So I went out to Kult of Athena to buy something cheap as a project sword and ended up getting a windlass XIV arming sword.Now I had told my self that I would never buy a windlass again after having a long sword from them which was a whip.I knew I had seen a review on here of the windlass XIV by Joseph Fults and that it was not all bad and at $189 I could not go far wrong.First off I love the feel of this sword its fast even for an unsharpened sword.The look of the sword is very good for the price,the grip which I will redo is cheap not the worst I've seen by any means the rest of the sword is near perfect but I have to do something with the guard it is very square apart from that it is a very fine sword so why does windlass discontinue one of a few swords worth talking about in there line I will never know ,I will post photos with my XIV project .

So here goes here is my new grip I also rounded the the guard a small bit just to take the square look off it.

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old grip [ Download ]

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New grip [ Download ]

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Finished grip [ Download ]

Also I would love to know how well are Windlass heat treated and how historically correct is this sword?

That looks nice, good job. I've also done a project with one of these swords, it's weel suited to it since it's a nice sword but fairly plain. I'm not an expert, but I think the sword is pretty historically accurate based on the examples given in the article on type XIV swords here. As for heat treating, this review on SBG shows that it has a pretty good amount of flex to it.

Kevin I agree they are a great project sword. Would love to see photos of the work on yours, it a shame they discontinued them.

Looks great. I thought those Arming Swords were out of stock for about a year now, else I might have picked up another one! :confused:

Thanks J.E, I got the last one that Kult of Athena had but there has to be a few more out there still but they are no longer being made for sure.

Swords of Honor has some listed: http://www.swordsofhonor.com/oatyiv.html
And Arms of Valor: http://www.armsofvalour.com/miva/merchant.mv?...y_Code=WSC

Here are some pictures of mine on Sword Buyer's Guide: http://sbgswordforum.proboards.com/index.cgi?...read=12215

It was only my second attempt doing something like that so it's far from perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I'm planning on redoing the belt completely when I have the time.

Great job with your custom work on your sword Kevin Great idea with the pennies, it looks great.

Hi James,

Nice work on your grip. I love this little sword, in fact I did purchase one second hand here for a project but the seller made it fall on the hard floor while packing it and a good chuck of the tip broke off like glass...so much for the heat treatment :) This is probably a random quality check issue, as everyone seems happy with these otherwise.

One thing to improve the finish of such grip wraps: fold the leather at both end of the grip, (the bottom of your wrap is a bit messy where it meets the guard, maybe you cut the leather after it was glued with a cutter blade?). If you fold the leather you'll end up with having the leather nicely overlapping the pommel and guard, just like on albion's grips.

Cheers,

J