[Brian M.]

I grew up with the Master Sword from the Legend of Zelda, the Sword of Omens from Thundercats, movie props like the Locksley sword from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and more… Basically, Excalibur from that new Arthur movie everyone here is so exercised about would have fit my conception of “sword” as a kid. Roughly parallel edges, extra long cylindrical grip, overbuilt crossguard, vestigial pommel:


When I discovered Albion’s site a few years ago (my first encounter with historically-accurate swords), the Steward looked most like my mental concept of “sword.” The Bayeux and Tritonia too, although like all single-handers their grips looked stunted to me. I was repelled by others such as the XVas (too pointy), the XIVs (too stout), as well as messers, smallswords, bronze-age swords, zweihanders, and others that didn’t fit the mold I’d grown up with.

Fortunately, the more I was exposed to the real thing, the more I appreciated the aesthetics, engineering, usability, subtleties, and historical context of all these sword forms. Many that used to be my least favorite have become my most wanted.

Two quick examples:

A while back I was visiting Albion and their wall of swords on display. I examined every single sword in the showroom, except for…the Munich! Too tall, too delicate, grip too long, fussy horizontally-recurved cross - I couldn’t be bothered to even lift it off the wall for a closer look. This astounds me now, when reproductions based on that particular artifact (Albion’s, Mateusz’s, and others) are among my absolute favorite swords.


Another recent revelation was also courtesy of Albion. I had zero interest in falchions, my thinking being I had cleared brush with a machete before and didn’t think it would translate as a sword. Then I got to heft a Vassal, and suddenly my misconceptions fell away and I had something new at the top of my wish list…


Is there any type of sword you used to dislike, but is now a favorite?
Was any sword a big surprise to you when you finally encountered it in person?
Has your taste evolved?

[Mark Moore]

I think our tastes change with time and experience, as with most anything else. When I was a kid, I HATED lima beans...now I eat them quite a lot. Same with swords. In my younger days, you wouldn't have seen me with a rapier/side-sword type. Oh no...way too flimsy and prissy looking...until I got a real one. Now, I've come to respect the subtle yet deadly designs of these types of weapons. I was also of the opinion that anything medieval-style that was less than a two-hander just would not do. How wrong I found out I was later in life! Now, my single-handers are my go-to swords of choice. I still love my big 'uns though. .....McM

[Lancelot Chan]

Yes, changed quite a lot. As my understanding grew and skills improved, my taste switched from one end of the spectrum to the other, and then back to somewhat center. Also I would test out swords that I did not like at first but sometimes learned from the experience. Sometimes I would see confirmation why I did not like it but the other times I would see the benefits of such design that I did not understand. In the latter case, it may as well change my taste too.

[Dan D'Silva]

I think what's changed for me over the years is I've begun to pick swords not simply because they look good, but by more rigorously asking what story I'd like to tell about its history and ownership, and choosing the most appropriate sword to fit the story. (Not because I want to fake antiques, just... for fun.) First I wanted a smallsword because it's small, then a jian because it's exotic, then a Stirling broadsword because it's fancy. After taking a Shakespeare class, I wanted and ultimately did buy a side-sword. Now I want to sell that off and get a smallsword-hilted hanger from the early 18th century, the idea being that it came from a shipment of arms intended for Bonnie Prince Charlie's army but never delivered or paid for, and was quietly sold off after Culloden and kept in a private storeroom for hundreds of years. I'd like to develop that kind of narrative in my head for every weapon and shield in my collection.

[Terry Thompson]

I used to have some of the better Hanwei and Windrose models (i think).
Arms and Armor and Albion have both independently (or through conspiracy) completely sc&^ed me over for wanting anything lesser. I only have 6 off their swords currently, but have one on order and plan on ordering 3 more models in the future.

They are the black-tar-heroine dealers of sword collectors (or whatever would be a very expensive and still highly addictive drug).
And don't try to plan any sort of intervention for me.
-Terry

[Gordon Alexander]

I have only partaken of the hobby for five or six years now, but I started out preferring foppish thrusters and still do. I have long been a Sir Percy Blakeney wannabe:-)

[Lance Morris]

Hey!

Good question.

My taste has certainly
Evolved

Started in fantasy swords- angus trim leaf blades
To regular medieval swords .
To complex hilts and sabers all these years later

[Paul Watson]

I'm not sure I ever had a favoured taste to start with but I generally now like crusader type single handers, especially atypical examples such as the originals that inspire Albions Oakeshott and Vigil, and the river Fyris sword that inspired a Peter Johnsson creation, as well as other very broad bladed swords such as XVIIIc's and XIV's. I have also had seen several recent examples of Castillon type swords, that I previously had very little interest in but now have grown to appreciate them as a whole as well as the individual components that make them up.

