First thing first.

Hello everyone. :)

Now, onto the topic: i am very much interested in purchasing one of Pavel Marek's swords. He seems to be rather unknown, or at least i could not find many reviews of his works, but those that I have have been very positive. Now, this is the sword i am interested in:

http://www.armorymarek.com/public/default/use...rd/aaa.jpg


It looks beautiful, i've had experience with the steel used and am happy with it, and the complex guard does not seem like it'd be getting in the way of anything, which I also approve of. It's 135cm long, 100cm being the blade, which is almost perfect for me (doing the Meyer's fechtbuch). The price is also very reasonable, that is 240 eur

I am sure that by now you can see I am sorely tempted to buy this sword. However, i haven't held any of his works before, so i can't really tell if the sword'll be good or not. Also, the main reason for my still not ordering the sword is that the crossguard is made of iron.

So, the questions would be:

Has anyone held any of his swords before and if so, how do they handle?

And do you think that the iron crossguard would be problematic?

Thanks for the reply

I'm mostly worried that the ricasso won't hold up if it gets a couple of serious blows, which I think will happen during training, which would be troublesome. The sword i have currently has had its crossguard (simple) curved downwards, which made it very uncomfortable to wield, as the crossguard now rested entirely on the thumb part of my hand and much of the vibrations were transferred to it. I've had my thumb broken by a basketball and the vibrations started to hurt. That wasn't much of a problem, really, since it's rather easily curved back up, but i do wonder how much force that ricasso can take. Honestly, I'm afraid it might break off after it has seen some use.

hi Alen!

i held a few of his pieces in hand...i absolutely see no problem with his work...His swords are sturdy and reliably, you just have to tell him the weight you want your sword, otherwise they tend to be a tad heavy.

Andreas

given the website also states that "The armour is manufactured from sheet iron," given how insanely hard it is to get hold of actual iron nowadays, I'm rather suspecting that its a simple mistranslation, and "iron" is meaning low-carbon steel. (ie, mild steel, 1005series/EN1 spec) rather than specific high carbon spring steels.

If it is a mistranslation, it should'nt have any problems unless you're really abusing it.

Awesome, that settles it then, i'm gonna get myself a new sword. :)

As soon as i get it, I'll be sure to post some info on how it handles and the like. Thank you all for the information!

I own a messer made by pavel. His longswords are just a little heavy for me. I think the weight is to much to the front but thats just what I don't like.

Anyway, great weapons for that price.