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Jean Thibodeau
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 Posted: Wed 01 Aug, 2007 9:59 pm Post subject: |
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Just got the sword and dagger today and here are my initial impressions as I may add things later if I think of something else to say.
First: The package was well padded with brown paper and nothing bad happened to the sword or dagger in shipping and arrived before the tracking said it would !
Both the sword and dagger were factory wrapped in very heavy transparent plastic and covered with a very heavy coat of some sort of greasy gel. For rust protection I imagine and it worked with the sword but the dagger has a few spots of rust near the guard. ( Not a problem for me as I will probably do some refinishing to one or both of these as mentioned in the previous post. )
The grease is problematic as far a the suede handle of the Dordogne sword is concerned as grease tends to mat down the suede so that it ends up looking like leather ! Mostly got this cleaned up though but still something the shipping at the manufacturer should think off for those who care about the suede looking good.
I may eventually re-wrap the Dordogne or just saturate the suede with a water insoluble wood glue. This should change the finish to a hard smooth finish as I'm not really sold on suede. 
Dordogne sword a few statistics:
Blade length: 36"
Width at guard: 2"
Width at 2" from tip: 1/2"
Thickness of blade at guard: Seems like a bit over 1/4"
Distal taper is NOT linear: The thickness goes from 1/4" to 3/16" rapidly in the first 2 inches of blade and then there is very little distal taper to the tip. A little but very subtle. ( Note: Without callipers these are just eyeball approximations ).
Since there is a lot of profile taper this seems to work somewhat as the handling has surprisingly a great deal of blade presence for a type XV: Feels almost like the Albion Gaddjalt and not at all like my A & A Black Prince. Is this good or bad ? Recent discussions about typical handling of most current high end swords makes me thing that blades with more presence than we are used to can be bad or just not what we expect and some period swords did correspond to the higher end of handling feel.
What it does mean is this type XV should be a much more aggressive cutter than the type would suggest. ( I don't do text cutting at the moment so I can verify this ).
O.K. a few more statistics:
PoB: 4.5" from guard.
PoP or rather what I think of as the sweet spot seems to be between 15" to 17" ( take this one with a grain of salt )
Handle length, suede covered section: 4"
Pommel length: 3 1/4" and is almost like a grip extension for most of it's length.
In a way a bit hard to define as a long bladed sword with a long one handed grip or a longsword with a short longsword grip. Maybe we could call it a hand and a quarter sword. 
Style-wise this sword has already been discussed as being of modern design as far as the way the grip is put together and I would rather give my impressions of what it is rather than what it could be with some later home project work.
My sword is of the first un-revised version with the " blocky " guard rather than the revised version with the slimmer and improved look. Don't know if the revised versions are now available or just a question of luck which one, one gets !
Up close the chunky guard is robust to say the least and personally I sort of like it but might have preferred the improved version for historically correct reasons.
The pommel I really like without reservation and is easy to hold for the off hand, although a two handed grip feels a bit crowded and if gauntlets were used it almost has to be used one handed.
Halfswording doesn't really need the longer handle and the full length 36" blade would make this about the same in use as a longer handled version. ( Except were trapping with a very long handle wouldn't be effective ).
Blade finish is highly polished but a step below a true mirror polish. There are no grind or tool marks but the finish does have scuff marks and not a perfect and uniform finish. Since I plan to give it a more durable brushed finish this isn't a factor for me, but the lack of tool marks will make getting a nice satin finish easier than if there were deep lines transverse to the length of the blade. The steel seems very well heat treated and flexes without taking a set using only moderate pressure, once ! Oh, and also paper cutting sharp out of the box. Grip assembly seems very solid and the tang is peened over the pommel.
The edge is a very narrow secondary bevel after a rounded appleseed last 1/4" from a mostly diamond shaped flat grind: With a satin finish running the length of the blade an nice blended edge should be easy to do.
The scabbard fits very well but is more a storage one as the rings at the top are mostly useless for a period suspension.
One of Christian Fletchers swordbelts would fix this: http://www.christianfletcher.com/Site/Sword%20Belts.html
Oh, a last statistic: The weight is stated on the Kult of Athena site from the manufacturer at 3 pounds 5 ounces but my food scale is giving me a figure of 3 pounds.
So for me for the price I'm happy with it.
