[Raffaele Vitale]

Hi, i'd like to buy one of Radek Lobko sword, a single hand norman sword with Brazil nut hilt called "robert the guiscar"
I'm waiting for his answer from last week, i know he is quite slow answering questions so now i want to ask you the same questions..
1)Where is the point of balance?
2)WHAT IS ITS WEIGHT?

thanks everyone could help me... or not

[Blaz Berlec]

Hello Raffaele, sorry for such a late answer.

Welcome to the world of dealing with poorly English speaking Czech smiths. - http://www.swordcutler.com./index.php

I own Lobko's longsword George, Despot of Serbia (with some modifications), I commissioned a custom made longsword similar to Rupert, Emperor of Germany. I have handled almost all his longsword models and some single handed ones - Edward III. King of England and Peter I., King of Cyprus, I think.

While those two swords are a bit different than Robert Guiscard, I think the handling should be similar.



Weight is probably around 1.2 kg + , which is a bit heavy for single hander, but the sword should be balanced nicely. Blade is a bit narrow for a 11th century sword (45 mm), and it doesn't taper as much as other models, so I guess it doesn't feel as alive. As to point of balance, I have only measured it on some longswords - it's quite far out (8 - 11 cm), but those blades tapered to relatively narrow point, so the swords didn't have any "blade heavy" feeling. I imagine one handers have a balance point that is closer to the guard. Blades have almost no distal taper, which is not such an issue with pointy models, but I don't know how that will affect Guiscard.

Lobko's swords are cheap, sturdy and relatively good looking. In comparison to swords from Pavel Moc they look a bit more "machine made", especially the cheaper models, but that doesn't compromise sturdiness and handling.

Ordering can be a bit stressful. Sometimes it takes weeks or even longer for Lobko to answer, sometimes he doesn't answer at all and you have to repeat your mail... It usually takes around 2 months for him to finish the sword, but some of my friends got them earlier, and some have waited a bit longer. I had a bit of bad luck, since I ordered the two swords without maker's marks on blades, and he didn't have any unstamped blades at that time. I had to wait about half a year for him to finish my order, but he stated in the beginning that it could take a couple of months for him to run out of blades and to make a new batch.

[Raffaele Vitale]

well what a strange world that of czech armouries...
well, here i'll post something about pavel moc Hastings sword...



Total Lenght: 965 mm
blade lenght: 778 mm
blade width under crossguard: 44mm
blade width near tip: 23.8mm
weight: 1480 g (BUT I FEEL IT VERY VERY LIGHT!!!)
Point of balance: 10 cm from the crossguard

You say lobko sword is even lighter (>1200 g), i've used pavel sword and it is very very light, so lobko sword should be even BETTER! Lutel's Sword look is very very good i like it.
so what do you think?

[Oscar Torres Carrasco]

First of all, sorry for my poor english.

I Own the Robert Guiscard Model of Radek, but my version it's modified with a more tapered blade respect to standard. The original version weights 1.3 kg, but results very blade heavy. The Pavel model feels very much easy to control.

With the modification, simply taper the point to 16mm, (20mm in the standard) the sword weights near 1.2 kg and the feel it's much more live. In general, this sword it`s a good purchase.

Regards.

Oscar Torres