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Hank Reinhardt
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Location: oxford,ga.
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 3:36 pm    Post subject: advice requested on swords         Reply with quote

I thought this might be the best place to ask some questions. As I have stated, I no longer have any relationship with Museum Replicas. I left them the first of the year. However I have not yet abandoned the field, not by any means.
I am seriously considering getting back into the reproduction arms and armour. I am curious was to what swords many of you would like to see on the market. These swords would be the equal of many custom swords. In short, would be better than anything that is being offered now. Prices of course are not known, but I feel that I can keep them to being reasonable.
So my questions to all of you, what swords would you like to see reproduced? I would like to hear both types, like Viking, Bastard, Type VII, etc, and specifics, such as the Viking sword from the River Thames, or any of the other hundreds of swords that are available. The same for various other weapons, maces, daggers, spears, etc. Any comment you guys have would be greatly appreciated....Best, Hank

Hank Reinhardt
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Drake Abram





Joined: 31 Mar 2006

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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 4:19 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I'd like to see more falchions, messers, and sabres.

And to that some knives and daggers.

Do you have some ideas for what you want to do already?
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Helen Miller




Location: Springfield VA, USA
Joined: 06 Apr 2005
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 4:25 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I would like to see some more types of spears and daggers as well as shields.
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Michael Eging




Location: Ashburn, VA
Joined: 24 Apr 2004
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 5:18 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I would also like to see some Byzantine and Russian sabers, as well as Frankish weapons.
M. Eging
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Alexi Goranov
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 5:26 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

hi Hank,

I would like to see more sword reproductions from "hands on" examination and documentation, i.e swords that are as close as possible to being exact replicas of original pieces. I would be interested in purchasing such pieces spanning the time interval 6th c to 15th c. I am not very particular in other words as to the exact type of sword. I care though that they are as close to the original as possible (+/- 1 mm for example), and handle like the original.

I do not know if that is possible with whatever you are planning to do, but that is what I want to see on the market Happy

Alexi
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Eric Allen




Location: Texas
Joined: 04 Feb 2006

Posts: 208

PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 6:01 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I would second the "hands-on" approach

Good, historically accurate spears, shields, and daggers would be nice, and maybe some other polearms.

More specifically, I personally like the "age of mail" weaponry (Middle Ages up to about the mid 14th century). I would be all over any good spears and shields from this era (price dependent, of course)
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D. Rosen





Joined: 08 Nov 2004
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 6:30 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I would really like to see more Elizabethan military (I don't mean civilian rapiers, but compound hilt/basket hilt side swords, etc.), & English Civil War swords (Out of the Osprey books for example), as well as more Wars of the Roses era swords & weapons. I don't think these 'genres' are represented well enough . What I'd like to see most of all, is to replicate the swords one sees in various. fechtbuchs, reproduced exactly as they are depicted. I guess it'd be pretty cool to have 'the sword of Silver' or diGrassi or something. Big Grin
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Alexander Hinman




Location: washington, dc
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 6:47 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

I second the call for medieval sabres.

Though a strange preference, I would also like to see more interesting pommels, like the spherical (ish) pommel on Albion's Tritonia, or the flattened square pommels on some other swords. Scent-stopper and especially disc pommels have been done to death.

A type XXa would be pretty cool, but I may leave that one up to a custom job rather than a semi-mass produced sword.
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Ken Rankin




Location: North Carolina
Joined: 12 Mar 2006

Posts: 69

PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 6:48 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hi Hank!

It's nice to meet you! As someone who is very new to collecting swords, I'd like to see more pieces that are unique, that do not have a cookie cutter appearance, and are priced more for us that are just starting out. Just my two cents. I was reading 'The Barbarians' by Tim Newark today and was struck by the descriptions of the decorations of Viking swords. There is a great example from Hedeby, the original is in the Schleswig-Holstein Landesmuseum. I think I'd like to see things like that, and I wonder if you'd be offering a line for the new collector, so that we can start small and work our way into the world of steel.

Thanks,

Ken
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James A. Vargscarr




Location: Englishman living in Canada
Joined: 17 Oct 2004

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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 6:51 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

It sounds like you're set on products that will be directly competeing with Albion and Arms and Armor, so I fear the thoughts I'm about to outline may be of little interest to you. However, I'm much less concerned about types of sword than I am about the overall quality/price ratio. I'd welcome the opportunity to expand my horizons as far as sword types go if you can fill that niche in the production market between cheap, poor-quality swords at the one extreme and the very high-end pieces at the other.

If I want to pay top-dollar for a production sword, I have Albion or Arms and Armor; and at this point I'm more inclined to save the few extra pennies needed to go custom. I'd be interested in a company I can trust that lets me familiarise myself with decent examples of unfamiliar sword types for less money. They don't have to be custom quality; they just have to be decent swords designed within historical parameters that won't fall apart. To be perfectly honest, I don't really want to pay for custom quality in a production sword. Give me something a bit less good so I can make an impulse purchase now and again without breaking the bank. Albion's Squire line meets MRL.
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G. Scott H.




