[Tom Kinder]

Tried and True Armory is proud to offer a training sword that has been praised by Michael Tinker Pearce

as "very carefully and thoughtfully designed to be extremely robust and yet still handle properly like a real sword."

"[Gus] far exceed all of our expectations producing what is possibly the finest practice sword I have ever seen. ok that's not strictly speaking accurate: never mind the possibly, it IS absolutely the finest practice sword I have ever seen."

"[the heat treat] is absolutely superb, the edges are very thick and yet the sword overall is not overweight, and they are extremely tough."

"I almost cannot praise them too much."

but hey don't take my word for it, go to Theswordgeek.com and listen to podcast #3. not only will you hear a really good sword related pod cast but yup, all these quotes are right in there.

now I don't say this to put Tinker on the spot, but rather I see what he said in that podcast as being just about the highest praise this sword could possibly get and I think I would be a fool to not mention such extraordinary praise for a product I am trying to sell. I am not a fool ; )

Tinker winds up the discussion on this particular sword model by saying that the catch is that they are not actually in production, and at that time he was right, but THEY ARE NOW!

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the Angus Trim I-Beam Long Sword Trainer (third generation):










we currently have one in stock but are happy to produce as many more as people are willing to buy,

our price $495
http://triedandtruearmory.com/econ/index.php?...duct_id=95

I will be getting detailed specs to you very soon. please be patient as I am deployed out to sea and need to get the specs from my partner. I'll have them soon.

[Michael Pearce]

No, lol, that is not a paid endorsement. Having now used these swords in practice on a number of occasions over the last several months and seen how they stand up to hard use I have to say my opinion is unchanged. I really like these swords. I just wish that I could afford one...

[T. Arndt]

How do these compare to an A&A Fechterspiel?

Is there anywhere I can find stats? Blade length, Overall length, weight?

Thanks.

[Tom Kinder]

we have a new web site. our ATrim catalog is located here: http://triedandtruearmory.com/ATrim-catalog.html

stats:
35" Blade
9" Grip
POB 4.5"
2lb 12oz
Edge Thickness:
At cross 6mm
At tip 3mm

we have dropped our price to $465 too.

we currently have one of these swords out with an active HEMA practitioner who will be taking it to the PAC NW HEMA gathering next month so it can be put through its paces by as many different people and against as many different training swords as possible.

[Dustin R. Reagan]

[Tom Kinder]

Dustin,

it sounds to me like what you had was not an ATrim I-beam but rather a Valiant Armoury Atrim designed sword made in China. there's a huge difference between the Chinese made swords and the ones made by Angus Trim himself such as these. now Obviously, I don't know what you had for sure but I have never head the first generation of Gus' I-beams described the way you described yours and I have heard the Chinese ones described that way exactly so, yes I am assuming but I think I have it right. one way of knowing for sure is that the fuller on the Chinese model stopped far short of the tip of the blade unlike Gus' models which brought the fuller out very close to the tip offering greater flexibility and safety. below I am posting pictures of the ATrim I-beams used by the Lonin Sword Group which is local to Gus' shop and have been using his trainers from some time now. the swords pictured are, to my knowledge from 6 months to a year old and have been used hard and often. near the bottom I have some pictures of a current generation next to a first generation. if your sword did not look like either one of those then you for sure had a Chinese one. while I have not handled a Chinese version of an I-Beam I have handled Chinese version of some of Gus' other swords and when put up to the originals I assure they make no comparison.















the Lonin Sword guys told me they had never used any sort of file or sand paper or stone on the edges or any other part of the sword at all. so nearly a year with no maintenance and they are still in good shape.

here are some side-by-side comparisons of an old model first gen and the new model.






here's the youtube video ID of some of the Lonin Sword guys beating theirs together
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just plug that code in after the "watch=" part of any youtube video and it should work, or visit my youtube channel "triedandtruearmory"