[Austin D.G. Hill]

i was just wanting to know which of these different companies have a reputation for edge durability? which seems to be stronger? already i think that it is probably valiant armory, but i want to see what those of you with experience have to say.
which is stronger?

[Sean O Stevens]

Hard to say...

I've owned a lot from both companies... but Hanwei makes SO many different swords and the quality of them is all over the map depending on the sword... making a consistent classification is near imposable.

[Austin D.G. Hill]

for the production lines, i was thinking more in the way of the Valiant Signature line and the Hanwei Tinker Peirce series.

[P. Cha]

The hanwei tinker liner generally has a better heat treat over the VA line from what I have seen. Now the second aspect of which blade is stronger really depends on the sword design more then which one has the slightly better heat treatment. A long narrow XVIII of the hanwei longsword wont have as much profile strength as say the short fat XVI of the VA bristol.

[Mike O'Hara]

Hi Austin

As far as trainers go - I can't speak for the Valiant Armory swords but the A&A Spada da Zogho does tend to chew up the edges of the Tinker Pearce swords rather than vice versa.

Both handle well but the Spada is better and beats out the Tinker Pearce on an even bind

cheers

mike

[P. Cha]

[Sean O Stevens]

I've no experience with the blunt/sparing versions of the VA Signature line or The Hanwei Tinker line... tho I have owned almost all the sharp versions of both of those swords.

My experience with the sharp ones is that, edge retention wise, they are pretty comparable. The H/T swords tend to come out of the box with a duller, less well honed edge then the VA Signature swords do... but once properly sharpened perform great.

Both swords, the sharp versions, are good deals for the money.

[Jeffrey Faulk]

I will note that the steel of the Hanwei/Tinkers, at least on the sharp versions, is quite hard. This contributes to excellent edge retention once it's sharpened. Not sure why it dings more compared to other makers' blunts, though; perhaps the blunt blades are heat-treated differently?

'Word on the street' has it that the Hanwei/Tinker blunts are being withdrawn from manufacture, however, and will presumably-- hopefully, anyway-- be replaced with a better quality of training blade. The sale on them at Kult of Athena and other places would seem to support this conjecture.