A decent falcata or kopis? -- myArmoury.com

John Cooksey · Posted: Sun 20 Nov, 2005 2:03 am Post subject: A decent falcata or kopis?

Other than the custom route, is there any way to get a decent falcata or kopis?

I passed up the opportunity to order a fabulous custom-designed/forged falcata from Al Massey a couple of years ago, and I have been kicking myself ever since.

I know that Windlass, Deepeka, and even Del Tin still make falcata, but are any of them decent for the price point?
I know the Del Tins used to be well though of, but standards have changed . . . . . . :-)

Thanks, y'all.

P.S. hmmmmm . . . . maybe I'll end up buying a 25-inch kumar kobra from HI. If it was as nice as my 18-inch dui chirra chitlangi, it would be a heck of a weapon, even if not a true falcata.

Geoff Wood · Posted: Sun 20 Nov, 2005 3:45 am Post subject: Re: A decent falcata or kopis?

Steve Grisetti · Posted: Sun 20 Nov, 2005 5:32 am Post subject:

I don't know much about the falcatta, but I do know that Manning Imperial offers one. Here is a link to their offering:
http://www.manningimperial.com/item.php?flag=...47&y=3

John Cooksey · Posted: Sun 20 Nov, 2005 4:46 pm Post subject: Re: A decent falcata or kopis?

David Wilson · Posted: Mon 21 Nov, 2005 5:14 pm Post subject:

My falcata is the Del Tin, an older one purchased through MRL many moons ago, with the older CK55 steel. Although I haven't done much cutting with it, it is a very solid, sturdy piece, quite well balanced too (unlike a lot of the cheaper versions).

Windlass had a "Horsehead Falcata" that looked pretty solid as well, but it's been discontinued for ages....

The new Deepeeka Horsehead Falcata (different from the older Windlass) is very interesting looking, complete with an accurate scabbard (and by-knife!). It looks good, and I've heard decent reviews of it (except, it tends to be way blade balanced and heavy-feeling).

Of the affordable/production swords, I'd recommend the Del Tin first.

And yes, Vince Evans did make a Falcata, a very nice one.... (this one is long off the market and I don't know if he'll make another any time soon):

Shane Allee · Industry Professional

I have put in a good bit of time researching and designing a couple falcata blades, and can tell you they are not a simple and easy to do. They don't transfer over to mass produced swords easily either, I know that the Del Tin falls short in many ways and expect that the Deepeeka does as well. If you take a look at this thread: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ht=falcata
You can start to see what is going on with distal taper, cross sections, and fullers. The falcata blade starts off pretty thick and generally has almost 50% distal taper the first half of the blade alone, and an even more drastic taper from there forward. There is two factors there that make it hard for places trying to make as many of these for as cheap as possible, a thick blade with a complex taper. The falcata also starts off with a wedge or triangular cross section, but many if not most transition into something more like a lenticular cross section in the last half. The fullers make it even worse then. The upper fuller usually isn't too bad, it is narrow and can have a rounded bottom. The lower fullers are usually wide shallow and have flat bottom, this is difficult to do with that much distal taper going on. The top one stops about the change in cross section, but the lower one also extents through the transition in cross section as well.

Even Vince went with the less common blade that has just the single fuller and the more simple blade cross sections. Albion really does have their hands full with these factors and a few other things if they really want to nail the classic falacta and get it right.

I'm dieing to get a few of these made, but right now my big hurtle is trying to get the fullers in place and looking right. You can forge them, mill them, or scrap them in, and forging is out for me right now. Scraping them in maybe pretty tricky with the wide fuller, not to mention the man hours might drive the price up more than I want. So it is really looking like I'm going to have to find someplace to mill my fullers in, but finding a place to do them right for a reasonable price may be hard. So my falcata blades are pretty much on hold until I find some place to have fullers milled or forged into place.

These have to be without a doubt the more complex blades I have ever worked with.

Peter Lyon that did the LOTR swords also did a birds head kopis.
http://www.swords.co.nz/

Shane