So I recently decided to order a complex hilted sword from Vladimir Cervenka for me and my wife as part of our wedding gifts. We're both HEMA practitioners and now we're looking to buy a decent quality and well-suited training and sparring implement with similar characteristics at a somewhat lower price point.

I found the offerings by Darkwood Armory pretty interesting. They even have a rapier hilt that looks almost like the one I'm having made, which would be fitted with a 36 inch blade. They're also pretty readily available, another manufacturer whom I talked to about such a sword would have "the usual" six month waiting period.

I have heard, however, that Del Tin blades, which Darkwood used, have had quality issues in recent years. Does anyone have recent experience with those blades and can alleviate my concerns? I know their rapier blades are now more or less their own, but does that also apply for the other blade types?

I'm also open for suggestions of different makers, although I have to limit the price range to 600$.

Regards,
Johannes

P.S: is this even the right subforum?

Darkwood is great, their blades are great. I bought a Darkwood blunt rapier to fence with on the secondhand market a decade ago and liked it so much that my first custom sword ever was a Darkwood rapier. The hilt is solid as bricks, and manages to balance perfectly even though the blade I asked them to put on it is cut down to 30". Which is a good half foot off your "standard" rapier but it works better for me. Then a few years ago I bought a matching dagger from them to complete that set.

So you should email them and ask questions, I found Darkwood easy to work with, reliable on delivery date, and good work for the price.

I would also throw my recommendation in for Darkwood. I own 8 swords (2 custom) and 3 daggers and have never had an issues with them. Several date back to the del tin days and even those blades are still around and used. The company is top notch in quality, customer service, and warranty. You can ask for much more.

I'm curious about the range of blade types that Darkwood offers.

DA1PR - practice rapier
DA2BR - bated rapier
DA3S - spada
DA4SS - sidesword
DA4BA - backsword
And others

They get stronger and beefier as you go from top to bottom. For the swords that DW classifies as rapiers, the only available blades appear to be DA1PR and DA2BR. Just ablut everything seems to be available under their swords classification. I wonder if they would be amenable to putting a Sidesword blade on, say, a Pappenheimer hilt.

What can any of you say about the pros and cons of these various blades. Since I am a stage combat person, my needs are a bit different from you folks that practice in earnest. I need something strong in the forte, but with a bit of bend in the foible, so that a messed-up lunge won't necessarily break someone's unprotected ribs.