Albion Arn Sword, with custom Scabbard & Belt by Christian Fletcher.

The color of the scabbard was made to match the grip of the sword; which is Light Campaign Tan. Added rain flaps to the scabbard. The chape is an "Antioch" Chape. At the throat of the scabbard, I had Christian articulate a raised Templar cross, in the color of Oxblood. That color I feel, stands out more than a plain red. The belt is called a "Knight" belt; the color is Medium Chestnut Brown. The belt is customized with alternate embossed Templar crosses & Florettes; which I thought looked brilliant! The belt buckle & belt tip are from "Raymond's Quiet Press".

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An 1840-1850ish baby broadsword has become almost a constant companion here lately.. All signs point to British make and probably imported through one of the New York agents such as Spies. There were Ames counterparts to a lot of these with the broadsword blades showing up on the L shape pistol grip swords as well. Just a bit more than 29" of blade. The etching is pretty much polished out but such is the fate of many bargain basement cuties, This one quite sound though, aside from that.

Cheers

GC

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My latest addition is this Del Tin French Small sword. I'm quite pleased with it. :D

That's a great piece Zach. The sword in hand shot speaks loudly as to how much room there is for handling. I didn't realize there were two smallswords, this one much more utilitarian and with the bigger boat guard A style that lasts almost intact into the 19th century with the US 1832-1833 general officers swords

http://www.civilwarpreservations.com/catdet.a...officerswd

There are a few Del Tins that still call to me if I ever catch up or turn around some other stuff.

Cheers


GC

Zack,

That Boat-shell Hilted Sword is Beautiful! Would you be so kind as to tell me how much it was in an email? Such a roomy looking hilt for a late period sword. Very nice! How is the balance?

Albion Crecy and DBK Scabbard.
I’ve had the Crecy for a few weeks now but have been holding off posting until my Scabbard arrived.

Sorry pics from my iPhone

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Funny, I never posted on this thread before. I guess because I buy lots of swords and only some are worth going into in detail, which I usually do as a review or as part of some themed thread. But here's one that I'm proud of, but of which not much new can be said. I just picked up this Tritonia from the classifieds. I've always wanted an XIIIb and this is a perfect example. Besides, its modeled on a Swedish sword and my mother is Swedish, so that fills a hole in my collection. I quite like the handling - solid but not too hard to control. Despite its considerable weight it passes my 'reverse windmill test' - i.e., do the thing Aragorn did with the kid's rusty sword in 'Two Towers' and if your wrist doesn't crackle or hurt, its a keeper. It's a whole 'nother concept of blade design. Here it is between two type XII swords to emphasize the breadth of blade near the tip. Thanks for reading/looking, -JD

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That's a beautiful trio. I'm glad that you shared it.

J.D. Crawford wrote:

Despite its considerable weight it passes my 'reverse windmill test' - i.e., do the thing Aragorn did with the kid's rusty sword in 'Two Towers' and if your wrist doesn't crackle or hurt, its a keeper.

I love that you shared that. You know I'm going to go try this with all of my swords as soon as I post this... :)

Yes, that's a sword fit for a ranger (or a Dúnadan).

Eric Gregersen wrote:

J.D. Crawford wrote: Despite its considerable weight it passes my 'reverse windmill test' - i.e., do the thing Aragorn did with the kid's rusty sword in 'Two Towers' and if your wrist doesn't crackle or hurt, its a keeper. I love that you shared that. You know I'm going to go try this with all of my swords as soon as I post this... :)

Now that you mention it, I never thought to share that before but it works very well. If you can do this move comfortably, you've got a sword that can be handled with one hand in just about any maneuvre. There's a few other tricks I'm sure we all pick up to get that first impression. That gives me an idea for another topic...'what can you do to test if you you're holding a good sword'.

So I received my Vigil today and WOW it's a nice one!

The finish is excellent and what Albion is known for- a high precision of form of hilt, guard, and an even blade finish. The only "flaws" I could find were that one of the fullers on one side of the blade was a tiny bit longer than it's companion- and that this terminal section wasn't perfectly symmetrical. It's completely consistent with period examples as are the softer corners on the pommel which I specifically like. I point these out not as criticisms but just as observations.

The blade slot into the guard is especially tight and finely executed. The red grip is aesthetically pleasing and quite comfortable in a different way than the typical Albion treatment. This grip is the most textured in my collection so that will take some getting used to.

The handling, to me, reflects pretty closely to what others have said i.e. amazing. I suppose it would be best for me to point out the characteristics that stood out to me rather than simply repeat how great this sword handles. I personally don't find the size and proportions to be very imposing which is in contrast to perspectives noted by others. The sword looks almost compact to me but that could be due to the wide blade and spatulate point. I didn't purchase the Vigil seeking a comparitively large sword so I was ambivalent to my perceptions of it's size. I haven't caught the "huge sword fever" that seems to be going around myArmoury lately, but who knows if I will come down with a case later. ;)

The blade is quite thin, maybe as thin as my Reeve but it seems thinner to me, perhaps because the Vigil is a bit longer. The tip does "droop" 9couldn't think of a better term) a tiny bit when held horizontally but is certainly in no way "whippy" This characteristic is more noticable than on my other swords- which I like as a contrast and study in the engineering of the blade's shape.

So adding this to my Norman, Templar, Reeve, Barta type XI, Solingen, and Duke gives me a pretty nice picture of some representation of the period 1050-1300, atleast I think so. :)

Now I need a highly accurate Dane Axe and Spear (working on this one) and I can, well. . . uh. . . keep collecting stuff. . . . :\ :)

So I hope this wasn't too long and fits with this thread.

In short, I like my new sword.

Yeah Jeremy, good short review, but where's the sword porn? :)

My first sword, Albion Yeoman :D Sorry about the pic quality.

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