[Christopher Ron Covington]

My first sword was a Knights of Columbus sword my parents got me for Easter when I was in middle school in the early 1990's. I think they paid about $25 for it. I do still have it. Even though it is a junky sword I'll always keep it.

[Matthew Stagmer]

Mine was a gift to me from my brother when I was the young age of 8 in 1990. It was one of his early stage pieces. The bevels were made on a hand grinder and the pommel wasn't much more then a slice of a bar. Even so, I was so excited and from then on I was hooked on swords.

Here it is. I still have it. The slight bevels are almost gone now after years of abuse. I thought about re-grinding the blade at one point, but I decided to leave it as is to give some perspective from the past.





We should start another thread in the makers area called " Your first hammer".

[Jean Thibodeau]

Hard to remember the first one if one includes the early wallhangers but the first good one was probably the Del Tin 2162
http://www.deltin.net/2162.htm around 1999 or 2000 followed by the Albion Gaddhjalt.

For the truely early stuff there where some " souvenir store " Indian Tulwar, a very roughly made sword bought at EXPO 67 that I would today identify as a 14th century sword of war of a type XIII that much later snapped in two mid blade when I hit a big maple log ( firewood ): The blade seemed to have some sort of spring temper but I guess was brittle as I didn't hit the log very hard.

Very early I did have a smallsword form the pre-civil war period that was engraved with " Grand army of the republic " on one side and the name of an officer to which the sword had been presented to. ( Stupidly sold this in the 1980 period .... stupid not because of selling price, which was certainly too low, but stupid because it was purchased around 1966 and would today be a nice reminder of my father who bought it for me in 1966 when we where on a holiday in Florida ).

Oh, and if I go WAY WAY BACK to being 5 years old I had a plastic sword and shield that was very much like the Albion King Maker and a plastic sallet that looked a lot like the one in Shrek or a German sallet. ( The shield was painted with a picture of the sword it came with and I think they called the sword EXCALIBUR ).

Can't remember back early enough when I wasn't fascinated by weapons of all kinds including swords.

[Chad Arnow]

My first sword was a big, heavy, semi-Braveheart ripoff Scottish 2-hander. Similar to this but without the lugs on the blade:



I then bought a Starfire "dagger" and then an arming sword/short sword pair made poorly in the third world somewhere.

My first real sword was a Del Tin 2146 that I bought through MRL.

Some days (okay, most days) I really envy people whose first swords were Albions or A&A swords or a nice custom piece. But occasionally, I prefer the experience of learning the hard and expensive way about what makes a good sword.

Photo from www.boldblades.com .

[Jean Thibodeau]

[Jeremy V. Krause]

Oh, my first real sword was the A&A Irish Sword. Before that I did purchase an A&A renaissance mace and a medici stiletto.

[Bryce Felperin]

My first one was a Hanwei hand-and-a-half sharp (functional). First sword I had that was balanced and behaved as a sword. Traded it away years ago...

[Bryan Johnson]

Mine was a sword from Turkey that my father brought back from a business trip in the early 80s..

[Bill Love]

My first sword, aside from my dad's ancient Knights of Columbus ceremonial sword, was an old model Valiant Armory Black Prince that handled like a 4 foot long semi-sharpened tire iron. It ended up donating its rather nice ebony grip to my Fat Bastard project sword and its blade to my croquet set after I broke one of the wooden dowels.

[K. Horton]

Windlass Verneuil.....Museum Replicas Last chance sale last year. I have eye-balled this for a while and couldn't beat the price.

Ken


http://www.sword-buyers-guide.com/Verneuil.html

Bill Goodwin reviews it here, I agree.

[Harry J. Fletcher]

My very first sword was a Celtic Anthropomorphic from Valiant Armory purchased about two years ago from RealArmorOfGOD. I didn't know a lot about buying swords then but I knew I should look for a battle ready sword. I must say that I was very disappointed when it finally arrived and I handled it.

This sword is no one hander unless you are Arnold Swarzhenneger (or however he spells his name) in his prime since it weighs over 5 lbs but it can be wielded with two hands although the blade is twenty eight inches which is really too short in my opinion for a two handed sword. The blade is so heavy it could smash though shields, chainmail, helmets, and probably plate armor. Anyone would surely receive a deadly percussive blow from it if struck. The blade is more like an elongated axe than a sword. The blade is very stiff and PoP appears to be at about two to three inches from the point.

I intend to purchase a ham shoulder to use as a target to test this blade.

[Vincent C]

My first sword was the Armour class blunted Highland hand and a half.

Bit heavy for its size, but mighty fine, tough, and beautiful. I still use it to train with longsword.

I love it.

[Viktor Johansson]

That Talhoffer I talked about earlier, Soeren at Albion Europe was kind to send a pic and now its ordered, next week probably I'll have my first ever sword!!



I'll post more when it arrives.

Next up when I get some $$ I'm looking to buy an Albion Munich with half-wire wrap on a waisted grip (like the one in the review on this site)

[Patrick Kelly]

Viktor,

That combination of colors on the hilt is very attractive. I would have never thought of it myself, but I find it very nice.

[Ben Sweet]

These are my first swords that I bought for myself about 25 years ago, had to do a payment play when I was 14 and working in construction.

[Viktor Johansson]

[William Goodwin]

First sword a wall hanger that I bought in 1983 after reading Michael Moorcock's - Elric Saga while laying in hospital for nearly a month. Still have it and it still hangs in our living room.

[Colt Reeves]

My first sword-like objects were the "Viking Spirit sword" ( http://www.trueswords.com/viking-spirit-sword-p-770.html ) and a Vikingish sword similar to this one here: http://www.trueswords.com/classic-viking-swor...p-769.html

They were quickly replaced by a couple of Windlasses after I found this site and got some advice. Now they sit in the closet, awaiting who knows what. I have some vague desire to one day try to temper the Viking Spirit sword in a clay oven, but I most likely won't get around to it in this lifetime. Probably a bad idea anyway.

Anyway, the first swords that might actually be considered swords were the Windlasses. The "Five-Lobed Viking Sword" and the "English Baron Sword". I'm not a serious collector or student of swordsmenship, so they suit me alright, though I have a desire to get a custom some day. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to use them much recently. I went off to Hawaii and left them behind for several months. Came back and was pleased to find the blades hadn't rusted, though the pommel and cross-guards turned brown. A little 2000 grit and they look better than the overly shiny appearance they started with. Now it's back to Hawaii for another semester and some more rust. Anyone think it would be a good idea to oil the suckers and wrap a bag around it? I did oil everything in sight, but only the blades didn't rust in the scabbards.

[Paul Watson]

My first sword like objects were Lord of the Rings movie replicas. My first real sword was an Albion Regent. After being told by the misinformed shop assitant that the movie replicas handled well, it was good to get my hands on a real sword and really find out what one was meant to feel like.

[Etienne Hamel]

as i don't have the complete sword and it is a mix i cannot say the darksword-armory squire sword nor the saxon sword but it is a mix of the two (squire blade with saxon pommel and crossguard) the handle is of the spartha from the same company quite a frankenstein sword but works ok