkin) for over a year now, and it's still as good as new (I think perhaps there has been a very faint loosening, but I'm not sure). I have noted that mine is 3-4 oz heavier than my friend's sword of the same model though :(

I have handled the knightly practical and felt it was too tip heavy for my tastes.

Pierre

I have TWO practical knightly swords from these guys. They're two different animals, actually. One is about a half inch longer, and has a more gradual taper from hilt to point (distal taper, right?), the result being that they have their own scabbards. The original one I owned flexes well enough for my purposes, but the second one I bought is quite stiff. The hilt is snug on both.

Actually, my local sword-oriented mates and I want to switch over to longswords, so I am willing to sell them if someone's interested. They've been tested against each other and suffered no damage, which surprised me.

M.

Just a question for everyone here:

Has Hanwei resolved their quality issues for the most part? I'm looking at the Hanwei practical Norman sword, but want to be sure that my chances of getting a quality product are pretty good first.

Any opinions?

it kinda depends a guy i know has a cas knightly and it has a plastic grip (its one a the newer ones btw) someone else i know has an older one and its worlds better.

Hi

I also have a hanwei made practical sword, not knightly but a viking. Hanwei's practical swords are very thick and is good for training, but good thing is they are cheap, Generation 2 and Windlass practicals are about 129$ to 170$, and hanwei's
are like 70$ to 100$, knightly sword are 94.99$ I've seen. Hanwei's swords are just cheap, and is not that bad sometime, and sometime they are just really cheaply made.