[Lin Robinson]

Considering that I cut my teeth (no pun intended) with a Prince Valiant "Singing Sword" sporting a gorgeous plastic gem stone in a gold plastic pommel, way back in the early 1950s, I guess it has. But, when I got serious about it, thirty years ago, I concentrated on Scottish basket-hilts and the occasional Viking or medieval blade. My interest in these things is in the historical realm more than the actual use, i.e. combat or cutting. I never cease to be amazed by what my fellow forumites know about swords and their uses, origins, etc. I must bow to their superior knowledge on most occasions, and gladly do so. Now in the case of firearms....

[Flavio P.]

I used to completely dismiss XI-XIII swords and now these are in my next to get one list:

[Chris Friede]

I started learning swordsmanship with Olympic style fencing, so my first though was that medieval weapons were too clumsy and slow to be truly effective.

Boy was I wrong. After getting the chance to work with accurate reproductions instead of fantasy wall-hanger types, I was disabused of my preconceptions. I love bastard swords and long swords now..

A lot of my evolution was learning how to use the weapon properly...Form does indeed follow function.

[Henry R. Gower]

Definitely has. I started my interest as a teen, due to my interest in English History from 1066-1215. My appetite was whetted by frequent visits to the Metropolitan, since I then lived in NYC. First time I could buy a sword that resembled something of that era, was when I had my first "real" job, at 22, after graduation. You didn't have much choice in those days, genuine period swords were prohibitively expensive for my income, so the choice was really limited. If you went to a gun show, and someone had authentic swords, usually they had modern swords-War of Independence, Civil War, British Raj era, etc. Or they had modern fraternal society swords. There were a lot of SLO's on offer, dreadful klunky things that supported the erroneous idea that a medieval knight had to be a champion weight lifter to wield a contemporary sword. Something very like that line actually was written in an otherwise fine book about the Crusades. I think a lot of people believed that was true. Anyway, in my 20's I only had two, rather inexpensive replica swords of the era I mentioned. One was from Spain, the other from Italy. As I got older, several things changed. I expanded my interest in history, into general Medieval European History and started to appreciate each style of sword with relation to its role in the particular era of Medieval history. As I got into my 50's I found I could afford a few Albions and a couple of custom craftsman examples. So it goes. Now I'm in my sixties and still interested.
Henry

[Nathan Robinson]

Decades ago, I started collecting swords when I was doing living history / reenactment. Here in California, the main type of that sort of thing at the time was Renaissance-era stuff.




And I had an interest in Scottish stuff:




And then on the complete other spectrum: rapiers and parrying daggers of high nobility. The rapiers probably made me first interested in complex hilts.




As time progressed, I really started to focus on other types of compound-hilts and basket-hilts and had a particular interest in Continental varieties of various forms.






Nobody was really doing good Schiavona replicas at the time, so I took that upon myself to explore with modern makers and went crazy with it for awhile.






But there was always the Scottish basket-hilts in the mix, too.






Going back to the living history days years ago, I had some brief encounters with Landsknecht and other Germanic stuff and so that always stuck with me. The complexity and German aesthetics that are present in Landsknecht arms and armour have always fascinated me. The borrowing of motifs from nature combined with the slick forms and lines found in other German-engineered things really struck an interest from the form+function balancing act that it has.






All that got my interests moving into Germanic stuff and, as of late, the complex-hilted longswords found in the 16th century.






There's been all kinds of other things thrown into the mix over the last 30 years as well. I'm still really interested in daggers of all types, complex-hilted longswords and basket-hilts.

A lot of the stuff is documents in my Collection Gallery with a lot of really old stuff in my Retired Collection.

[J. Nicolaysen]

Nathan, a fantastic post. I love how you are able to show these examples. Quite jealous of your photography as always.

As for me I'm still all over the map/timeline, from bronze age to 18th century for European weapons. I've enjoyed having a broad, if not superficial knowledge and appreciation of all the various types and cultures. Some classic forms really excite me, but then some oddball types do too.

[Mark Moore]

In the last few years, I've also taken an interest in 'combination weapons'...firearms built with an integrated blade. Also, shield guns and pistol axes. Interesting stuff there. ....McM

[Chad Arnow]

Here's a somewhat related thread from nine years ago: Evolution of collections and collectors.