Tomorrow, the MRL Scottish Back-Sword & matching dagger,that I bought from Nathan are due to arrive.
Haven't had a new toy to play with for a while, so I too, am waiting with baited breathe.
Keep checking the UPS tracking # to see how close it's getting...... :eek:


William
aka Bill

Eureka! It's here! So butt draggin' tired from 14 hrs of work, all I can say at the moment is...

It's here! It's here! More details later



Thanks Nathan.


William
aka Bill

So glad it arrived safely!

Personally, as my review said, I think that set was a real "sleeper" in that it was so much better than its price point would indicate. It was a great value!

Ditto. So, of course, MRL discontinued it! My antiqued "blowout special" version was the favorite piece in my collection until yesterday evening around 5:00 pm ;-/

I stripped the leather grip wrap off of mine and I'm still debating whether or not to leave it as antiqued wood, give it a herringbone pattern wire wrap or do "something completely different" (reeded bone?). Gotta upgrade my falchion grip first....

Enjoy your new sharpie!

Nathan & Sean,

Thanks gentlemen. I'm sure once I get outside with it (of coarse, it would be flippin' raining today) and swing it around some, I'll be filled surprise & joy. From just handling it in the house, I love the feel of it. (haven't taken out any furniture or light fixtures yet...).

From the review on the MRL Falchion, that's another that has struck a cord.

Cheers,

William
aka Bill

William,
Congrats on the new acquistions. Thanks also for buying them before I could get to it, so I could spend my money in Atlanta instead. :)

Thanks Chad. So glad I could help out with your Atlanta financial endeavors :D Have a feeling this sword is going to quickly become my favorite out of the bunch,the Paul Chen Mortuary has held reign for some time now. Of coarse, when my Armour Class Mortuary arrives (just a couple more weeks), I may be doing the eenie, meenie,minnie, mo mantra.

July 10th, I'll be (hopefully) meeting up with David White, Alex McCracken, E.B. Erickson and a few others for a cutting party at Dave's home. The back-sword is sure to get a work-out then.


William
aka Bill

Here's what I did (still doing) with mine. Pardon the lazy photography:

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Sean,

That's darn niffty lookin'. Have you put an edge on it? If so, how. I usually have an Amish gentleman put an edge on my stuff and he does a really excellent job.

William
aka Bill

I did sharpen it, and left file marks to give the blade a little more aged look. You can see the marks in the shot of the tip, though the poor lighting makes them appear more prominent in the photo than they actually are. Clamp your sword to a work table, if possible. I start with a large flat file (like you'd use to sharpen an axe or shovel), pushing toward the edge at whatever angle seems appropriate (careful-this takes your wrists very close to the edge and I usually wear gauntlets when sharpening). Then I use a coarse stone followed by a finer stone and finally by fine steel wool. You can skip some of the stone sharpening if you want file marks or other irregularities.

Alternately, you can get an Amish gentleman to sharpen it for you :p Frankly, if said gentleman works much with sharp tools-axes, knives, shovels, chisels, etc.-his service would probably be hard to beat. I guess it's good to be aware, though, that a sword edge shouldn't necessarily be as sharp as possible. When I sharpen, I tend to judge the edge by the kinds of targets a sword of the given era would be up against. For this one, I imagined the typical defenses of an ordinary pikeman of ca. 1550-1650-unarmored extremities-and decided this weapon could have a finer and thus more fragile edge than, say, my falchion, which might as often have to deliver crushing blows through maille or plate and still retain enough edge to cut through leather or heavy cloth defenses. Some may think my logic badly out-of-whack, though. Most folks lurking around here can speak more intelligently about edge geometry than I can.

In Nathans review of this, he's mentioned test cutting medium thickness carpet tubes with some ease, using the COP part of the blade. I haven't had a chance to do any test cuts, may try this week-end and see how much (if any) tweeking to the edge needs to be done.
Thanks for all your info. I'd like to see and hear more about your falchion project too Like I said, this piece, has sparked some interest with me. Just seems it would be a real monster to cut with.


Cheers,
William
aka Bill

I had mine sharpened by a knife guy out here. We talked a bit about how best to do it. I explained i was going to be cutting medium targets so dont get too excited with the "razor sharp" idea. It turned out really good. He put some nice shoulders on the edge that keep it from beveling when hitting the targets. It flows through cardbord great and practically melts apart pool noodles. Again, for as cheap as I picked it up for, its been great!