Hi Guys, I’ve been thinking a lot about the new upcoming Albion Principe but have been struggling with the dimensions as to whether I will like it or not, so I decided to make my own ;) I had a bit of free time today so I spent the afternoon in my shed and this is the result;

Overall Length: 1,190cm (15mm longer than it should be)
Blade Length: 890mm (10mm longer than it should be)
Guard Length: 262mm
Grip length: 200m (10mm shorter than it should be)
Blade Width: 79mm
Weight: 621g
POB: 180mm from guard
Wood: Vic ash

Overall I’m happy with the result, I was a bit off with a few measurements, the extra 10mm on the blade was on purpose, allowance for further rounding off the tip for the kids, but I just stuffed up the measurements on the grip / pommel, speaking of which, the pommel didn’t turn out as expected so some further sanding might be happening, then a few coats of linseed oil.

In hand it’s not as big as I was expecting, in a good way, it’s a lot wider than my Crecy but I really like it, a lot. Once they have finally produced one and I can ask them about the blade stiffness my order will be going in ;)

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It's going to be one massive sword!

Paul, I love this driving curiosity!

Just so you can get your wood mock up even closer:
Pommel is about 95 mm tall, 53 mm wide and 37 mm thick. At the narrow neck it is about 21 mm and transitions seamlessly into the grip. This makes the pommel a natural transition of the grip so it can easily be grasped, should you want to do that.
The cross section of the pommel is octagonal towards the grip and a strong diamond shape at the top. This makes for good ergonomics and a clear indication for the direction of the edge.

The grip itself will be about 194 mm long and some 35 by 20 mm at its widest end and will probably end up being oval in cross section (circular at the pommel end).

The Crecy is a little bit stiffer than the Principe, but there is no great difference. It is mainly in the point that the Principe is a little more flexible. At the base the Principe is relatively stiffer than the Crecy.

Hope this helps.

Best!
Peter

Thanks Peter, yes curiosity with a touch of obsessiveness, just ask my wife :\

I was planning on working on the pommel tonight but I was too late, my 6 ½ year old son Ewan has already claimed this sword as his, I was barely allowed to further round off the tip :) But I think I got what I wanted out of it, it’s hard to imagine a sword from its stats alone sometimes you just need to see it and hold it, well something similar anyways.

I appreciate your comments regarding the Crecy comparison, just the advice I was hoping to hear. It must have a decent taper to the blade to become more flexible than the Crecy at the tip, I assume it’s slightly less reinforced in this area. It’s really shaping up to be an impressive sword, can’t wait till it’s realised.

Thanks again - Paul

Paul, I am glad if this info was helpful to you.
I know what you say: it can indeed be very difficult to appreciate the size and presence of a sword from numbers alone. A mock up in wood or cardboard makes this easier.

I hope to complete the waxes for the Principe today and have them shipped to Albion ASAP. Before I do this, I shall try to get a snapshot of the waxes of both Principe and Alexandria mounted on their blades alongside an Albion sword or two. Just to give a better idea of what they are like.

The blade for the Principe/Alexandria does have quite a bit of distal taper. It follows the original that is kept in the Royal Armouries in Leeds pretty closely in this.

It is always a game of balancing different qualities against each other. With a very broad blade like this, you have to be very careful about even very small differences in thickness and degrees of taper. As the surface area is great, a small difference in thickness will have a great effect in weight.

Keeping weight down in the point is important, but it must not be done on the expense of the integrity of the point.
Having a good original in very good state of preservation to learn from, is very useful ;-)

i'm glad i'm not the only one who mocks up blades with wood first. i recently did this with a two hander i've been obsessed with. i used some scrap lee wood for the blade (just because it was quick and easy to cut) and carved out the guard and pummel from sold pieces.

you can look over the stats all day, make a full scaled drawing, but nothing can really give you the 3 demential perspective until you get it into some kind of material form. and if you build blades, this will be like a like a trial run before you work in the actual materials.

your lines on your wood working are really crisp and you matched up all your angles really well.

Seriously, way cool Paul. Nice work. :cool:

Thanks for sharing.

Funny, I was just starting to do the same thing with a different sword. Maybe I'm not as crazy as I thought. :)

Great work, btw.

Thanks guys, i have to admit im guilty of doing this before lol, my wife thinks im nuts but my son loves it ;)

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...highlight=

Cheers - Paul

we're all a little nuts :lol:

its a good way to 'research' what your getting yourself into before making the actual buy. and if you do any kind of drills with a group or just yourself - you have something to begin with already. then the wife will really think your nuts swinging a wooden sword around - but she'll be happier your not doing it with the real thing with a little one around the place.