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Marvin Stemp
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 Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 6:28 am Post subject: Balance in Lord of the rings swords? |
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They ar beautiful in appearance but i not so sure about use. I would greatly appreciate you help.
Thanks you.
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Chad Arnow
myArmoury Team
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 6:38 am Post subject: Re: Balance in Lord of the rings swords? |
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| Marvin Stemp wrote: | They ar beautiful in appearance but i not so sure about use. I would greatly appreciate you help.
Thanks you. |
Marvin,
Hello and welcome to myArmoury.com.  Are you talking about United Cutlery's LOTR swords? If so, they have two versions, a regular one and what they call a museum-grade or something. The regular swords feature the same construction things we see on their other swords: stainless steel blades and hilts of cheaply cast metals and plastics. The tangs are often welded on, and not welded well. The construction is generally lacking in quality and security. Even if the balance was good, they probably would not be safe for anything besides very light swinging around through the air.
The "museum collection" supposedly use full tang construction and non-stainless steel blades. They're advertised as fully functional and are pretty pricey. I haven't seen any reviews of these.
ChadA
http://chadarnow.com/
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Hugo Voisine
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 8:07 am Post subject: |
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On the other side you can go for a customized Christian Fletcher / Angus Trim sword. They would certainly be of better quality than any actual official LOTR repro (and most of the time less expensive than the M.C. ones).
See http://www.christianfletcher.com/
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Ken Rankin
Location: North Carolina Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 69
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 10:01 am Post subject: |
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I grok about the bad welds. The Christmas that FOTR came out, I got my wife a Witchking sword. Imagine her disappointment when she got it out of the box and the friggin' hilt FELL OFF, because the rat-tail tang had broke, presumably in shipment. I've seen better welds from cheap wall hangers. Over on the UC boards, those guys think the LOTR swords are the bomb, apparently, but complain that they can't understand when their hilts get loose from all of that air slicing 
Ken
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Steve Maly
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 10:27 am Post subject: |
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I have the Witchking, Sting, and Glamdring UC swords (regular grade). They are blade heavy and unwieldy at best with poor balance. They are great for the purpose intended--decoration. I have no experience with the museum-grade swords.
"When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to resemble a nail." ~A. Maslow
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Craig Peters
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 4:20 pm Post subject: Re: Balance in Lord of the rings swords? |
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| Marvin Stemp wrote: | They ar beautiful in appearance but i not so sure about use. I would greatly appreciate you help.
Thanks you. |
Marvin,
Since the Lord of the Rings swords are not designed to conform to "historical specifications" in terms of function as weapons, and because they are designed to look just like the swords used in the movies, regardless of whether the particular "look" is practical for a sword or not, I would doubt that either the regular or the museum collection are particularly good for use. Besides, there's lot's of beauty in swords that are built in a historically realistic manner; I think that Albion Armorer's Regent would be a fantastic long sword for Aragorn, for example, and it will handle very nicely too:
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Ken Rankin
Location: North Carolina Joined: 12 Mar 2006
Posts: 69
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 5:46 pm Post subject: |
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Here's a Ranger sword offered from Pro Sword. Anyone out there have one?
Ken
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Eric Spitler
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| Posted: Sun 25 Jun, 2006 7:39 pm Post subject: Re: Balance in Lord of the rings swords? |
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| Craig Peters wrote: |
I think that Albion Armorer's Regent would be a fantastic long sword for Aragorn, for example, and it will handle very nicely too:
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Aw, now you know a hero can't have a sword without a 'blood groove' 
Any excuse to post pics of Albions
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Marvin Stemp
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| Posted: Fri 30 Jun, 2006 9:03 am Post subject: Re: Balance in Lord of the rings swords? |
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| Chad Arnow wrote: | | Marvin Stemp wrote: | They ar beautiful in appearance but i not so sure about use. I would greatly appreciate you help.
Thanks you. |
Marvin,
Hello and welcome to myArmoury.com. Are you talking about United Cutlery's LOTR swords? If so, they have two versions, a regular one and what they call a museum-grade or something. The regular swords feature the same construction things we see on their other swords: stainless steel blades and hilts of cheaply cast metals and plastics. The tangs are often welded on, and not welded well. The construction is generally lacking in quality and security. Even if the balance was good, they probably would not be safe for anything besides very light swinging around through the air.
The "museum collection" supposedly use full tang construction and non-stainless steel blades. They're advertised as fully functional and are pretty pricey. I haven't seen any reviews of these. |
Thanks for the warm welcome.
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Brian D. A.
