MRL put up some new swords the other day...

French Cut & Thrust sword & dagger This set REALLY interested me. It says in the description that it could be used to oppose a rapier & main gauche. Circa 1550
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Braunstone Sword.
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Renaissance War Sword
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Ulfbert Sword
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Nice pieces.

I don't care so much for the Ulfbert inscription on the viking sword but I do like the shape of the blade and the proportions of the hilt fittings.

Alex

I like the French cut&thrust and main gauche (though I'm not sure about the grip shapes). I notice that sometimes MRL redesigns current or old production swords and also comes out with totally new ones. For instance, I remember another sword they had in the past called 'Renaissance War Sword.' Didn't it have brass furnishings and a leather ricasso on the lower part of the blade? I like the new one.

That Ulfbert sword is neat, though I'm with Alex about the inscription.

I'm guessing that the Ulfberht sword has been modelled upon the privately owned sword featured on pages 124 and 125 of Peirce's Swords of the Viking Age. It's not exact of course, but even the "inlay" seems to match in both shape and spacing. The slightly curved cross is another similarity, though somewhat more pronounced on MRL's sword.
The original has long been a favorite of mine.
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I just got the new catalog the other day and the French cut and thrust and Braunstone swords really caught my eye. If I weren't starting to save up again for an A&A sword, I might pick up one or both of them. Nice stuff. :)

Oops, I should have specified that I don't like the execution of the inlay on that sword, not the fact that it is inlayed. What I ment is that the inlay looks like it wanders out of the fuller more than it should rather than the way it stays within the bounds of the fuller on the sword that C.L. Miller posted (I hope that makes sense.). That is a very nice sword by the way; I like it quite a lot.

Alex

Looks as if that inlay is nothing more than the ink used to stamp "Windlass - India" on their blades. Especially as this is $35 cheaper than their "Leuterit sword," which was not engraved due to the costs involved.

Yes I agree that a properly inlayed sword would be great, if expensive

Well. painting the cleaned sword with a resist and then scratching out the letters one could etch one's own letters or get someone who does acid etched engraving to do it for you: Might cost more than the sword though if done by someone else.

Did some of this stuff in art school back in the Precambrian or Diluvian ages in between BBQ ing some nice Trilobite steaks.

Being an " Immortal " can be so frustrating when my favourite best tasting Trilobites became extinct. :p ( Tasted like chicken ) O.K. Lost my mind here after watching all the " Highlander THE RAVEN " DVDs this week.

Note: The commentary track is such a hoot as it's the first " honest " DVD commentary track I have seen where they actually talk about all the stuff that when terribly wrong during the series short run and not everybody got along so well.

Sorry,the last bit way off topic.

Yes, etching classes at a local university might give you the needed skills to do your own etching.