Hanwei Tinker line Bastard Sword

The Stats

Overall Length: 42.5 Inches
Blade Length: 33 inches
Weight: 2 lb 14 ounces
PoB: 4 inches
CoP: 22 inches

The Pictures















The scabbard
Well the leather is a decent quality on the scabbard. The metal parts are plain but done well enough. The sword fits in very nicely...however I am unsure that the core is. It is kinda light to be wood so it maybe fiberglass like the longsword...but I can't tell because...the throat is very annoying and has the metal enclose the blade and it makes that annoying "shreek" sound you hear in the movies when you draw your blade.



The Blade
Okay now the important part of the sword. The blade is heat treated VERY well. I'm quite pleased with this aspect of the blade. However, the blade has quite an obvious secondary bevel. It's VERY agressive and while this allows one to shave paper with, it makes for a HORRIBLE cutting edge. Other then this rather blip, it does have a good blade geometry for it's type. The finish on the blade is a VERY course "satin" finish. Not sure I can call this satin without the quotes.

Fit and Finish
Okay so the blade obvious has a very crude finish to it...but the pommel and cross does not. They are cast and polished perfectly...TOO perfectly. They kinda shine as if made from nickle or stainless steel. However, they are made very well and everything fits very nice. This is the best fit I have seen in a sub 300 sword yet. The leather on the handle is like the scabbard and once again of decent quality. The grip on this sword is also on the small side so those with big hands may have issues with the grip. I however love it and it fits my hands very well.

Handling
I personally love how this sword handles one handed. It moves almost like an XVIII arming sword. It is very quick and agile with good point control. It doesn't quite dance like my Albion Crecy does...but it REALLY wants to. Two handed however...it's all suddenly feels too light. Too insubstantial. I can do the lightning fast changes with it, but it feels like the sword is getting tossed around and there is nothing behind it.

Historical Accuracy
Okay so it's threaded...thats a penalty. Secondary bevel...can't over look that. And that pommel just doesn't looks quite right.... Otherwise this is a historically plausible XVIIIa.

Value for the Money
Well at around 300 dollars, I'm fairly happy with this sword. Overall it's a small project sword. Redo the blade's edge and finish, hot blue the cross and pommel. Maybe reshape the pommel and cross. Redo the grips. I can't say you should get this sword instead of saving up for a better sword because this sword just isn't that good. After all another 150 gets you an Atrim. However this is one of the best sub 300 western sword yet...i.e. yes this is very good value for the money.

Thanks for posting. I've been wondering about these. :D

All in all, it does seems like a fairly good deal for a WMA student wanting a practical cutter; yet can have the exact same sword as a blunt. I do like the blade form/flared shoulders on the longsword a little more for personal reasons. It also seems like these would make a decent platform for some customization work.

I'd definately do something immediately about the metal locket however to prevent damage to the edge - even if you are planning on a redo down the road. You might want to file/sand/Dremel out the area making contact with the blade.

The temptation is too great for me. I think I might just have to order one. :D

I just re-did the edge and I'm much happier about it now. And the blade looks better to boot. Even at 120 grit, it's a huge difference.



That is at 220 grit and you can see the blade finish is a lot better and no more secondary bevel :) . I'll have to try cutting with it tommarow.

As for the scabbard...yeah I need to figure something out...I REALLY don't like the throat of the sccabard at all.

Thanks for the review! I'm looking forward to hear about how it cuts.
Just a question, though, how did you touch up the edge?
Thanks! :)

Well I used a flatbar and sand paper. 120 first, then 220. Basically you round off the secondary bevel to get the apple seed with it. The easiest way for me was to use the flat bar perpendicular to the blade with the angle at what the main body of the blade is. Then as you draw down, match the angle to the secondary bevel. Getting the edge doesn't take that long...but redoing the finish takes a bit longer. You can get the edge done in about 1-2 hours if you know what your doing and your looking at 2-3 hours for the finish. Course powertools can make this go faster but I like the control you have doing it this way.

Well I just did some cutting with the new edge. It's better but still needs some fine tuning. That bevel is just too aggressive, and since I match the angle of my appleseed to it, it's still off. Kinda bugging the bejeezers outa me. I would have much preferred the dull edge that was on the longsword vs this uber sharp edge that is just no good at all. At least a dull edge is easy to fix...this edge is turning out to be a major issue to fix.

Is this the same kind of edge on the longsword?

M.

Yeah, edges are turning out to be a bit of a problem. An 'appleseed edge' was originally on the menu for these swords but doing this on a production basis where hundreds of swords are produced in a 'run' turned out to be a bit of a nightmare. I've brought the problems with the edge to CAS/H's attention and they are working on a fix. My recommendation to fix the edge is a 'medium' grade Diamond-hone (tm) this works very well and quite quickly to modify the edge geometry and does less harm to the blade's finish.

Also- the cores of all the scabbards in this line are fiberglass- wood turned out to be just too much of a problem for production. I'll mention the scabbard throat to CAS/H as well- this doesn't look like a big problem to fix.

Mike, let us know when the edges have been resolved. I've been considering a longsword for a while, but don't want a bad edge on it.

M.

Good to hear. What kind of edge *should* it have? Hexogonal? I'm a bit out of touch with type XVIIIb.

M.

Just meant in general, really :p

Well, if you're backing them, they're good enough for me. That widening of the shoulders really sets it off.

M.

Just to be clear, I am happy with the blade on my longsword. When I buy a sword at this price point and get a blade of outstanding heat treat and really good steel, with good harmonics, fitted to a nice hilt with well-designed pieces... I'm thrilled. I would have been thrilled if it had no edge on it.

To my mind, edges are a "consumable attribute" on a sword. For the record... I even rework the edges on all my ATrim swords, and touch up the edges on all the Albion and A&A swords I get. It's just something you should expect to do occasionally if you use your swords and demand performance from them.

Okay so I fixed the scabbard issue by using a belt sander and griding down to the wood core. Yes it is actually wood and not fiberglass. It's not a very good wood core mind you, but wood.



And what the blade looks like now. I had a small chip on the tip from it getting dropped by a new person doing some cutting when he hit the stand. The sword was fine from the stand but the edges chipped from landing on rocks...edge on. So I tried to re-do the edge by hand...but the chip was big enough where this just wasn't gonna happed anytime reasonable so I reground it using a slack belt sander. Then I liked how the edge came out of just the tip, so I redid the entire edge using the slack belt sander. It took me about 15 minutes to get a proper appleseed edge. Course you have those horizantal grind marks from it. You can still see them in the picture a bit...but I really liked how the edge came out using this method. And the finish on the blade is a 300 grit finish. The whole process was about an hour and a half of work. So if I ever have to do this again, that's what I'm doing :) .



And see less then 2 hours and I'm now VERY happy with this sword :) . Well sorta...since the first edge touch up was by hand which took much longer. But in the future, I think I'll just do it this way hehe.

I talked to hanwei this last week, and they believe that they have a fix for the edge so this should hopefully not be a problem in the future. They are also planning on opening up the throat in a fashion similar to what you have done.

That's the sign of a good company for sure.

M.