Location: Arizona, USA
Joined: 22 Feb 2005

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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 6:54 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hank, the first thing that jumped into my mind upon reading your post was this Type XVIIIa from the Metropolitain Museum in NY: .
Obviously, this sword was the inspiration for MRL's own Arbedo, but I think it just screams out for a really high quality reproduction that lacks the Arbedo's shortcomings (i.e. poorly defined central ridge, overly thin and flexible blade, etc.). Happy
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W. R. Reynolds




Location: Ramona, CA
Joined: 07 Dec 2004

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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 7:08 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Falchions, messers, and daggers. What is really missing , at least in the US of A is a good selection of early type halberds, voulges, bills and fauchards. Some of the ones I've found on the web just don't look right.
Bill

"No matter who wins the rat race.......they are still a rat."
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Glen A Cleeton




Location: Nipmuc USA
Joined: 21 Aug 2003

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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 7:23 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Something the market is kind of lacking is good spadroon and cuttoe
offerings. I've no specific examples in mind but there are lots of late 18th century examples out there. Some early American made sabers might be interesting too, say a Starr or Rose replica.

Cheers

GC
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Hank Reinhardt
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Location: oxford,ga.
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 8:30 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hey, the response is really great. Keep it up.It should be obvious to everyone that I love swords. But I am also aware that it is the customers that buy the swords, and it is necessary that I also know what the customers want. Swords that I want may not be te sword that you want. I learned long ago that giving the customer what he wants is more important than just getting a blade that you want.
Nothing is concrete yet, and I do not expect to know anything until at least June or July, but at that time I hope to be able to offer a line of swords that will be as good, or better, than anything else on the market. I also hope that I can offer both levels of pricing for the new collector and for the experienced collector. Daggers will be readily offered, and I have several in mind that I think everyone will like. Spears and hand axes and maces are not a problem. Pole arms are. The problem is the length of the shaft and the resultant shipping costs. I dearly love pole arms, but I am not sure what I can do about selling them
This may, or may not work. Nothing is set in concrete, but if it works, then be ready for some damn fine swords, better than anything I've been able to do before. Hell, at 72 I'm too damn young to sit home on my butt and whine and complain about being old. I'd much rather be out sparring and playing with swords while whining and cpomplaining about be old. So please keep the comments comment...again, my thanks for the response...Hank

Hank Reinhardt
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Joe Fults




Location: Midwest
Joined: 02 Sep 2003

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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 9:44 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hank,

I honestly think the market is fairly saturated right now. I also think the real question needs to be "What would you buy?" which is a tough question for me to answer right now.

That said, I belive that one gap in the US, is good historic dagger reproductions. A&A has a few good ones, but the selection is not that wide and nobody else really does them at all. Nice custom pieces are out there, but when they push over $1K, worth it or not, they are out of my budget.

I think another gap is complex hilts outside the land of the rapier. The current crop of production stuff like Basket Hilts and Schiavona if fairly weak and underrepresented in many vendor offerings. I don't really understand why unless they just don't sell for many people. Seems like they should though.

I'm sure this will be the controversial, but I'd really love to see a bit more of a merge between modern material philosophy and ancient design philosophy. I'm tired of one philosophy saying products are not really that histirically inaccurate, and the other philosophy saying products are at least as durable as the histrorical originals. IMO this only confuses consumers and impairs market goodwill, while largely failing to address modern value expecations.

"The goal shouldn’t be to avoid being evil; it should be to actively do good." - Danah Boyd
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Matt Phillips




Location: England
Joined: 22 Feb 2006
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 10:04 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hank,

It makes me very happy to hear you are considering getting back into reproduction arms and armor. As a sword and shield enthusiast I would love to see single-handed type X through XII varieties. I second all of the other comments about accuracy as compared to historic pieces. Too many replicas today just don't feel right. You may not know it until you get your hands on a truly well made sword, but it's just too much of a compromise to make to get something that looks the part, but doesn't feel right when you use it. So I'd love to see more high quality pieces of this type out there that will not only look great but also handle like the original. That's what I'd buy.
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W. R. Reynolds




Location: Ramona, CA
Joined: 07 Dec 2004

Posts: 123

PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 10:05 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

Hank,

In regards to pole arms. If you can't ship the shafts send the heads with instructions on how to do the shaft. You can get a good piece of ash (no pun intended) at most hardwood stores and have a cabinet maker cut it to whatever shape and length you want.

Bill

"No matter who wins the rat race.......they are still a rat."
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David Etienne




Location: Ittre, Belgium
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PostPosted: Tue 04 Apr, 2006 11:21 pm    Post subject:         Reply with quote

G. Scott H. wrote:
Hank, the first thing that jumped into my mind upon reading your post was this Type XVIIIa from the Metropolitain Museum in NY: .
Obviously, this sword was the inspiration for MRL's own Arbedo, but I think it just screams out for a really high quality reproduction that lacks the Arbedo's shortcomings (i.e. poorly defined central ridge, overly thin and flexible blade, etc.). Happy


I strongly second that, as this sword is one of my dreams ones. I also would like to see more historically accurate warhammers maces and quillon daggers, especially XIVth C. examples.

Good luck with your project,

Cheers,

David
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Chuck Russell




Location: WV
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PostPosted: Wed 05 Apr, 2006 3:51 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

15thc falchions. there are what, 2 on the open market now? del tin and armour class that the average person knows about to buy? never got why the MRL wakefield was no longer carried.
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Wolfgang Armbruster





Joined: 03 Apr 2005

Posts: 322

PostPosted: Wed 05 Apr, 2006 5:31 am    Post subject:         Reply with quote

This fullered XVII sword from the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum in Munich is one of my all-time favs. Most people don't seem to like these swords, but this one is definitely a classic I'd very much like to see as a very accurate reproduction. Faithful recreations are the future in my opinion Happy

http://www.myArmoury.com/view.html?features/pic_spotxx06.jpg

Faithful recreations are the future in my opinion. Countries with extremely low wages are much better at mass-production. The only chance I see for the US and Europe is to aim for the best quality possible.
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