[Mark Moore]

I was just browsing a few sword sites, and came across the Paul Chen Scottish claymore on several of them. Most all the sites promote this sword as "battle-ready"........yes, I know........and as being full-tang. Does anyone have any experience with this sword? Any photos of the tang? I know Pauls swords have a good rep among folks on this website community, and all of the rest of the Chen/Hanwei swords are very well built. I was just wondering if this very large sword was well constructed, as I have yet to see one disassembled.....or really ever even heard much on them. Any info will be appreciated. Not to change the subject....but....While we are on claymores, has anyone ever heard if ATrim has any plan on ever offering a big two-handed Scotty? That'd be waaaay-sweeeet. mcm.

[Chad Arnow]

Mark,
I saw one of these at a Ren Faire a few years back. It looked decent from a distance. But the langets on the one I saw appeared to be riveted through the blade. I'm not sure why they do that unless they wanted to keep the langets from rattling against the blade.

I see that construction as a structural flaw. If they still do that, I'd personally pass on it.

Del Tin makes a decent Claymore; I liked mine when I had one, but I never did any cutting with it. A&A makes a great one from all reports. When Albion's Chieftain comes out, that'll be another great entry to the market.

Not to speak for Gus, but I'd doubt he'd make one unless he starts casting hilt pieces. The quatrefoil cross arms and the langets would most likely be cost-prohibitive to produce using his current construction methods.

[Mark Moore]

Riveted through?!? Oh my. Yeah, Chad, that would be a turn off for me too. Like I said, I was just trying to glean some info on the sword. Looks can be really decieving. I believe I will take your advice and wait to see what goodies Albion comes up with. The Chieftain is gonna be outrageous....and one day....who knows? Maybe there will be some company for The Dane in the two-hander category in the form of a great claymore. HINT....HINT.....By the way, I still carry the sgian I got from you...use it all the time! Thanks, Chad. mcm.

[G. Scott H.]

CASI/Chen makes four different claymores (and a couple of wallhanger claymores too): a brass-hilted, a steel-hilted, an antiqued, and a Robert the Bruce. The only one I've seen "in the steel" is there brass-hilted version. I didn't see any rivets in the langets. Granted, I wasn't really looking for them, but I definitely would have noticed them, had they been there, so perphaps they no longer make them like that. This was just about a month ago at a local knife shop, so it was their most recent version. Overall, most of the Hanwei/CASI/Chen stuff I've handled is very comparable to Windlass in general quality, which is to say great for the price. I like Chen stuff quite a bit, myself. I will, however, reiterate others' advice that when buying a Chen, get one with the -GT suffix, rather than the -PP suffix. The -GT's are made by Hanwei in China, whereas the -PP's are made in the Phillipines, and are of lesser quality.

P.S. Now that I think about it, I believe that the CASI claymores are, in fact, -PP models (not totally sure), so I'd be fairly cautious in buying one, though I'll admit, the brass-hilted one looked pretty nice.

[Allen W]

I've seen several Hanwei claymores at Blade Shows and rens, none of which were riveted through the langets.

[Chad Arnow]

For what it's worth, on the one I saw, the rivet had been ground down a bit: not flush, but so it wasn't the first thing you saw. It was as if they had drilled straight through the langets and blade, put a steel rivet/bar through and peened it over each langet.

They may very well have changed it in the intervening years since I saw that one. If you want to know for sure, buy from a place with a good return policy, and check for yourself. If it's not riveted through the blade any more, then it's likely a decent value, like most Hanwei pieces. If it is riveted through, send it back.

[Ryan Brault]

i used to own a few paul chen blades, they a far from "battle ready" functional maybe, but not strong enough for edge-to-edge combat, i took them agianst a sword i made out of a leaf spring, and both paul chen blades were devoured by the leaf spring sword, Paul chen swords are not battle ready because they are often hollow ground, tis produces a thin, dent-prone edge, if your looking for a good, affordable claymore, go with windlass steelcrafts, they have nice spring steel blades.

[Chad Arnow]

[David Martin]

I bought a CAS Iberia / Paul Chen Claymore (the all steel version) for a friend for his 40th birthday. Personally, I thought it was a glorified wall hanger. It was extremely heavy and poorly balanced. The fit and finish were nothing to write home about.

I want a Claymore as well, so I contacted Gus Trim with some ideas. He's going to be making a new model Type XIIIa blade that will be very well suited to building a Claymore. I wrote about this in the Poll: Favorite Atrim thread, but I see now that my post was deleted. Very odd...

[Chad Arnow]

[David Martin]

Chad,

Thank you for the clarification. I'm sorry if my post sounded accusatory, as that wasn't my intent.

For anyone who is interested, the gist of my previous post was just a description of a new sword Gus is making. It's a heavily modified AT1423. For those of you unfamiliar with this sword, it's a Type XIIIa with a 37" blade that is 2" wide, with a 7" grip, it weighs in at 3lb, 8oz and has a POB at 8.5".

The new sword will be a Type XIIIa with a 37-38" blade that will be wider than the standard AT1423, with a 10" grip, and thicker steel (standard is .24, this will be .36) and utilizing a new style distal taper. It should come in at around 4lbs with a POB at 5". I'm requesting mine with an appleseed (convex) edge.

Christian Fletcher will be doing the finishing work on the blade. It will have a wheel pommel and his Scottish crossguard, but the guard terminals will be modified to a pierced design. We're discussing this now. I'm leaning towards a three pierced knotwork design reminiscent of the traditional quatrefoil, while Christian has some other ideas in the works, so we'll have to see what works best.

I will, of course, post good quality pictures and a review when it is finished. Gus tells me that he'll have a prototype ready within the next few weeks/months (depending upon his schedule, as he has been pretty busy with his canted tang sabers lately).

Mark: I hope this answers your question. Gus does have a big, two-handed Scotty in the works.

[Ryan Brault]

thanks for the tip chad, i'll try that on my next sword

[Chad Arnow]

[Kenneth Enroth]