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| Posted: Fri 30 Jun, 2006 10:46 am Post subject: |
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Hi Marvin, and welcome (I’m rather new here myself.)
I own the regular version of Sting and Glamdring, as well as the MC Sting. The Sting sword is fine for what it is. Glamdring is very heavy though, and whenever I hold it I put a hand on the blade. It just feels that there is so much stress put on that poor tang. I have heard that the MC line is perhaps as good as MRL, but have also heard that the hilt is probably made from the same cheap cast metal of the original. Descriptions of Peter’s sword from Narnia actually say that the pommel is brass and that the guard is chrome-plated steel. United Cutlery didn’t mention it, so it is likely not steel, but “solid” metal, just like the regular versions. In short, the regular LOTR line is an odd combination of being overweight and delicate. They are not well balanced. If you ever want to swing your swords, you will need to look elsewhere. Of course, they are fine for display. Pretty much all of this has been said before. I still like LOTR swords; probably because their designs are somewhat functional.
I’m sure you will find the right kind of swords for you. Happy collecting (if you can stop that is.)
Brian
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Martin Wallgren
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| Posted: Sat 01 Jul, 2006 6:08 am Post subject: |
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Who made the original swords for the movie? Heard somewhere that viggo Mortensen had a "Rangersword" with him almost all the time during the filming and that he trained/swinged it regually. Would be intressting to know why almost every sword in a movie seem to hold up fairly to some action during filming, but the swords that are for sale almost always are cast copys or worse... (I haven´t had any experience with albions film swords but the pricetag hints that they probally gould survive at least medium duty.)
Martin
Swordsman, Archer and Dad
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Jay Barron
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| Posted: Sat 01 Jul, 2006 6:19 am Post subject: |
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| Martin Wallgren wrote: | Who made the original swords for the movie? Heard somewhere that viggo Mortensen had a "Rangersword" with him almost all the time during the filming and that he trained/swinged it regually. Would be intressting to know why almost every sword in a movie seem to hold up fairly to some action during filming, but the swords that are for sale almost always are cast copys or worse... (I haven´t had any experience with albions film swords but the pricetag hints that they probally gould survive at least medium duty.)
Martin |
The original swords for the films were made by New Zealand smith Peter Lyon of Lyonesse Armoury (http://www.swords.co.nz/). As far as I know he no longer takes orders as he now has plenty of work in the film/TV industry. The website is old and hasn't been updated in years.
Constant and true.
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Edward Hitchens
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| Posted: Sat 01 Jul, 2006 6:52 am Post subject: |
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I have the Narsil. From a distance, it somewhat resembles an Albion Regent. It's a beautiful sword and looks great on my wall. It will likely be the first sword to grab your attention despite being flanked by my Albion Talhoffer on one side and my A&A Schloss Erbach on the other. But then again that's the whole idea of what it was made for.
My Narsil is quite heavy, even for a 52-inch sword. And the fact that it's very blade-heavy is all the more reason to not test cut or spar with it. I have enough sharps and a couple wasters for that.
Ted
"The whole art of government consists in the art of being honest." Thomas Jefferson
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Michael F.
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| Posted: Sat 01 Jul, 2006 11:14 am Post subject: |
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| Martin Wallgren wrote: | Who made the original swords for the movie? Heard somewhere that viggo Mortensen had a "Rangersword" with him almost all the time during the filming and that he trained/swinged it regually. Would be intressting to know why almost every sword in a movie seem to hold up fairly to some action during filming, but the swords that are for sale almost always are cast copys or worse... (I haven´t had any experience with albions film swords but the pricetag hints that they probally gould survive at least medium duty.)
Martin |
Yeah, as Jay said they were made by Peter Lyon, as well as the crew at WETA workshop, which made all of the costumes, equipment, models, conceptual art, etc. for the LOTR movies.
You are right about the Viggo Mortenesen thing. In the extended version of the movies, they have about an hour long documentary about the weapons, armour, and battles in the movie. The Sword Viggo used was a stunt sword, but I guess was made from spring steel and was pretty authentic. Of course, it was blunt, as well as having rubber molded into the crossguard so it would absorb the abuse it was given. Not at all authentic in that respect.
I'm pretty sure they made "real" blunt steel swords, aluminium swords for fast action scenes, and even rubber ones for "safety reasons".
The swords you see Aragorn using are probably several different swords, you know, the real steel version for close-ups, others for fight scenes. So for many fans, it's probably just having a piece of cool looking merchandise from the movie hanging on your wall like a statue that you don't really think of using at all.
"Tis but a scratch.....A scratch? your arm's off!"-- Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
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