For the Dagger I will make a new Topic for it soon as soon as I figure out how I like it or not: Not period for sure, but I'll explain this more completely later.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Alan H. Weller
Location: Palo Alto, CA Joined: 31 Oct 2006
Posts: 28
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| Posted: Fri 03 Aug, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject: |
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Jean, thank you very much for your review. I really appreciate your time and effort . Moreover, I had been waiting for information about this particular sword.
You mentioned that there seemed to be more blade presence than you expected. I was thinking that, if the types XV and XVa were intended mainly to thrust through armor, they would not necessarily be expected to be lively in the hand; I would think theywould be successful if they could penetrate without breaking or bending and blade presence would not necessarily be a negative. What do you think? I wonder what those others that have had experience with the type XV and XVa would say?
Also, now that you have had a few days to live with it, do you have any further thoughts?
Last edited by Alan H. Weller on Sun 05 Aug, 2007 7:39 am; edited 1 time in total
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Fri 03 Aug, 2007 10:16 pm Post subject: |
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| Alan H. Weller wrote: | Jean, thank you very much for your review. I really appreciate your time and effort . Moreover, I had been waiting for information about this particular sword.
You mentioned that there seemed to be more blade presence than you expected. I was thinking that, if the type XVa was intended mainly to thrust through gaps in armor, it would not necessarily be expected to be lively in the hand; I would think it would be successful if it could penetrate without breaking or bending and blade presence would not necessarily be a negative. What do you think? I wonder what those others that have had experience with the type XV and XVa would say?
Also, now that you have had a few days to live with it, do you have any further thoughts? |
The handling was mostly a surprise when compared to my A & A Black Prince that feels more agile and the blade presence of the Dordogne if someone put it in my hand blindfolded I could have mistaken it for much more of a chopping/cutting blade.
Now this could be sort of contradictory as we have here a very thrusting blade in shape but with more than enough presence to belong to a heavy cutting blade ? Is this a " mistake " in design or what the design was supposed to be and why ?
Since the blade shape and size is very close to the A & A Black Prince just eyeballing it, the difference in PoB 2" B/P and the Dordogne PoB 4.5 " must be primarily due to length of handle and size/weigh of pommel differences !?
The Black Prince actually feels lighter at a greater weight.
One possible conclusion might be that the Black Prince is a better sword ( well it is a higher end one, but I mean design )?
Now the the dimensions of the Generation 2 Dordogne were not taken by precise micrometer measurements of an original I believe, but were at least based on a good first person sketch by Ewart Oakeshott, so I assume that the profile dimensions of blade and hilt are at least ballpark close to the period original.
Is one sword " right " and the other " wrong " or is it just a case of " different " ! And maybe different swordsmen might prefer the handling of one or the other ? Personally I could get used to either and think of the other as strange handling or prefer either depending on how much armour or other weapons I was carrying and who/what I was fighting against.
To answer the question: I do like it and if I was carrying the sword as a second weapon or wanted to use a shield or buckler, I might prefer the Dordogne. The shorter handle seems less of a nuisance when using a polearm and the Dordogne might be a better secondary weapon to an archer or crossbowman ? ( just a wild guess that when one has a primary weapon one would want a sword that one could almost not worry about it until needed ).
Oh, and at a 36" long blade this is a very long one hander ! Two handed the hands do feel a bit crowded on the small grip but the forward handling feel almost disappears. I wonder how popular were shorter grips compared to longer grips on longswords ?
If I seem to be writing a lot of this as questions is that although I have theories about the above I am not stating any of it as some authoritative certainty.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Caleb Hallgren
Location: DeKalb, IL Joined: 01 Aug 2004
Posts: 64
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| Posted: Fri 03 Aug, 2007 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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How stiff is the blade?
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Fri 03 Aug, 2007 10:59 pm Post subject: |
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| Caleb Hallgren wrote: | | How stiff is the blade? |
Hard to quantify precisely but here goes:
If I hold the sword parallel to the floor the blade bends a little due to gravity but I wouldn't say that the blade is very whippy.
Compared to other swords: The Black Prince held parallel to the floor seems to barely bend and does so less than the Dordogne.
Blade on the floor and flexing the blade by pushing down ( moderately ) the Dordogne flexes but doesn't seem excessive to me. Using the same test is seems to flex about the same using similar pressure as my Albion Sovereign. The Black Prince is a bit stiffer and my AT 1435 flexes the least or needs more pressure to flex.
