[P. Cha]

Humm...well if you don't want an edge and want a sword vs a blunt, then windlass, darksword and del tin are it for you I believe short of going custom. Del tin are in the 400+ ish range so I'm not sure how doable that is for you. Darkswords are heavy, but might fit what you want then. Of course there is the second hand market as well. I'll PM you about a sword you might be interested in.

[J.D. Crawford]

Dear Jin,

I cannot comment on the German sword, but I own a Sticklestad and I'm quite happy with it. Its light, well balanced, well put together, and looks good. I think you will find that if you search the various web resources, most people would stay the same. Out of the various products that Windlass makes, the sticklestad viking is one of the safest bets to go with.

I have owned 12 Windlass swords and have handled many many more. The only general statement that one can make about Windlass is that one cannot generalize. Some are heavy, some light. Some have a great balance, some have a terrible balance. Some have tight fittings, some not. Some have whippy blades, some reasonably good. There is a huge variation between different models and even within a particular model.

For example, I have handled Sticklestad units in the past that had fairly parallel blade edges and a point of balance of 8 inches from the handle. The one I own has a more noticable taper, a thin but reasonably stiff blade, and a point of balance of just over 6 inches. Maybe that is a more recent trend, but I cannot tell you that you will get the same thing because each batch can be different. These swords are hand-made and it probably depends a lot on who happens to be making it, and who is supervising the process. That's why I prefer to inspect them before I buy them.

This high degree of variability is why you get such different opinions on Windlass from people who have only ordered one or two through the internet. If you get a good one, it's a very good value, but you have to shop carefully.

-JD

[Li Jin]

Hi

Many thanks first. Does that means any swords can be made different through the making proccess? I see...I bought 5 swords from hanwei before, only 2 of them are reason of goodness, and others are bended blades, not that bad though...

I been looking for windlass swords after many friendly information from the friends from this forum, I went to swords buyer's guide, it says their swords are longer then 32 inch would be very flex even too much flex...and even poor
tang. But is safe still to buy them? Thank you again.

JIn

[J.D. Crawford]

[William Goodwin]

I have two Windlass pieces in my collection...both are dis-continued swords.

I've been quite pleased with mine....absolutely adore my Scottish Backsword and I antiqued my type 2 Schiavona.

Bill

[Vay Duong]

Hey Li Jin,

I just got my German Hand & Half from Museum Replicas. The exact same model you were talking about. I've had several windlass swords before and they were okay.... not too bad, but none of them perfect. They make good project blades if you wanna try to customize them I guess. Anyways, I got the german H&H because it was on sale for $145. I ordered it sharpened. But I am going to return it now. I ordered standard shipping, and it came next day air, which was confusing because I also ordered it sharpened. It came unsharpened. It is very hard to get it into and out of the sheath. Lastly, the blade is slightly twisted and bent at the COP. It seems like they might have shipped me one that was previously returned for the same reason. Don't know how this slipped through their customer service, but I got a real lemon here.

The sword handles fine though. I little rough one handed, but lively with two. The blade is not whippy by the way. It is fairly stiff. The POB is 5" from the guard. I don't know if it is really 2.5lbs like MRL says though.

[Van de Laak]

I also have a German Bastard Sword (Windlass) but not exactly the one shown on that picture in your earlier post. I have this one:

http://www.reliks.com/merchant.ihtml?pid=2020

My first and only sword so far... I guess for the money its pretty good, a bit difficult to handle balance wise due to the ricasso. But very sturdy, however I had to tighten the hilt/pommel and then I added a tiny bit of gorilla glue otherwise I had to keep on tightening all the time. Now its perfectly tight and I swing it a lot!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n3OffS_O-U

A bit too flexible sometimes, especially with the mittelhau, its a bit difficult to control due to the flexibility. On more thing, the scabbard is very simple and doesn't fit well. Its just useful when transporting the sword. But then again its very affordable so no complaints here.

[Bob Burns]

Hi Li Jin, Welcome to the myArmoury Forum, this is truly a great website of it's nature, if you ask me? It's the Best!

If I can be of any help to you Li, I live less than a half an hour from Kult of Athena and I can check swords out for you, if you would like me to do that. Just send me a private message, I go there once to three times a month, sometimes to just look around or talk to the owner and now and then to buy something.
So I have access to checking anything out that Kult of Athena has in stock.

If this helps you, don't hesitate to send me a private message!

Once again, Welcome!

Bob