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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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 Posted: Wed 22 Oct, 2008 11:11 pm Post subject: CAS/H 'Tinker Pearce' production longswords are here! |
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I came in for lunch this noon-time and found a large box waiting for me. It contained 2ea Sharp and 2ea blunt longswords. Each sword was individually boxed in it's scabbard and thoughtfully provided with the correct size Allen wrench. The Allen wrench is magnetic- a nice touch. I am happy to say that CAS/H has done an excellent job of addressing my concerns with the prototypes; the edges or the guards are rounded, the handle is now the correct octagonal shape, the edges on the tang are slightly rounded, the fullers run out under the guard and the the shoulders of the blade are also nicely rounded. I dismantled the hilts of all four swords that I received and all were similarly constructed. As far as I can tell none of the threads are welded. Here's a pic of the dismounted hilt of one of the sharp's. The black line across the tang seems to be from the leather dye from the handle. The images are too large for the forum so they are posted as links instead.
http://tinkerswords.com/2008CASHlsHilt.jpg
I haven't done any scientific testing yet but the heat-treatment seems good; certainly the swords flex well. The fit of the hilts is also quite snug; I had to resort to gently tapping the guard with a soft hammer to disassemble one of the hilts. The handles are made of sandwiched wood wrapped in cord and then covered in leather. The scabbard has a wood core covered in leather and a nicely made locket and chape.
Here's a couple more quick pictures- Light was fading so I didn't take too many- also pictures are available at CAS/H's website along with specs.
http://tinkerswords.com/2008CASHlsHilt2.jpg
http://tinkerswords.com/2008CASHlsFL1.jpg
Overall I am quite pleased with how these have come out. These swords are now in the hands of retailers. The price has gone above the original anticipated price- MSRP $359US for the Sharp, $329US for the Practice Blunt. I am told that there are some sites listing them for significantly less.
If I have a quibble with these swords it's that the handling of the sharps isn't as close to the handling of the practice blunts as I would have liked but the folks that have handled them so far have said the difference isn't significant. Maybe I'm just too picky...
Two of these swords will be going off to Vancouver this weekend for the Longsword academy and tournement being put on by Academie Duello this weekend.
Questions and comments welcome.
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Marc Pengryffyn
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| Posted: Thu 23 Oct, 2008 3:13 am Post subject: |
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I can't wait for these to get to Australia! I'll be saving my pennies 'til the day!
Tradition is the illusion of permanence.
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Mike Capanelli
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| Posted: Thu 23 Oct, 2008 8:03 am Post subject: |
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I was wondering, who will be retailing these swords? I've had intentions of picking up the blunt hand and a half after seeing the first prototype.
Winter is coming
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Thu 23 Oct, 2008 8:35 am Post subject: |
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Check with your usual CAS/H retailers, or do a Google search. I know that Age of Chivalry has some Longswords and Trainers in stock but the Bastardswords aren't here yet.
BTW- OK, even an 'expert' can be fooled. I thought that the Trainer was lighter and had a different COG than the Sharp but when I measured them they were identical. My Bad!
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
Last edited by Michael Pearce on Thu 23 Oct, 2008 7:33 pm; edited 1 time in total
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M. Eversberg II
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| Posted: Thu 23 Oct, 2008 9:08 am Post subject: |
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Awesome news! How does it feel to have this out on the line finally? I remember when these where first announced, and the production models are certainly an improvement over the prototypes.
M.
This space for rent or lease.
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Thu 23 Oct, 2008 11:08 am Post subject: |
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It feels great to see a project like this come to fruition! Especially as it has come out so well.
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Thu 23 Oct, 2008 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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Might just try one of those blunts.
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 29 Oct, 2008 4:09 pm Post subject: Correction... |
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While I originally reported that these swords had wood-cored scabbards this was incorrect. They were too have wood-cored scabbards originally but these had issues with the wood warping and swelling- I am now told that this is one of the reasons that the first shipment of swords was sent back last month. I apologize for this factual error- This was purely a mistake on my part.
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Christopher Lee
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| Posted: Thu 30 Oct, 2008 3:10 pm Post subject: |
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| Marc Pengryffyn wrote: | | I can't wait for these to get to Australia! I'll be saving my pennies 'til the day! |
Yep, me too, but given our exchange rate at the moment i doubt that i can save that many pennies!!! By today's exchange rate the RRP of $329US for the blunt would be about $490AUD, that's not including shipping costs and mark up.
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P. Cha
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| Posted: Thu 30 Oct, 2008 8:19 pm Post subject: |
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Tap tap tap...still waiting for that bastard sword  . Good to hear the longsword was done very well though.