The flex of the Dordogne doesn't seem excessive but it isn't a rigid crowbar by any measure.
I haven't tried but I imagine that if halfsworded it should be rigid enough to get though gaps in between plate effectively.
( not sure how rigid a sword should be for this to be considered stiff enough ).
I imagine that a type XVII, see reviews http://www.myArmoury.com/review_alb_lansem.html
might be more rigid but I haven't held one of these in my hand to have a clear idea how they would compare.
I do notice that a PoB of 4.5" and 5" do seem similar to what I have with the Generation 2 Dordogne, so maybe the Dordogne's handling is not that unusual or odd compared to the PoB. of 2" of the Black Prince.
Hope these subjective comparisons give at least some frame of reference.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Lafayette C Curtis
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| Posted: Sat 04 Aug, 2007 2:13 am Post subject: |
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| Jean Thibodeau wrote: | | One possible conclusion might be that the Black Prince is a better sword ( well it is a higher end one, but I mean design )? |
If we're allowed to speculate, even the original might have been quite a high-end design for its time, seeing as it was designed for a prince...
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Alan H. Weller
Location: Palo Alto, CA Joined: 31 Oct 2006
Posts: 28
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| Posted: Sun 05 Aug, 2007 4:36 pm Post subject: |
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Jean
I went to the Imperial Weapons website and read the information they have about the Dordogne sword. It suggests that this sword's thrusts were accomplished as follows: "Gripped with two hands, both covered in mail gauntlets, with one hand on the blade and the other on the hilt, a very powerful thrust could be delivered, splitting mail links and forcing its way through the various opening of the armor".
You seemed to indicate that the sword handled pretty well with two hands, and the blade heaviness disappeared, but that the grip is a bit small for two hands. I wonder how it handle if you tried thrusting it with one hand on the grip and one gloved hand on the blade, as the foregoing suggests?
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Sun 05 Aug, 2007 9:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Alan H. Weller wrote: | Jean
I went to the Imperial Weapons website and read the information they have about the Dordogne sword. It suggests that this sword's thrusts were accomplished as follows: "Gripped with two hands, both covered in mail gauntlets, with one hand on the blade and the other on the hilt, a very powerful thrust could be delivered, splitting mail links and forcing its way through the various opening of the armor".
You seemed to indicate that the sword handled pretty well with two hands, and the blade heaviness disappeared, but that the grip is a bit small for two hands. I wonder how it handle if you tried thrusting it with one hand on the grip and one gloved hand on the blade, as the foregoing suggests? |
Well, that would be halfswording with one hand on the handle and the other midblade and with a hand midblade there is that much less blade length in from of the lead hand to bend: So the blade behaves as if it was a much stiffer blade.
With halfswording the length of the handle is of little importance, but used with both hands on the handle it does make a difference.
Both hands on the handle is possible because the shape of the long pommel makes it into a grip extension, but the hands do feel cramped compared to a sword with a true 7" or 9" handle.
The use of two hands does improve the handling in the sense that the forward weight seems to disappear and the sword wouldn't be tiring when held with two hands. On the other hand, a handle this short gives less leverage especially when the wrists must be crossed quickly when doing some winding techniques. ( Other with more experience and training time under their belts might be able to better explain the plusses and minuses of shorter or longer longsword handles ).
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2007 9:02 am Post subject: |
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Just took of the suede from the handle and there is a nice hardwood core and holding the sword without the cover is more comfortable minus the thickness of the suede.
I carved a step behind the midpoint of the grip where it tapers to the pommel and reduced the whole handle in thickness and width by maybe 1/16" all around and made it more waisted in look.
At the step I used 1/8" thick square leather lace to make a riser 1/4" wide: Two pieces glued next to each other.
I didn't wrap any cord on the wood core before gluing on shammy leather for a new " YELLOW " cover and wrapped cord over very tightly around the damp and glued down shammy.
I should find out tomorrow if this worked well after I take the cord off. This is my first attempt at re-covering a grip.
My thanks to Pamela Muir for her " Home Spa " topic and in her honour I may just leave the yellow shammy leather YELLOW.   ( http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...hlight=spa )
After the grip dries I'm thinking of just rubbing it with boiled linseed oil and rubbing of the excess and repeating weekly until I get a nice darker yellow. ( Won't over saturate it but will let the oil dry before I add more coats. If this is a bad idea let me know ).
