I checked our reviews and we have nothing for ArmArt; I was wondering if anyone owned any of their stuff?

M.

I have moved this topic to the Off-topic forum from the Historic Arms Talk forum. Please note the description for the historical arms talk forum: "Discussions of reproduction and authentic historical arms and armour from various cultures and time periods"

You're talking about a maker not an item, so off-topic it is.

Thank you.

My collection gallery shows some items from ArmArt as do Chad's and Steve's.

I have an older model shamshir/saif, but I don't remember the model number or name. I am quite fond of it. The hilt is very well executed in steel with wood grip-scales, and the blade has a lovely shape. The weapon handles very, very well, but the edge is not quite sharp enough nor is the blade quite "meaty" enough to make a decent cutter or slasher. For the price I paid on the used market, over 4 years ago, I would gladly purchase it again.

ArmArt....

I have an ArmArt sword. I love the way it looks. The handling is acceptable/decent but not spectacular. It was a solid (if not very good) value for the money when I bought, considering the market back then. It remains a favorite in my collection.

The issue with ArmArt has been much less about quality than service. ArmArt was introduced to the American market in the form of a partnership with Swordforum. That partnership created a lot of interest and many orders were placed. Apparently, ArmArt was not ready for the volume of business this created. My order was placed within a month or so of the partnership announcement and ended up taking a couple of months longer than quoted. Not too awful, considering that others were delayed by years and, in some cases, orders were never filled by ArmArt even though money was paid. I consider myself lucky. From what I hear, the customer service provided to people stuck in the queue has been non-existent.

That said, I have heard of people buying in-stock items and getting them in a timely fashion. However, most people who have been around this community a while refuse to throw money armart's way for fear of bad things happening.

That 's really why I haven't done an official review of my sword. I'm very hesitant to review what turned out to be a nice product because I would hate to see people go down the road of dissatisfaction that so many others have.

I would say that if you can find one on the used market, pick it up. ArmArt swords are somewhat rare that way. Also, if ArmArt list something in stock and your credit card company has a track record of helping you get your money back in the event they never deliver, you might try an in-stock item with not too much risk. I personally wouldn't risk a custom order with them, though.

Perhaps they've changed and everything is great. No one I know has been willing to find out first-hand, though.

I have an ArmArt dagger that I got second hand in trade. It is very nice looking, very well finished with an extremely sharp blade. Perhaps slightly overbuilt - but overall very nice. It was a custom order that came out before the problems that Chad spoke about came up, I think. If you are willing to "roll the dice" then you might get lucky - if you want a sure thing (a company with a consistent record of product quality and customer service), there are many other places I would go first.

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Thanks for the information, I think you all have prevented me from making a possable mistake!

M.