[Norman McCormick]

Hi Jeremy,
Maybe some photographs of the damage would solicit a selection of practical solutions, possibly from some of the Industry Professionals on the Forum, that will solve your dilemma.
Regards,
Norman.

[Chad Arnow]

Jeremy,
My Sovereign got knocked over into some other swords a while back and the blade got a good-sized knick in it. The knick/ding/roll was a few inches from the guard where the blade curves out to meet the guard.

I wouldn't have tried to fix it myself, so I sent it back to Albion. They did a great job on it. They took out the knick and worked the edge profile on that side to make it less obvious.

You can find more info here: http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=8258

[Jeremy V. Krause]

Hi Chad,

I do recall your positive experience with Albion and your sword. I am hopeful that this can be done in my case also- this would be quite ideal. Unfortunately, as I wrote before for some reason the responses I have received have not come across as strongly positive or encouraging.

To be honest I believe this tone may have come from the fact that mine is a second-hand sword and so may carry and different level of- I can't think of the best word for what I am looking for.

Nevertheless the folks at Albion are very skilled and I am sure they may be able to atleast make some improvement to my poor injured Duke.

Thanks, Chad for your input,
Jeremy

[Chad Arnow]

Jeremy,
I'd think they'd work on any of their swords, second-hand or not. They get the money for fixing it either way.

Seriously, I think it's worth looking into. Whose responses haven't been positive? Has Albion mentioned they might not be able to fix it? Or have other people expressed doubts about the damage's "fixability"?

I was pretty fortunate in where my damage occured, since they were able to fix it and then flatten out the curve a bit to make it less noticeable. Mine was fixed by Jason Dingledine before he left Albion. If Albion can't tackle it for some reason, it might be worth contacting Jason directly.

[George Davidson]

[Bob Burns]

I don't know that I could maintain self control living just four miles from Armour Class, it's tough enough being under 18 miles from www.kultofathena.com Those are some gorgeous swords at Armour Class.
I once scuffed the pommel on my Albion Berserkr when it made contact with the concrete sidewalk in the front of my townhouse. After cussing myself out royally, i got the fine file, honing oil, sandpaper grits from 180 to 2000 and made it disappear. I was very lucky the damage was small and it was quite a sigh of relief when I finished the repair to the pommel scuff which was on the top surface.
I had been trying to do too much too fast in setting things up to cut jugs in my driveway and "Haste makes Waste" took place

Best of Luck to All Who have an accident to a collectable!

Bob

[Sammy Jackson]

Intresting thread! im so sorry Jeremy. that just sucks. but now you know what it can take.. And Honestly thats what bothers me.

Hasnt anyone wondered why the Albions have been having these issues? is it bad tempering? i expect alot from my blades and i use them hard and well.

my old Atrim leafblade's tip bent once. as i was plunging it into a 16G brast plate. (very cool Experiment btw) and i was still kinda upset. My Vinland didnt do half that. Albions suppose to be upper eschelon in this industry, the only sword i ever bought from them bent after cutting into soft wood...the replacement did aswell.

sih'

[Chad Arnow]

Most people would consider chopping wood as sword abuse, something many historically-based (and antique) swords wouldn't have held up to.

Albion tempers their swords to a much harder edge than historical swords and uses more consistent steel than available in-period. Their blades have similar amount of hardness as the rest of the big makers on the market. Their lead designer has spent more time examining, handling, and measuring antiques than most people ever will. I would imagine they know what they're doing. Not that occasional clinkers ca't get through.

Many antiques in museums show nicks on the blades and/or evidence of the edges being honed to fix nicks. Many swords will bend (or worse) chopping wood. Thrusting into a breastplate will similarly cause damage to many swords.

Swords are not indestructible, after all.

Your Vinland is a Viking sword with flex to the blade that's normal for the type. If you smash into into something hard and not terribly yielding, it will likely bend it, which is better than having it break.

[Addison C. de Lisle]

On the subject of tempering - A couple weeks ago at the Chivalric Weekend in Sandy Creek, Dan Maragni had an interesting discussion about how some swords weren't even tempered at all to prevent a brittle failure. The reasoning behind this being that a bent sword could be straightened, whereas a broken sword isn't much good. There was an early Crusades era sword there as a demonstration of this; it had a brittle failure after about 8 inches of blade...the rest was missing in action :P
To relate this back to the topic, a period sword would probably have had the same issue, if not more so.

In my opinion, swords are not intended for chopping wood - that's what axes are for. Especially in a soft wood, a flexible blade could be caught and twisted fairly easily.

Swords aren't really for "plunging into breastplates" either, so I would say the damage taken by both blades is reasonable.

[Vay Duong]

My Albion Ritter has two edge rolls around the COP area. My cutting stand has a 9/16" thick steel rod instead of a wooden spike sticking out of it. My friend tried to squeeze an extra cut out of a mat once and hit the spike. The edge rolled on the blade but it also left a very decent cut into the rod. I wanted to show him how it was done and ending up doing the same thing on the other edge. Both around the COP. This also left a cut in the rod about maybe 1/8" deep. I was able to send the sword back to Mike for repairs and now it looks fine. You can tell where the nicks were, but only at certain angles. But the damage to the rod compared to the edge of the ritter was a testament to Albion's excellent temper.

Just a note, another friend of mine hit that same rod with a PPK once and a huge chunk of edge just chipped right off. Maybe 1/4" into his blade and 1/2" long.

[Michael Edelson]

I think you should feel absolutely horrible about this. After all, real medieval swords were never, ever damaged this way and stayed pristine and perfect throughout their entire service life. In fact if a medieval warrior dinged his sword like that he'd probably just throw it away and order a new one.