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Thu 30 Oct, 2008 8:37 pm Post subject: |
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| P. Cha wrote: | | Tap tap tap...still waiting for that bastard sword . Good to hear the longsword was done very well though. |
I'm told that the Bastardsword is in production as we speak- but I don't know when the first shipment will arrive.
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Christian Henry Tobler
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Fri 31 Oct, 2008 1:21 pm Post subject: |
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| Christian Henry Tobler wrote: | Sean Hayes and I 'test drove' the pre-production versions of these.
You want them - they rock.
All the best,
Christian |
Thanks for sharing the endorsement.
It matters. 
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Fri 31 Oct, 2008 1:42 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you indeed, Christian!
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Joe Fults
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| Posted: Fri 31 Oct, 2008 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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So like a dope I'm going to ask if anybody is finding these listed at retailers yet?
I've been playing with Google and coming up dry! 
"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Fri 31 Oct, 2008 4:51 pm Post subject: |
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I just googled: 'Tinker Pearce "CAS/Hanwei" Longsword' and I got a merchant that says they have at least one in stock on the first page- Hope that this helps!
http://ageofchivalry.com
Edit: I just checked- it seems that they have sold the blunt but they still list a sharp... The next shipment is on it's way though with more longswords and blunts, plus the bastardsword and blunt and some single-hand sharps. If you can't find a retailer your best bet is to get on back-order at Edgefair.com- CAS/Hanwei's direct sales site.
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Jean Thibodeau
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| Posted: Fri 31 Oct, 2008 8:45 pm Post subject: |
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| Joe Fults wrote: | So like a dope I'm going to ask if anybody is finding these listed at retailers yet?
I've been playing with Google and coming up dry! |
Yup, there is a medieval " stuff " store here in Montreal that has a couple of the blunts and one of the sharps in stock and I got to have a look at them.
The blunt look really good but the edges are a little thin: Depends on what a training group considers a safe edge and how much protection they use when sparring.
The sharp is very " SHARP " although there is a bit of a secondary edge rather than a blended appleseed one: Again this depends on one's expectations and I think one could blend in the edges with the main bevel if one wanted to.
About the same as my AT 1435 and my A & A swords ( Although the secondary bevels on the A & A are a little more narrow ).
Couldn't really evaluate the finish as the blade was still covered with some heavy oil or grease but it seemed O.K.
The scabbard seemed to fit properly also.
Handling on both seemed very good and if I didn't already have an AT 1403 in the order pipeline I would have been very tempted.
Bottom line: Seemed like quality stuff at a reasonable price
You can easily give up your freedom. You have to fight hard to get it back!
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Christopher Lee
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| Posted: Sat 01 Nov, 2008 2:26 pm Post subject: |
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| Christopher Lee wrote: | | Marc Pengryffyn wrote: | | I can't wait for these to get to Australia! I'll be saving my pennies 'til the day! |
Yep, me too, but given our exchange rate at the moment i doubt that i can save that many pennies!!! By today's exchange rate the RRP of $329US for the blunt would be about $490AUD, that's not including shipping costs and mark up. |
Found one site in Australia that lists them for sale though they are not in stock yet:
Longsword Sharps - $679AUD
Longsword Blunts - $649AUD
Bastard Sharps - $649
Bastard Blunts - $609
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Michael Pearce
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Sat 01 Nov, 2008 3:23 pm Post subject: |
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I've been told that there is a shipment on the way to the US. Now, understand that I can't officially speak for CAS/Hanwei (so don't hold them to anything that I say here) but it looks very much as if dealers will have fresh stocks of Longswords and longsword blunts in about five weeks or so. There are also Bastardsword, bastardsword blunts and Early Medieval Single-hand sharps on that shipment. The bastardswords and single-hand swords still need final approval as this is the first shipment but after getting dialed in on the longswords and what's expected for this line of swords as a whole there's very little chance that they didn't get those right. My information is that not all of the first shipment of Bastardswords and single-hand swords is spoken for yet but I am not sure about the longswords in this shipment.
I frankly don't have a clue about what's going on with shipments to other parts of the world- sorry!
Michael 'Tinker' Pearce
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Then one night, as my car was going backwards through a cornfield at 90mph, I had an epiphany...
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Ivan Curic
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| Posted: Fri 05 Dec, 2008 2:57 am Post subject: |
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Now, this may not be a very "polite" question, but...
Considering Hanwei's reputation, is it safe to order a sword from the first batch?
It took them 5 generations to iron out most of the problems on the practical h&h...
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This is a standard topic