Hello

While looking around for irish swords, I stumbled upon this link:

http://www.gunbroker.com/Auction/ViewItem.asp?Item=146080421

This is an Ontario based sword maker that does hand-forged weapons with antiquing. He's only selling (as far as I can tell) on this particular auction site.

Has anyone heard of this maker?

cheers,

I've not heard of them before. Looking over their items, I would not call them antiqued - I would say that they are just not finished to high level. Now, I am no blacksmith, but though tang looks good, but I'd question the actual integrity of the them because there is alot of deep occlusions, air pockets, and slag in the finished blades. The weight seems to be pretty heavy, proportions are off, edge profile/taper are not present, and the leather grip wraps are nailed on?

I would not mind seeing one, but I'd not purchase one for myself....

I wouldn't call it antiquing either. I'd call them rough. Very rough.

These swords may or may not be sturdy, but the make seems to have caught a bad case of the dreaded "Burlap Syndrome". If this were my first effort I might hang it in the garage, but I wouldn't be selling it for that price. As has been noted, unfinished is NOT antiqued.

If that was my first effort I would probably keep it in my shop to remind me to make sure my next attempts are better :) That said, general form of the blade is not THAT bad - but right now it is more of a "sword-like object" than something I would call a sword. And they aparently have no real connection to historical samples either With some more effort one could robably forge/grind these blades into somethng having better geometry and shape, then again, might be easier just to make a new one instead. Then again, if he is offering them this way, aparently, there is enough demand for this style? And where there is demand, there will be offers.. eventually.

Thanks for the input... although now I have to ask: what is the dreaded "burlap syndrome"? I surely would want to avoid it! :eek:

What I dislike most about the swords from this maker is the descriptions...

The swords themselves are indeed very rough, but could be quite useful for fencing or battle-reenactment. The swords of several of Eastern European makers are more or less similar in roughness but are very good working swords. Certainly better than Windlass, and in my opinion preferable to the Hanwei Practicals (edit: referring to these Eastern European makers, not the maker in question).

But the "although intended for display and costume purposes it should be known that this is a real and functional sword." sentence worries me a little bit in this regard...

If intended solely for decoration... Well, whatever floats your boat. I kind of like the proportions at least.

But for the money I think there are much better options.

While I really like the "rough and ready" look, this is waaay too overpriced for what it is, and a bit overdone for my tastes. If the price were lower, I might actually think about getting one as a decorative piece. But $349 is too much for one wall hanger...

To me antiqued is when something that once had been finished is prematurely aged. These blades just look as though they have never been finished in the first place. I believe simple designs can be elegant and beautiful, however even they are finished properly. I for one also believe that antiquing a blade makes no sense in the first place. It is like chemically etching a hamon on to a Japanese style blade. It makes it look authentic, but in the end it means nothing. A sword should abouve all be functional and sound before it looks any particular way. Otherwise it is just decoration.