I was like you once. Your condition is not incurable.

[Allen Andrews]

[Jeremy V. Krause]

Hi everyone,

I just want to remind folks that though I am annoyed that my edge was damaged I did drop it on a metal dumb bell so I am not surprised that the edge was damaged. This was my blunder and not related to albion's craftsmanship. I feel that my albions have sufficiently hard edges.

Once I order a box from albion I will send it to them and see what they can do.

Thanks,

Jeremy

[Aaron Justice]

I know how you feel man. I was working on a Paul Chen practical plus tanto a few months ago. it was sitting on the edge of my couch. I sat down (without thinking) and when the couch lowered the blade fell off right onto the tile floor. The blade shot out a burst of sparks, and I had a nice tiny little fracture taken out of the tip. Luckily, damaged kissaki are pretty easy to fix on Japanese blades as you only nned to curve the edge a bit more into a tip with sharpening stones, then polish and sharpen up.

[Russ Thomas]

I know how I would feel if it were my sword....................angry - with myself for letting it happen ! But, accidents do happen.

But spare a thought for Professor A.Z Freeman of the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA. He was a noted collector of Japanese swords. He dropped one of his blades, a late 13th century nagamaki, onto a piece of petrified wood by accident, and two inches of the edge fell out !! Luckilly on closer inspection he saw that in fact it was a piece of the petrified wood that had chipped off. The blade was quite untouched. He named the blade Ishigiri ( stone cutting sword ) after the incident ! That blade he sold at Sotheby's, London in 1997 for £30.000 !! How would you have felt about dropping that one !!??

Regards,

Russ

[Jeremy V. Krause]

I cannot imagine dropping an antique- and from the 13th c.!!!

This would be tragic.

Jeremy

[Bobby Siecker]

I think I must agree with the "more caracter trough damage" side of the debate. It seems that many people tend to forget that swords are tools of violence and abuse. Ofcourse, hacking concrete blocks is never a good idea, and not an action where the weapon was intendet for, but battering steel armour plates and flesh is. A pristine sword hanging at the wall is like the best apple pie you have ever backed. Looking and smelling so delicious you acually do not want to eat it. A pure waste. In stead of tasting it you keep looking at it and pondering how wonderfull it is and how delicious it would taste.

A blade at the wall is nothing more then a dull mirror. So go out and be violent with it. although I suggest you vent your wrath on plastic bottles rather than your fellow human.

As for the workmanship of Albion... One should not forget that they try to come as close to the original swords as possible. During the battles it was certiantly not uncommon for the swords to get some pitting. Or worse, breaking! Swords are in the first place tools, not works of art.

And if you want a sword that does not pit or chip or break. Perhaps it is wise to start looking for a swordmaker that uses titanium blades or space age steel alloys.

[Jean Thibodeau]

I would agree that if one uses a sword one should expect at least some minor but acceptable damage. It is still all right to keep it pristine but one can't do both 100%: If one limits oneself to soft targets a little easy to clean up scuffing of the finish is the least one should expect and although one can restore the finish to very similar to what it was unused it's still no longer pristine.

Actual battle use would have caused at the least some dulling of edges and minor nicks, none of which making the sword unusable and would be reparable with a good refinishing and resharpening.

Oh, and Titanium is a " soft " material at least compared to hardened steel and would nick and notch much more deeply than steel. Titanium is very strong for it's weight and almost completely corrosion proof and is used in blades used to find or defuse mines or IEDs as it is non-magnetic. It will take a decent edge and is easy to sharpen but edge to edge contact would be very damaging to a Titanium edge.

A space age metal/material might one day be develop that would be better than steel but today it would be called
" Unobtanium ".

A memory metal that might notch but would heal itself after a day.

But I do get what you mean about a sword being considered a " work tool " in period and only breakage or bending with a set would relegate it to the junk pile I think.

[Bill Love]

Everyone else has already said this, but I think that you might need to just treat it like a used car and call the nick a shopping cart dent. I have several swords that are really nice, including one I hilted up around a Del Tin blade, and the problem with them is that I obsess over scratching them up. My self-done Del Tin "Federschwert "(see my post under Historical Arms Talk for details) came to me rusty, nicked and loose all over, and after the appropriate clean up it is now my favorite, as I don't have to worry about getting it messy. If you don't enjoy your sword, you won't practice with it, and if you don't form a muscle to metal bond with it, it'll never be a part of you. Nobody is physically perfect, and no sword is, either. Just enjoy your new baby and don't sweat the ding.

[Jaroslaw Dominski]

Hi there,

Jeremy, I can understand your sadness and pain at damaging sword, but I cannot agree with such a look. If your sword is 'broken', and you do not have idea how to fix it just use it for training, and then buy another to put it on the wall!
It is joke but who knows?

Sword is not just ordinary furniture, I think, and any scraches, nicks or other damages could be its history. That nick on blade could be your own mark, your own history which is related to history of the sword.
From time to time I take a part in parrying and inscenization of battles (besides regular training), and my rapier (Igie³ka - which means: tiny needle) couldn`t be a sample of beauty, but I know every mark on it, like every scar on my body - in fact I don`t have any scars from fencing, but it is just example

It is you who must decide if you want to repair this sword.
Barbarous thing but... take hammer, and rattle off nick, if there would be any deficency, use tin to fill it and then file - i belive that on the wall nobody will see your amends.

And please excuse my ordinary and simple english, my native language is polish. I belive that my reply is understandable