Even with the extra thickness of the cord the grip feels a lot better with the riser and should look much better.
( Will try to get around to buying a digital camera real soon and add pics eventually to this and a lot of my future posts. ).
I knocked down the chrome look of the mirror polish to a nice 400 grit satin finish and I might just antique the pommel and guard lightly as I'm not going for the real antique look but just a sword that has been on campaign but well maintained.
In any case it already looks less like a modern style of sword construction and to get it there took very minimal home project work: Something to consider if the styling is making you hesitate to buy one. The steel and construction is a solid base with which to work on and make the effort more worthwhile than if the piece was cheaply made.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Dan Dickinson
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2007 11:34 am Post subject: |
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So Jean, as a man who has taken the handle apart......are the metal "washers" exactly that......washers between the pommel and guard and the grip or are they more like fillets?
Thanks,
Dan
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Tue 07 Aug, 2007 3:01 pm Post subject: |
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| Dan Dickinson wrote: | So Jean, as a man who has taken the handle apart......are the metal "washers" exactly that......washers between the pommel and guard and the grip or are they more like fillets?
Thanks,
Dan |
Oh, I didn't need to take the handle apart. I only took the suede cover off and reshaped the wooden handle.
The washers are still there and I have the option to cover the washers with the leather and so hide them IF they bothered me MUCH. I know it's not historically correct but they sort of look O.K. to me.
What is important is that for somebody where these would be a deal breaker can hide them and make them look like risers.
( Metal risers but would look the same as cord risers once hidden ).
From what I could see of them with a little extra wood removed near the one under the pommel it look more like a small metal plate and not a cap with a bottom and sides with the wood narrowing to fit ? Maybe Clyde could answer this with more certainty. )
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Wed 08 Aug, 2007 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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Grip update: After I unwrapped the shammy leather had very clear imprints of the cord but there were some of the cord fibres stuck to the leather. I used a damp wipe to remove the fibres but the imprints in the very soft shammy leather sort of smoothed out in spots.
I then wetted the grip some more since the grip would look better uniformly smooth rather than only smooth in spots.
The lesson here is that if I wanted permanent lines in the leather it would have needed some under the leather cord wrappings to hold the shape.
The smooth leather looks good but I was a bit concerned about how soft the shammy leather was so I did " the unthinkable " ( joke ) and rubbed in some glue on the outside of the grip and removed the excess with the damp wipe again and let it dry. Added another coat when the first one dried.
The result is a harder than usual for a leather grip but the leather is also sealed from moisture and tougher I think: Time will tell if this is a good idea and the grip holds up to handling. If not it should be easy enough to redo maybe with heavier leather or with cord under the wrap.
The seam on one side of the grip is sort of zigzag in shape but thin enough that one can't feel it when holding the sword.
The riser is right in between the ring finger and the little finger and I think is perfectly placed and very smooth i.e. no wrinkles anywhere in the wrap.
There is a small 1/16" gap between the wrap and the steel collar just ahead of the guard that I can fill with a glued in fine cord or epoxy.
The colour is now a slightly deeper yellow/tan/ slightly reddish and I may still wipe it with boiled linseed oil after the waterbased glue has has time to fully dry: This glue become insoluble after it is fully dry. This is a white glue like carpenters glue but supposed to be good for many different materials and they say it's waterproof after it dries.
Oh, and I'm going to blue the guard and pommel and then polish it partially to give a well used campaign look. I think I won't antique the blade since just giving it a satin finish makes it look like an Albion type satin finish that is easy to maintain.
This sword now looks like it's almost Albion in quality except for the slightly chunky guard ( that I like ) and the metal spacers. ( that I could hide under leather if they did bother me ). Bottom line a nice sword with about 3 hours work is now a VERY nice sword.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Patrick de Marchi
Location: Montréal, Qc, Canada Joined: 22 Jan 2007
Posts: 5
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| Posted: Tue 16 Oct, 2007 8:33 am Post subject: |
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Hi everybody!
This Sunday, I had the pleasure to use Jean’s “Dordogne Sword”, during a cutting laboratory given by the école d’escrime ancienne “les Duellistes”. Not that the few lines below are a résumé of what I felt; you should in no case take this as an objective report on the sword!
