[Dan Sellars]

Do any of you have any experience with Darkwood longswords?

http://www.darkwoodarmory.com/index.php?main_...ucts_id=87

What are they like as trainers? How do the blades handle and hold up?

Cheers,
Dan.

[Bill Grandy]

They aren't bad. I'd put them above any of the Hanwei trainers by a lot, but not quite as good as the A&A and Albion trainers by a little. The price reflects this. They're very sturdy, the blade hardness is good, an the flex is decent. The major plus is that you have a lot of options for customization. This also means there's a wider range in how the sword can possibly handle. I've handled some that have a lot of blade presence and some that had a balance point very close to the hand, and some in between due to different hilt furniture.

[Dan Sellars]

Cool thanks Bill, one of the things that appeals is just beign able to get the blades and mod it to make a more historic looking sword but with a training blade. I keel looking at Sean Flynt's mods thinking that is cool.

So you would place it above a Hanwei Tinker? I amuse it is more durable?

Any idea how it holds up against dissimilar blades? for example the Albion Liechtenauer. We tend to use Heimricks trainers here and it would need to be able to hold up to them.

[Bill Grandy]

[Jean Thibodeau]

I have an Albion Liechtenauer and after years of use it hardly shows anything more than very light dimples in the edges and some surface scuffing/scratches that are easy to polish/sand out: Superficial and only light cosmetic damage.

A friend of mine has been using a Tinker/Hanwey training blade and it is holding up well but has deeper but not excessively deep nicks or notches in the blade edges or shallow divots taken out of the edges.

Some other training blades in our group are old Windlass blades that where used before better things came along: Not really training blades, just the usual " unsharpened " Windlass " edges maybe slightly ground down to be a bit rounder and thicker ( Not sure about they being stock or slightly modified but in use and repair they have become more rounded because of the removal of sharp nicks I assume ).

The point being that the Windlass blades are still "safe " when maintained ( Filling out nicks ) but look, relatively to the Albions or Tinker/Hanwey, very beat up i.e. saw blades !

The Tinker/Hanwey are closer to the Albions in durability but end up with more cosmetic damage in the short and medium term and I assume wont last as long as the Albions if we are talking in multiple years of safe usage I think.