Yeah well my first sword was a kirby wise sword...16 weeks is cakewalk :) .

Congratulations, Gregory! I'm sure you'll be very happy with her. You're starting on a much higher level than I did. I came into the sword world when MRL was the epitome of production sword greatness, about the time they switched from Del Tin to Windlass. So enjoy! An Albion may seem expensive, but that is the sort of thing you can be just as happy with twenty years from now. A few weeks on beans and rice is a small price to pay. ;)

In a way I'm envious of you folks who are jumping up to Albions at the age of 19. Wow. It took me about 20 years of sword collecting to make that step.

Talking about starting right. My first sword was a cheap Kat from a store on Broadway when I was 17. I didn't get my first Albion until I was 30 and it was a growing interest in WMA that sparked that purchase.

Well 20 or 30 years ago the choices where just not there or very few or not well known before the internet.

Today one can go for bad swords, not so bad swords, guilty pleasure swords ( Nice designs with bad materials or ugly designs but well made ), decent mid range swords, high end production swords, almost custom small volume production swords and full customs work going from moderately expensive to reallly really expensive custom swords ( Usually with very long wait times unless bought in stock ....... if one can find them in stock ! ;) :lol:

Oh, and marketplace swords here or on other sites that can be great bargains with NO waiting for it to be made.

Well, one can add real period originals but I was just thinking of modern made sword above. :p :lol: