[Artis Aboltins]

[Bruce Tordoff]

Jonathan, I too have handled the Patrick Barta sword that my colleague Dave Huggins mentioned, Namely our fellow colleague and myArmoury forumite Paul Mortimer's Sutton Hoo replica. Firstly, in my opinion it is not as heavy as the 3.5 pounds cited by Dave for his viking (blunt) combat sword, which IS on the heavier end of the scale for a Viking sword, Bearing in mind Dave is about 6' 4" - 6' 5" tall, so, relatively wieldy in his hands.So given this, I feel that for an Average weight ,6 foot tall chap, the Blade on Paul's Barta sword is both balanced and wieldy, taking into consideration the fact that the upper guard is a 'sandwich' construction and the pommel is not solid and has Cloisonne garnet inlay, the Upper hilt provides relatively little counterbalance to the blade, in comparison to the average viking upper guard/pommel assembly or full pommel. Which would lead one to the conclusion that a Barta Viking sword with essentially the same blade as a late migration period one, would be balanced slightly more towards the pommel, but still have enough impetus and weight to do the job a Viking sword was intended to do.

Just to echo what somebody said earlier, it is a case of striking the balance between cost, waiting list and quality. i personally like the Barta swords, if a little out of my price range, but those of Markus Balbach of Germany seem to be very well made, if indeed you want a Pattern welded blade. I do agree with the earlier comment that whilst Jake Powning's swords are beautiful and well made they do tend to stray slightly into the realm of fantasy in terms of their design. So really what is BEST, its the how long is a piece of string question, I feel. Good luck, please be sure to let us all know what you end up choosing.

Best,

Bruce

[David Wilson]

There is a sword weighing over 4 lbs in the Pierce book (don't have it with me, so I can't remember where it is exactly, but it's in there). Certainly this is the rare exception, and Pierce notes that this sword handles rather poorly, but there it is.

The ancients did turn out a dud now and then. The trick is to recreate the good ones!

[Stephen Curtin]

[Nathan Robinson]

[Jean Le-Palud]

[Shahril Dzulkifli]

I've just watched a video about test-cutting with a Viking sword from Cold Steel.
Its blade is quite effective when slashing ropes, meat, bamboo etc.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS3Tkij372I

[Hadrian Coffin]

Hello,
Those videos are published by ColdSteel as adds. They show absolutely nothing except that a sharpened piece of metal can cut. ColdSteel makes some decent knives, but the examples of their swords I have seen are absolute crap. The Viking sword in question doesn't resemble any historical Viking sword.
Concerning Patrick Barta hilts. I don't see why he increases the grip length at all, "modern man's" hands are not really any bigger than those of our predecessors. An overly large grip only detracts from the accuracy of the sword, and makes it more difficult to attempt to figure out proper form/technique. That said, Barta's swords are really quite lovely.
One thing often not noted about Paul Binn's swords is the level of accuracy he can achieve. Personally I don't particularly like his hilts, they seem...chunky. His blades on the other hand are marvelous. On some pieces he has been using antique bloomery iron; I have a few custom blades by him made with it.
Cheers,
Hadrian

[Jean Le-Palud]

[Scott Hrouda]

Jean,

I admire your work on shortening the grip. You were able to maintain the aesthetics of the grip, while improving upon the overall aesthetics of the weapon (IMO). How did the change in grip length affect the handling of the weapon? Did you see an improvement?

[Jean Le-Palud]