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Again I thank everyone who has taken the time to make entries here. I have found all of them informative, useful, helpful and filled with what I believe to be sound advise. I know of Historical Miniature Wargaming shows, Gun shows and Model Railroad shows, and how to find them. I have never heard of a Sword show. How does one find out about these events? This seems a top notch piece of advise from above.
Atlanta is the largest and closest "Blade Show" to you based on your profile location:

http://www.bladeshow.com/ehome/index.php?even...30566&

Albion lists their upcoming events here:

http://www.albion-swords.com/events.htm
I have a slightly different take on this question.

Again if you take an anology from manufacturing, lets look at a bolt.

Take 1/4" bolt or M6 if you Metric. You can buy a bolt that is perfectly serviceable from a hardware shop for a couple of Cents. If you want it high tensile it may be twice the cost. You want it from a certified batch for the drive train on a car and if may be 50Cents, you want it certified in a small batch for the oil industry and it may cost you a dollar. You want it for the breech on a cannon, certified as an individual bolt, individually bagged, individually certified to very specific standards, fully traceable through out production and it may cost you 30 Dollars, you want it for aerospace made to even tighter standards and it may cost 100 Dollars.

Is it basically the same bolt as the high tensile one for a few cents? Yes. On the other hand the work that has gone into ensuring it is exactly what it is supposed to be, costs and this cost means that it is not the same as the superficially similar harware shop bolt. On one level, still a 1/4" bolt on another level; something else entirely.

Buy the one you can justify, but buy the best you can afford.

Tod
Leo Todeschini wrote:
I have a slightly different take on this question.

Again if you take an anology from manufacturing, lets look at a bolt.

Take 1/4" bolt or M6 if you Metric. You can buy a bolt that is perfectly serviceable from a hardware shop for a couple of Cents. If you want it high tensile it may be twice the cost. You want it from a certified batch for the drive train on a car and if may be 50Cents, you want it certified in a small batch for the oil industry and it may cost you a dollar. You want it for the breech on a cannon, certified as an individual bolt, individually bagged, individually certified to very specific standards, fully traceable through out production and it may cost you 30 Dollars, you want it for aerospace made to even tighter standards and it may cost 100 Dollars.

Is it basically the same bolt as the high tensile one for a few cents? Yes. On the other hand the work that has gone into ensuring it is exactly what it is supposed to be, costs and this cost means that it is not the same as the superficially similar harware shop bolt. On one level, still a 1/4" bolt on another level; something else entirely.

Buy the one you can justify, but buy the best you can afford.

Tod


Tod,

Can you make me a hundred dollar bolt? :)
i guess it all depends on how you will use it. no question, the albion will be a little faster in handling, but the dsa will be able to go through the apocalypse and WW3 and nearly anything else. i own a dsa and can tell you how strong they are from experience. i have tried to bang it up but it just won't break. but of course the albion will handle better and look nicer.
Austin D.G. Hill wrote:
i guess it all depends on how you will use it. no question, the albion will be a little faster in handling, but the dsa will be able to go through the apocalypse and WW3 and nearly anything else. i own a dsa and can tell you how strong they are from experience. i have tried to bang it up but it just won't break. but of course the albion will handle better and look nicer.


This issue of handling "better" is not an helpful way of describing the dynamic characteristics of swords in my opinion.

The Albion will handle how an original handles.

Is that "better"? Well, in the sense that it is accurate for the type then it is "better". Often period swords will feel sweeter in handling than poor to mid-quality modern swords. But some period swords are not as ""quick". Not as nimble.

On the other hand there are period swords which some may describe as more "ponderous" or should I say "powerful". The Tritonia, Templar, and even Norman are not especially nimble so can we say they handle "worse" than an especially quick "performance" type XII that costs much less? I don't think so. They don't handle "worse". They handle "differently" and consistently with their type, and regarding the Tritonia- like the original.

You don't buy Albions because they are the "best" handling swords because that's the wrong way to conceptualize the issue. You, and we, buy Albions because they handle like original swords, some of which are sweet and nimble, and some of which are powerful and authoritative.

Does this make sense?


Last edited by Jeremy V. Krause on Sat 31 Dec, 2011 4:25 pm; edited 1 time in total
Austin D.G. Hill wrote:
but the dsa will be able to go through the apocalypse and WW3 and nearly anything else.


So will a steel bar. Durability is not the sole mark of a good sword.
I have found another excellent reason to favor an Albion. According to their site I get a 10% discount as retired military. I think that equates to a free scabbard.
I have a darksword knight I will sell for cheap!
Brandt Giese wrote:
I have a darksword knight I will sell for cheap!


This is another consideration when determining the value of a purchase: resell value.
Leo Todeschini wrote:
I have a slightly different take on this question.

Again if you take an anology from manufacturing, lets look at a bolt.

Take 1/4" bolt or M6 if you Metric. You can buy a bolt that is perfectly serviceable from a hardware shop for a couple of Cents. If you want it high tensile it may be twice the cost. You want it from a certified batch for the drive train on a car and if may be 50Cents, you want it certified in a small batch for the oil industry and it may cost you a dollar. You want it for the breech on a cannon, certified as an individual bolt, individually bagged, individually certified to very specific standards, fully traceable through out production and it may cost you 30 Dollars, you want it for aerospace made to even tighter standards and it may cost 100 Dollars.

Is it basically the same bolt as the high tensile one for a few cents? Yes. On the other hand the work that has gone into ensuring it is exactly what it is supposed to be, costs and this cost means that it is not the same as the superficially similar harware shop bolt. On one level, still a 1/4" bolt on another level; something else entirely.

Buy the one you can justify, but buy the best you can afford.

Tod


Probably the best explanation of the considerations in play that I've ever read. :!: :!: :D
Nathan Robinson wrote:
Brandt Giese wrote:
I have a darksword knight I will sell for cheap!


This is another consideration when determining the value of a purchase: resell value.


This is a very valuable point. You can get alot more sword on the pre-owned market than you can at retail. If you are buying from someone established on this forum or SBG (and probably SFI) who has posted recent pictures of their sword, you can expect to pay 50-75% of the retail cost for a 'like new' sword. If you find you don't care for it. You will be out little more than the shipping costs if you decide to flip it. By comparison, if you decide you don't like your brand new $1000 sword, expect that you will lose $300-400 finding it a new home.

There are always exceptions to this generalization and sometimes you wont find what you are looking for in a reasonable time, but this is a generally safe and reliable place to purchase used swords.
D. Phillip Caron wrote:
According to their site I get a 10% discount as retired military. I think that equates to a free scabbard.


Not quite ... it equates to about a 10% deposit for a new scabbard ... :D

But don't get us all started on scabbards ...
Austin D.G. Hill wrote:
i guess it all depends on how you will use it. no question, the albion will be a little faster in handling, but the dsa will be able to go through the apocalypse and WW3 and nearly anything else. i own a dsa and can tell you how strong they are from experience. i have tried to bang it up but it just won't break. but of course the albion will handle better and look nicer.


Albion swords aren't exactly fragile - here's a link to their destructive testing of one of their swords:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2mDMS6-884

Also, I would like to add that when you buy an Albion, you are buying a production sword designed by Peter Johnsson and made to his specifications. So essentially you are getting all the benefits of his research and experience, a product made to his standards, and paying a lot less.
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