After much looking and dithering I've come back to the Gen 2 River Witham. The Albion SL Gotland very nearly won out, and I considered a number of others. If money were no object I'd go for the ArmArt River Witham, it appears to be a more accurate copy but at $2178 it's beyond what I'm planning to do right now. This being my second sword purchase I think I'll leave the more expensive decisions for later. I'm likely to consider grip rework, antiquing, and a better scabbard for the Gen 2. I've been looking at Tritonworks and a few others, and would welcome any comments or opinions.
I certainly appreciate all the pointers and other material on this site, it has all been helpful and educational.

Having a different grip and scabbard made would be my thoughts as well, if I were to buy a Gen2 Witham. One thing that really puts me off about Legacy Arms/Gen2 and also Darksword Armory is the fact that all the leather (grips and scabbards) are almost most often just plain black. I don't know why, but somehow I just can't convince myself that a craftsman who lived back then and had to tan and dye the leather by hand using whatever methods were used at that time would be satisfied with something completely devoid of color and so plain as solid black for the amount of labor put into it. Granted, it probably wasn't that laborious to make leather back then, but much more so than it is today, and I just think some level of aesthetics would be sought. At least a nice rich brown rather than black. I just have a personal dislike of black grips and scabbards, though.

Some people might be put off by the 4 lb. weight, but I love a heavy sword of this type. When I think of an era where no warrior would ever step onto the field of battle without his shield, recovery time just doesn't seem as extremely important to me as to others -- I think the fighting style was more of swapping blows over and over until someone succeeded in dispatching the opponent, rather than a lot of finesse and movie-like flashy swordplay.

Good luck on the customizations. :)

While KOA lists the weight as 4 lbs. the maker lists 3 lbs 3 oz. This is a little heavier than some of the more historically accurate offerings, by about 8 oz. I've never handled any of these swords, heavier or lighter. Being a more heavily built fellow I cannot see 8 oz being that big a factor, but I also have a lot to learn on the subject. I suspect this second sword will be one more step in that process.
I'm currently thinking about brown or perhaps oxblood or maybe a two color scheme for the upgraded grip and scabbard.

A few days after my Nov. 11 2011 posting I placed the order with KOA for the Gen 2 River Witham, without noticing it's status had been changed to Out Of Stock. Gen 2 shipped new product at the end of Feb, and my River Witham is shipping tomorrow. I know its not in the same class as the ArmArt sword (website unavailable?), or any number of other offerings. I'm fairly new at this, and the River Witham is my second sword purchase. I sure am looking forward to it.

one thing that could work and that i have considered myself has been getting an angus trim XA.3 blade and fitting it with a VA hedemark hilt. problem is that i really do not know if they sell atrim blades on their own.

Here is mine that I made a couple of small changes.

William that really looks great. Your couple of small changes look just like what I had in mind. What process did you use to blue the hilt & pommell?

Just be cautious w/the Gen 2 items.I have a couple.I don't know if their heat treatment varies but the tips roll/bend easily.

The River Witham arrived today. I'm new at this, its my second sword, the first being a DSA Scottish Claymore. The River Witham is far superior in my opinion, from one end to the other. I'm very pleased with it. I've got some thinking to do about how I'll use my upcoming place in line at Tritonworks....