[Daniel Staberg]

The Agincourt was a sword which caught my eye even when it was only a concept drawing and I had it pegged as my 2nd or 3rd sword after the Crecy I ordered first. The pictures of the waxes made by Peter moved it up to the 2nd spot as soon as I saw them. Doing business with Albion turned out to be a real pleasure, rapid and friendly replies to my every e-mail and Mike was quite helpful when I needed to switch my initial order of a Crecy to the Agincourt at a late stage due to unforseen financial circumstances which at the time seemed to limit my sword purchase to a single sword this year.

After a couple of months of waiting for the Agincourt to go into production my sword arrived unexpectedly fast, only 16 days after the prototype was finished I had 'my' Agincourt in my hand. The trip from New Glarus, USA to Gothenburg Sweden only took 6 days and the sword arrived in fine condition with only a few, very small spots of patina.

My initial impression was one of many surprises, the first was how well the sword is presented to the buyer as one opens the box. The second surprise was that despite the slim and sleek look in the photos the Agincourt was a big sword, close to four feet long and with some heft to it. Not that I felt much of that heft when i free the sword from it's restraints and handled it freely for the first time. I handled other Albion NG swords for a few minutes and of course read a lot about them but nothing fully prepared me for the way my first own NextGen felt. essentially my main thought was "Wow! This is how a sword should feel!" I hand experienced this before but with well preserved 17th C military swords which are a rather different breed than the 15th C war sword such as the Agincourt.

Fit and Finish
I had ordered my Agincourt with an oxblood grip which came out a rich, slightly reddish brown which to me looked very much like the "feuille morte" aka "dead leaves" colour I'd seen in preserved cloth samples. The Albion's 'oxblood' colour can turn out in several different ways to judge by my sword and the pictures I'd seen of others but those looking for a dark red colour should probably go with Albion's 'magenta' instead in order to avoid disappointment. Me, I'm quite happy with the way the grip turned out. The cord overwrap used by Albion to impritn the leather produced a grip which was very comfortable and fit my at best medium sized hands very well, this is probably the first sword I own where the grip feels as secure without gloves as with. The four risers are well done and improves the grip even futher.

The slightly curved guard is beatuifull and very well made, the only blemish were a few specs of patina which should be easy to polish out. The 'ridge' which runs along the center of the guard creates a very nice 3-d shape and give the entire grip a bit of a noble air an appearance. The wheel pommel turned out to be much more comfortable to grip than I expected and it is also well made except for some slight damage and pitting around the rim of the recessed area some of which can bee seen in the Agincourt photo page close ups so either the sword on Albion's webpage is mine or the flaws in this area were something which happened as part of the casting process? The damage is not large, I didn't even notice it for a day and though it doesn't bother me much others might react to a $650 sword arriving which such blemishes. Both guard and pommel are otherwise very well made and ground to a very nice finish

The blade is a real treasure, a stiff diamond section blade with thick base and impressive awl of a point as well as a keen edge. All ground&polished to a nice satin finish. The only flaw I could fined other than a little patina was a slight blemish of unknown origin on one side of the blade which has me slightly baffled as I can't determine what it is.
The point has already both impressed and slightly horrified me, when I examined the pommel and the way the tang was peened i rested the point lightly on a cardboard box filled with books, taking care to carry the weight with my hand. As I tuned the sword I forgot to not rest the weight fully on the cardboard and the point effortlessly went through the cardboard and into a hardcover book an inch below.

While I've commented on the few flaws in the swords fit and finish above my overall impression is that of a very well made and finished sword. Certainly worth the $550 I paid for it. It's the finest production sword I own and one of the finest I've ever seen.


Handling Characteristics
The bad weather here in Gothenburg the last few days with almost constant heavy rain has limited me to trying out the Agincourt in the confines of my own apartment which made just about impossible to try making cuts due to a lack of space. So my testing has so far been limited to thrusts and half sword techniques.
Thrusts are delivered almost effortlessly and with good precision from both Ochs and Pflug even by an beginner swordsman like myself. Thrusting feels very natural with this sword which is no great surprise given it's empashis on the thrust. Deciding that it was better to be safe than sorry I put on a pair of stout leather gloves before trying out the half sword guards. IMHO half-swording is were the Agincourt comes into it's own as it turns into an agile four foot steel spear which retains the versatility of the sword. All of Fiores half-sword guards techniques seem to work very well with the Agincourt.

IMHO this is sword that is best used with two hands, while it's possible to cut and thrust with one hand the sword doesn't feel as agile nor does it recover as well when doing so as in two handed use. A stronger and more skilled swordsman might very will have a different experience with this but for me this is war sword meant for two handed use.
Horseback might be a different thing and on whim I did try couching the Agincourt as a lance while wearing a old gambeson, the result was a firm grip and the point was surprising easily aimed. A lance rest would allow the sword to be braced against it and the should for some really stunning "blows" with the resulting 'lance'. I can well understand how an opponent could be unhorse by such a blow.


Conclusion
The Albion Agincourt is high quality re-creation of a 15th C war sword of the XVa family. I can recommend it to anyone wanting to explore one of the swords that commonly went to war in the hands of the men-at-arms of the last half of the 100-years war. I'm very impressed with both the design and the craftsmanship that went into the creation and making of this sword and owning it has already proved an eyeopener. I eagerly look forward to my next Albion sword arriving.

Photos
So far the weather and other circumstances had conspired against me getting pictures taken of my Agincourt, hopefully that will change during next week.

Cheers
Daniel

[Steve Grisetti]

Thanks for this well-written review, Daniel.

[Chris Lampe]

[Patrick Jones]

Excellent review, Daniel! Thank you -- although you've only made my problem worse!

I have one problem with Albion's new Type XVas -- I can't decide which one to buy!

It helps that they all use the same blade, but there are different aspects to each of the hilts that I like. The trouble is, none of them are all on just one sword!

I may just end up rolling the dice on this one...

Cheers!

Pat

[Mikko Kuusirati]

[Dominic Dellavalle]

Thanks for the review and insight Daniel. I too have been back and forth with attempting to finalize which sword from Albion I want to purchase and the Agincourt was always high on the list. Your review has pretty much sealed the deal for me and I will be placing my order with Albion within the next week or two.

I've also had a few email correspondences with Mike over at Albion and I'll agree that their customer service is definately a selling point for me. This will be my first Albion sword, and actually my first major purchase in the realm of swords.

I'm looking forward to getting my own even moreso now.


Dominic