Hey all. So I have a friend who's interested in swords. He's fairly new to the hobby; has a lot of SLO's but nothing of higher quality. So as a combination xmas and birthday gift, my girlfriend and I are going to go halves on an entry level functional sword for him. What I'm looking for is a sub $150 sword with potential for customization. I'm leaning towards Windlass since their typically good for mod jobs. One that caught my eye as one with good potential is the Late European Bastard Sword...

http://museumreplicas.com/p-218-european-bastard-sword.aspx

All I'm really looking for is a sword with a decent heat treatment, durable, and that has serviceable hilt furniture. The latter looks ok from the photos, but as always, Windlass blades can be hit and miss (whippy). So my question is has anyone handled this particular sword, and if so can you tell me more about it? Thanks in advance!

-JM

I haven't handled this particular sword, but I wanted to post that it also caught my eye recently. I agree with you. For the price, it looks like a great project piece! I'm not crazy about the weird ricasso, but that's my only major gripe. I'll have to disagree with most people about the "whippy" comment: a lot of the swords people complain are "whippy" happen to have historical counterparts that are also "whippy". If not representative of the historical counterpart, this characteristic is often an issue caused by a thinner stock and less aggressive distal taper as might be seen on the antique. Having said that, I've noticed that many newer Windlass models are being made from a thicker stock. Vendor Kult of Athena lists the blade thickness on their site and you can see some that are quite thick at the ricasso!

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If it were mine I'd eliminate the ricasso by dropping the guard down to the start of the diamond section, and take advantage of the extra tang to make a longer, barreled grip with a wrap of cord-marked leather. I'd probably recurve the quillons and reshape the nut as well. I'm not crazy about the pommel but you could always find something larger/rounder from, say, Darkwood Armory. There's a nice project there, for sure. I think it'd look good blued, but then I have bluing on the brain lately.

Something like this, maybe?

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Nathan - Yeah I get what you're saying about the "whippy" issue. It's pretty subjective and really depends on the individual sword. The two Windlass swords I have are both pretty rigid, but have great flex and heat treatment. People often associate flex with whip. My idea of "whippy" is something with a blade like a wet noodle with absolutely no point control because it whips around so much. For this piece, I would hope for a little extra rigidity. The slender blade with the diamond cross section makes me think 'thruster' more than 'cutter'.

Sean - I like the idea of downcurving the quillons. And I agree with both of you on eliminating the ricasso. I would also definitely apply some kind of patina for the guard and pommel as well. And that grip is just grotesque IMO. That surely need to go.

I think a lot of whippiness complaints come from people who used a katana and their first euro sword is Windlass because of the price. Than they are shocked with its whippiness compared to katana, they hear about famous Windlass whippiness problems and here it is. Good swords are labeled as whippy. I have seen this more than once.