[Nathan Robinson]

If you've been following the marketplace for modern-made reproduction swords, you've no doubt been keeping up with Next Generation product line of swords from Albion Armorers. Having recently seen and handled 15 or 20 of the swords in this line-up, it's obvious why these swords have caused the buzz that they have. The NextGen swords are definitely raising the bar at their price points, and perhaps because of this, the other models Albion continues to produce have probably lost a lot of the attention they once had.

One model of their first generation line of swords that may have gotten lost in the excitement of the new product line is their Rouen Hand-and-a-Half Sword. This model was among the first of the hollow-ground blades that Albion released and also one of the first blades of its types to be created as a production piece. At a $750 price tag, it's a couple hundred bucks less than the hollow ground offerings in their NextGen line.


Click above images for full-sized versions


Several months ago I asked Jason Dingledine of Albion about this sword and the following was the result:


What inspired this particular sword?
This sword was directly inspired by a sword that resides in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. It is a sword that I had admired for a number of years, and since I was in a position to add a sword of similar design into the Albion Mark catalogue, I did so.

What challenges in the design and production process went into the hollow-grind aspect of the blade?
Consistency in the grinding was a major concern when we decided to commit to a hollow-grind for this sword. Having a proper blade blank for me as the grinder to work from was key. I spent a number of hours going over these design issues with Steve Fisher (our CAD programmer), in order to have the least amount of variation with the completed blades. While every blade will be slightly different due to the amount of hand-grinding involved, I wanted to keep this to the barest minimum possible.

What era/region really influenced the design?
Since this was an "inspired by" design, most of my shaping queues came from the original sword. It is similar to many 15th Century designs, and is capable of both strong cutting and thrusting actions. Because of the hollow-grinding, this sword has a rather stiff blade, to aid in thrusting.

Had you, or will you, consider other hilt treatments for the same blade type?
When the sword was introduced, Peter Johnsson (an important consultant and designer to the Albion Mark line) had not had a chance to see the sword yet. It was designed using many of the principles that Peter has found to be common among medieval swords though. During Peter's latest trip, he had with him designs for two other such Type XVIIIa blades which will be put into production in the coming year, but he also decided that he wanted to design a hilt for this blade. He has taken a production blade home with him, and will be carving wax master hilt components for it. I believe that he plans on a single hand hilt configuration for this particular blade.

To what degree does the hollow-grinding add to the difficulty in making this blade?
As I mentioned before the greatest hurdle was creating a blade blank that would allow a high degree of consistency to the finished product (a blade ready for assembly into a sword). The hollow-grinding adds other concerns, such as having the web between the bevels too thin, or too thick, both of which can cause concern when cutting with the sword. But, the largest single difficulty to over-come was the time factor, i.e. how long it took to produce the finished blade. The hollow-grinds add a tremendous amount a labor to the grinding process, because I am essentially removing 25% to 75% of the blades original material in the process (the two percentages are the extreme ends of the spectrum, and are rough estimates based off of the Orlean and Svante blanks respectively). Speed, reliability, and consistency were the driving factors. If the blades could not be ground fast enough, they would have to be priced far out of the production market range, and into the upper range of custom work. As it stands, it still takes the same amount of time to grind 3-4 diamond cross-sectioned blades as it does to grind 1 hollow-ground blade.

Since this is the first hollow-ground series from Albion, what hurdles had to be overcome to develop a good method of production?
The Rouen when I originally designed it did not have a hollow-grind, and was going to be milled as a diamond cross-section blade from 1/4" stock. I brought the design to Howard, and he asked what I thought of hollow-grinding the blade, since we had been producing hollow-ground Conan blades for a few years already. We immediately agreed, mostly because no-one else was producing blades like this on the production market. Previously you had to go custom to get a blade like this, and very few smiths are willing to attempt this type of grind on such a large piece.

I started on a redesign of the blade, and incorporated some of the features I had learned from Peter, such as the golden section, as well as increasing the thickness of the blade. I did this in order to have a blade that would have the same finished weight as the diamond cross-section blade milled from 1/4" stock. I wanted this sword to be faster, and agile but still have enough weight behind it to be considered a warsword, and not a civilian weapon.

Once the design work was completed, it was time for a milled prototype, and experimental grinding. This was accomplished, and after a few minor alterations to the program, we had a blank we felt could give us acceptable results.

[David McElrea]

Thanks, Nathan, for drawing our attention back to a truly fine sword.

Hat's off to Jason, as well. The Rouen is a beauty--and you and the guys at Albion are to be applauded for bringing hollow-ground blades into this market!

David

[Joe Fults]

Definitely overlooked. For what it is worth, I think some other hilt treatments may really help change that.

I'm sure its a great sword.

Its not one that I recall seeing first hand.

For whatever reason, I really don't like that type of guard on any sword. Just preference I guess. Nevertheless it caused me to pass over this one to look at some of the other offerings first.

Do we know if anybody on the forums bought one and could provide a review?

[Gabriel Lebec]

Overlooked is right - I should have recognized that sword having admired the same original in the Met several times!!

Very nice and attractive sword... thanks Nathan and Jason for the interview.

Edit: Found a pic I took. Apologies for the annoying reflection, but I took over 250 photos that day and eventually you get to the point where you just want to *look* at the sword instead of compose a good photo of it. (don't worry, I've had many opportunities to browse the display at my leisure without a camera).


I think this is the same sword - am I correct?

[Jason Dingledine]

[Gabriel Lebec]

Ah. Lucky people, browsing through the Met's Records...

Well, your "inspired by" sword is nice enough for my tastes, even if it isn't a 100% copy of the original you are referring to.

[Kirk Lee Spencer]

Here is a link to my redo of MRLs version of this sword.

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t...ght=arbedo

I have also included a picture of the original for comparison...



ks