As I took the sword in my hand for the first time, I had to agree with Jean : there is a lot of blade presence here. Thinking about it, this is not a big surprise : 36 inches of blade IS long and the weight of the whole weapon gives the feeling that you are much safer handling it than in front of it…
Moreover, the weight was an advantage during the cutting test. When you ask it to strike, this blade knows its work! I just had to bring it to the right place and simply let it go. No effort needed to let it bite its target (a pumpkin, here), pass through and rearm a second strike.
I was however surprised by the size of the handle/pommel group. I don’t have giant hands – I’m 6 feet tall – but I naturally used the sword with just one hand. I wouldn’t know where to put the other, except on the blade. But Generation 2 seems to have respected the dimensions of the original drawing by Ewart Oakeshott.
As a synthesis, if you like fine wrist work and light cuts, this sword is not for you, but if you favor strong blows on foot or horse and half swording, this sword could be a nice choice.
For les Duellistes, Montréal
Patrick de Marchi
Headmaster
www.lesduellistes.com
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Jeffrey Hedgecock
Industry Professional
Location: Ramona CA USA Joined: 22 Jan 2004
Posts: 129
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Tue 16 Oct, 2007 9:42 am Post subject: |
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| Jeffrey Hedgecock wrote: | | Maybe I missed it but what maker is the sword from? |
Generation 2 you can read that in the Topic title. 
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Tue 16 Oct, 2007 12:13 pm Post subject: |
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| Patrick de Marchi wrote: | Hi everybody!
This Sunday, I had the pleasure to use Jean’s “Dordogne Sword”, during a cutting laboratory given by the école d’escrime ancienne “les Duellistes”. Not that the few lines below are a résumé of what I felt; you should in no case take this as an objective report on the sword!
As I took the sword in my hand for the first time, I had to agree with Jean : there is a lot of blade presence here. Thinking about it, this is not a big surprise : 36 inches of blade IS long and the weight of the whole weapon gives the feeling that you are much safer handling it than in front of it…
Moreover, the weight was an advantage during the cutting test. When you ask it to strike, this blade knows its work! I just had to bring it to the right place and simply let it go. No effort needed to let it bite its target (a pumpkin, here), pass through and rearm a second strike.
I was however surprised by the size of the handle/pommel group. I don’t have giant hands – I’m 6 feet tall – but I naturally used the sword with just one hand. I wouldn’t know where to put the other, except on the blade. But Generation 2 seems to have respected the dimensions of the original drawing by Ewart Oakeshott.
As a synthesis, if you like fine wrist work and light cuts, this sword is not for you, but if you favor strong blows on foot or horse and half swording, this sword could be a nice choice.
For les Duellistes, Montréal
Patrick de Marchi
Headmaster
www.lesduellistes.com |
It was also a pleasure to participate in my first cutting practice. Usually I'm in my house swinging " slowly " trying my best to miss everything in the room ! Took extra effort to not miss by 1/8" and actually hit something.
To add to Patrick's comments: The grip is short but I can use it with two hands but leverage and the close proximity of one's hands makes it feel almost as if it was just one grip ! When crossing wrists one gets less of a " snap to " or good feedback as to the relative positions of the hands. This sword does work well with one hand and two hands do make it feel lighter. Call it a hand and a Quarter sword maybe.
The blade cut through the targets like a Star Wars light saber: Cutting through the air or cutting through the fruit felt just about the same i.e. ZERO resistance.
I really wanted Patrick to comment about the sword because I wanted someone with a lot of cutting experience to confirm my good feeling about this sword.
Oh, the blade did get some damage hitting the nails in the top of the post and got a few small dull spots and slight rolling of edges that looked a lot worse before I could do a little recharpening: Now it takes a 8X magnifier to see a slight ding in the blade.
Now I guess this is now a " work tool " and not a " virgin " collector's sword. If one hits metal one will get some dulling or minor nicks but nothing really deep unless one really hits very hard against another HARD sword.
We also were cutting melons and pumpkins with very blunt practice swords and these were already pre-dingned: Surprising to me how effective even a 2 mm edge can cut if one just moves the sword and lets it do the work, assuming the edge and general geometry of the blade is well alligned with the cut.
But a sharp is like a laser beam ! Oh, my Windlass Falcata was impressive and everyone commented on how easy it was to make paper thin slices one after the other.
Here are some pics of me taking aim, hitting the nails below the melon, and at speed shot were the sword does sort of look like a Light saber ( Add sound effects ). Oh, and a close up of how clean the cuts look.
