[Mike Capanelli]

hello all. has anyone owned any blades from darksword armory? i am interested in the gothic two hander but i havent seen any reviews about it or any other of there swords. im not looking for a cutter, more of something for pair drills and freeplay. if any of you can help me that would be cool!! thanks. Theres a picture of this sword. let me know what you all think.thanks

[Nathan Robinson]

I'm wondering why they call it a Gothic Two-hander. It doesn't look Gothic and it doesn't look to be a two-hander. I'd have to see the dimensions to qualify that last statement, but the form/proportions don't generally follow any known two-handers that I've seen.

[Chad Arnow]

Interesting. The hilt of this sword bears a strong resemblance to Albion's Regent.

[Nathan Robinson]

I've tried to get some Darksword Armory pieces as review samples, and they've even contacted me directly to offer some. But I never get a response to my messages or hear back after I respond to their initial contacts. It's very strange. I'd very much like to fill out our hands-on review section with samples from this price point. Maybe I'll try again.

[Bill Grandy]

Well, I've had some bad experiences with Darksword. Some people lately have been saying that they're actually good for the price, but I'll be honest, I haven't exactly put a whole lot of faith in some of the people who've said that.

But I will admit my experiences were a couple years ago. I bought an axe off of E-bay. Got it for $20, so I wasn't expecting much from this "fully functional, battle ready" piece. Took them months on unaswered angry e-mails to get it to me. Every once and a while they'd respond with, "We'll ship it soon." Had they been upfront in the auction, I may not have been so angry.

So the axe arrives, and it's a cheapo piece of junk on a 1/2" dowel rod. Again, I paid $20, so I can't ask for much, but considering all they say about their weapons being suitable for reenactment, I did expect it to at least have a reasonable haft. The axe dented when I bumped it against a pine table.

But I've seen a couple of their swords, which were poorly fitted, badly balance, and all around just not well made. They were worse than the Phillipine line of CAS Iberia swords, which I consider decorator swords. Their ridiculous marketing hype doesn't exactly help their image in my eyes, either.

To make their customer relations image worse, some guy on SFI a while back started posting, representing them. He got very angry that people like me dared to say anything negative about their product. I got some PM from him that I won't go into, but he had the nerve to say I didn't really have a Darksword product, but instead it was from one of three companies that had similar names. I won't say exactly what he said, but suffice it to say, I did NOT have an axe from one of the companies he listed, because if I did I would have actually been HAPPY with the product.

[Chad Arnow]

[Bill Grandy]

I must say, in Darksword's defense, that this "Gothic two hander" does look pretty decent aesthetically... from the picture.

Of course I also think it's a rip off of Albion, as Darksword seems to "borrow" a lot of designs from other makers.

[Robert W. Betten]

It seems to be darksword's latest trend to rip albion pieces off (that aint the first) and on axeforum we invited the smith who makes them regretedly...he was rude in manner and when you asked him any questions he avoided them. Also Scott one of the mods bought an axe recently to see how good they were, kind of a review for us folk, and his review wasnt a good one...in fact the review of DS product made me wonder how this guy stays in business.

Oh and it appears his been selling MRL fakes too (of their viking axe's), its not fully confirmed but Jesse Zinn on Axeforum made a well detailed post regarding this...

[Björn Hellqvist]

The pommel looks OK; the rest looks rather shoddy. Don't expect too much from it.

[Markus Haider]

[Patrick Jones]

I don't own any of Darksword's products myself, but my instructor does. Here's the link to a review of one of his latest pieces.

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37423

cheers!

Patrick

[Kenneth Enroth]

I think you should save your money.

www.darksword-armory.com

The site looks like a loose copy of Arms&Armor. The weapon descriptions and FAQ sound similar. In the FAQ there is a question "Can you ship to Australia?" on A&A's site it is phrased "Can you ship to Finland?" Also notice the red cloth background for the photos.

[Alexi Goranov]

[Bill Grandy]

Well, if they've made improvements, then that's good. I must admit I still need more than one good review to convince me, though, but I'm glade Jordan's seems decent.

[Aaron Justice]

I wonder if they adressed the issue of their toothpick thick tangs?

Or ther poor tempering?

Or poorly ground fullers?

Or poor customer service question answering?

Or have given up their titanium vanadium steel marketing?

Or.... you see where I am going with this. One sword that grabbed my attention was their Saxon sword, a more rounded peetersen type H. It looks nice, but I fear it will be a poorly tempered boat anchor.

I had their "Medieval Battle sword" once. Quoted weight was 2 pounds 3 ounces. when I git it, it must have weighed 3 to 3.5 pounds. Their response? Well, they are hand made so weights will vary. Usually not by almost double the weight though!!

I am still convinced they get their blades from India. Too many similarities between their swords and the India knockoff companies.

[Lloyd Clark]

It get's worse:

http://www.darksword-armory.com/armor.html

Check out the pig-faced bascinet.....is it the lighting or are there 1 1/2" gaps where the visor meets the skull?

[Alexi Goranov]

[Nathan Robinson]

[Alexi Goranov]

[David McElrea]