Took an early, early lunch and ran over to the Fedex terminal to pick-up my newsest aquitition.....the CAS/Hanwei Cromwell Drogheda repro.

Couldn't wait for it to be delivered to the house, then wait to get home from work.

I like it! Will have to wait to get pics and more details about the way it handles.

(Even though I'm the warehouse suprv. - management frown upon having a 6' -1", long haired person
waving a sword around in the facility.)

Would like to personally thank Jason Hill @ Brightblades.com for (again) going the extra mile and getting this to me......mortuarys,mortuarys.......ahhh..............


Cheers,

Bill

Congratulations Bill!
I look forward to reading about how it handles etc. I've allways liked the looks of Cromwells' sword, especially the decoration. Funny; Cromwell belonged to a sect that considered modesty a virtue, and look at that "modest" sword :D hehehe

Cheers,
Henrik

I looked the sword over at Blade last year, and am very interested in hearing your impressions.

Cool Bill. Looking forward to seeing some pictures.

Glad to hear you got this beauty...

How's it handle?

Finally! Fantastic, Bill. I am looking forward to your impressions and some photos!

Jonathan

:mad:

Bad & sad news folks........I got to play with the Cromwell a bit more last night after pipe & drum practice...
tested the flex again, this blade is NOT heat tempered!!! It took a bend from the false-edge to the tip......

How could CASI/Hanwei put a blade like this in a piece? I have waited a long while for this sword, only to have
excpetations dashed. They should have marketed it as being a display piece instead of a "historically accurate" sword.

Needless to say I'm quite pissed at the moment. I've sent CAS/Hanwei a nice little email about this...hoping that it's just a fluke and not the same will all the Cromwell's they've made............didn't want to spend this kind of money on a glorified wall hanger............

Not the lack of quality I expected from them...........

This one may find it's way back...I'm in conversation with Jason Hill (who's a great vendor) of Brightblades about this already. Will keep you updated on my findings & CASI/Hanwei say and suggest.

This may also be the nail in the coffin for my repro. collecting days...


A bit heart-broken....

Bill

In retrospect,

I feel a need to apologise a bit for my last post....

Nathan, I'm sorry if the content of my last post concerning the Cromwell sword was not appropriate
for the forum. I just thought others may wish to know my honest opinion and findings.............

respectfully,

Bill

Bill,

That sucks.

As Nathan said, i know you were looking forward to getting this piece.

I just hope that it can all be sorted and you get a Cromwell of the quality that sword deserves.

Martin.

Nathan,

Thanks for your support......now......go get some sleep!!

Also for the sentiments from others on this matter......


Bill

Bill, I'm very sorry to hear this. I can't imagine how I would have felt in your situation... Well, let's just say it wouldn't be safe being in my presence...

I hope you'll get it sorted out.

Cheers,
Henrik

William, that's very unfortunate and I'm sure quite frustrating. I doubt if all the Cromwell blades are like yours. I'd suspect this is just another example of Hanweis erratic quality control. The one aspect of their production that seems to have the greatest variance is their heat treatment. I've seen blades that were so burnt from being over-heated that they were too brittle and others like yours that were dead soft, all in the same model. This has always been the companies biggest failing since day-one. If you can exchange it for another one you may get a good example. Good luck.

Yes Patrick, I too hope that is only a "bad apple" of the bunch senerio, but will just have to wait & see
what transpires from CAS.

Bill

I've heard back from CASI. They are having their people check the one's they presently have in their
warehouse and they want this one of mine back to inspect as well. The sales mgr. said that they want to do
whatever they can to make me satisfied and also to remedy any problems that the factory made be having in
the production of the blades for these.

Hopefuly, for the benefit of all, this is just an isolated incident and they can get me a "functional" replacement soon.
If all the others have the same problem, I may very well just return it for a full refund and be done with repro's altogether.


Just thought an update would be welcomed.

Bill

That's very impressive, Bill. Kudos to CASI's sales manager. I hope they follow through with this.

Bill,
I hope that yours was an isolated incident of por temper so that you can get a replacement quickly. I know how much you love mortuary swords and how long you have ben waiting for the release of this particular replica. It sounds like CASI is responding well to the situation.

Jonathan

William,
Sorry to hear about your experience, glad to hear CAS/Hanwei are responding to it. Hopefully it was an isolated incident.
For what it's worth, I picked up my Cromwell this week and after reading this thread decided to test the flexibility of my blade, albeit not without trepidation. I bent it 8" out of true and it sprang right back. I'm not sure how much of a test that represents, and was wondering how much your blade was bent before the bend set. I felt mine could flex beyond the 8", but didn't want to chance it as I just brought it home. My sense is that I lucked out with one that's been tempered properly. All in all IMO the Cromwell is one of the nicest swords Paul Chen has made yet. Good luck with resolving your problem and I look forward to hearing what CAS/Hanwei comes up with as far as the cause and extent of the defect.
-Gene