Bottom line the sword took a bit of a beating and came out O.K. after mininal sharpening. I also hit the post on purpose a couple of times and the sword bit into the the wood at 45° about 3" deep with a moderate force cut.
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You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Jeffrey Hedgecock
Industry Professional
Location: Ramona CA USA Joined: 22 Jan 2004
Posts: 129
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| Posted: Tue 16 Oct, 2007 11:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Jean Thibodeau wrote: | | Jeffrey Hedgecock wrote: | | Maybe I missed it but what maker is the sword from? |
Generation 2 you can read that in the Topic title. |
Oh, ok, you mean that one Hank R came up with.
What's the deal with the grip and the plates on the ends? I've not seen a 15th century sword with that type of grip configuration. I can't say I like it. Doing that always seems like a cop-out on making the grip flow and fit with the guard and pommel. Seen it on those cheap indonesian and philippino swords. Never seen it on a real medieval sword.
Overall, the pommel seems ok, blade pretty rough, and the guard looks really small for the size of the sword. If the pictures on the net are anything to go on, anyway. I just don't like the sword aesthetically, and I love most 15th century swords.
Cheers,
Jeffrey Hedgecock
Historic Enterprises, Inc.
WorldJoust Tournaments™
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Dan Dickinson
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 17 Oct, 2007 6:34 am Post subject: |
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Jean, could we get a few photos of the upgraded Dordogne?
Thanks,
Dan
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Wed 17 Oct, 2007 11:16 am Post subject: |
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| Dan Dickinson wrote: | Jean, could we get a few photos of the upgraded Dordogne?
Thanks,
Dan |
Eventually ! I sort of have to motivate myself to figure out the controls on my " new " ( first ) digital camera: I really hate reading the incredibly painful to read camera instructions manual ..........
The grip got an extra layer of shammy leather and looks sort of campaign worn and much better than the first attempt with a strait " seam ".
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Wed 17 Oct, 2007 11:49 am Post subject: |
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| Jeffrey Hedgecock wrote: | | Jean Thibodeau wrote: | | Jeffrey Hedgecock wrote: | | Maybe I missed it but what maker is the sword from? |
Generation 2 you can read that in the Topic title. |
Oh, ok, you mean that one Hank R came up with.
What's the deal with the grip and the plates on the ends? I've not seen a 15th century sword with that type of grip configuration. I can't say I like it. Doing that always seems like a cop-out on making the grip flow and fit with the guard and pommel. Seen it on those cheap indonesian and philippino swords. Never seen it on a real medieval sword.
Overall, the pommel seems ok, blade pretty rough, and the guard looks really small for the size of the sword. If the pictures on the net are anything to go on, anyway. I just don't like the sword aesthetically, and I love most 15th century swords. |
I agree that the assembly style is " modern " and not better looking than doing it the period way.
The metal bands don't stand out much now that the furniture on mine has been blued and the profile of the grip modified.
As written by me in a previous post: A new handle covering could be made that covers and hides from view the metal risers under the leather. One could also grind them down with a dremel tool if one also wanted them less prominent and blend the handle profile better. One could still be bothered by " knowing " that the assembly wasn't period even if one modified things to look O.K. All depends on what one is comfortable ignoring.
The guard is not that small but the very long blade does make it seem smaller: Guard 6 1/4" wide. The original swords of this type do seem to have modest sized guards but my early version Generation 2 Dordogne guard is " chunky ".
Considering the price + some home modifications + robust construction and sound blade I think this sword is worth it to me. If one compares it to an Albion sword where period authenticity is much higher it is clear that it is aesthetically not as good as what an Albion or A & A version of the same original sword would be.
Generation 2 swords seem to all have the " modern " and aesthetically challenged grip assembly were the grip and pommel don't flow into each other in an appealing way: You have a grip with a plate at each end, with a big gap on the pommel side and the pommel just stuck at the end ! Now this is more extreme with the other swords in the line. With the Dordogne the transition is better as is and can be hidden or fixed more easily. Also the black suede just doesn't look good and is much too chunky as received before I partially fixed some of these problems.
Oh, the blade is the best part of the sword and looks fine to me ? Not rough at all in shape in my opinion ( Too highly polished but I fixed that also. ) Depends what you mean by " rough ".
If the maker could get the factory to do a period sword assembly for all their line at the same price these swords would become real competition to the higher end ones.
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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