Ive started a podcast about swords and sword-related subjects called "The Sword Geek." You can find it at http://theswordgeek.com
Give a listen if you care to and let me know what you think; I hope that you will find it entertaining.

This is a great idea. I haven't heard it yet, but I'm glad somebody has finally done a podcast for this type of thing. Congrats on taking the initiative.

Thanks Nathan! It was my wife's idea actually and it took a bit to figure out the technical aspects but now we're rolling, so I hope that folks enjoy it!

I just wanted to take this opportunity to say thanks for the Tinker Pearce Viking you designed. I have one and it is one of my favorite swords. It is a real value for the money. One of the things besides the blade I like is the peened pommel. I just wanted to ask why you didn't do that with the other swords in your line or at least have the option? That would have been really superb!

I have never really figured out the Ipod cast thing so guess I am somewhat backward technologically speaking.

Regards,

Harry Fletcher

Hi Harry-

The podcast thing is actually simple; click on the image, then when the podcast screen loads click on the play symbol. Of course that requires that you sit in front of your computer for a bit over 40 minutes.... Not everyone's thing!

The swords in the Tinker/Hanwei line were designed with take-down hilts because the folks at CAS/Hanwei requested that they be designed that way. The reason for this was the interchangeable practice blades; these swords were aimed specifically at the Historic European Martial Arts market. Any practice blade is an expendable item and sooner or later with become unserviceable (even if this takes years) so it made sense to make them easily replaceable. They also felt that customers would like the ease of customization and the ability to purchase the sword with one blade and buy another blade that could be swapped into the same furniture, which would save the customer money over buying two complete swords. There were originally plans for an 'upgraded' line with nicer finishes, peened tangs etc. but unfortunately the line was introduced just as the economy collapsed which sort of put paid to those plans.

With the Norman and Viking swords the thinking was somewhat different; these swords were aimed more at the historic recreations crowd rather than at the martial arts crowd. The blunt blades had to conform to certain standards for these groups for demonstrations and these groups prefer peened tangs whether the sword is a sharp or a blunt.

It's hard to say in this economy what the future may hold for this line but it is possible that there may eventually be a variety of changes to improve this line of swords. In the mean time I am glad that you like the Viking sword; I am quite pleased with how those have come out.

Tinker, enjoyed the Podcast a lot as well as the semi-dark humour and I now really want to order a " Battle ready bodice eating dagger in a style stolen from the Conan Movie sword ". :p :lol:

( Those of you who have listened to the Podcast or who will go listen to the Poscast will understand how much this wouldn't be happening. :p ).

By the way good voice and sounds professional without any long pauses, tripping over words, forgetting what you where going to say or sounding like it was being badly read off a script i.e. sound like a natural conversation or a speech made by a professional public speaker. The voice itself is like a good " radio voice " and you could get work doing narration for documentaries, or voiceover work on commercials, or a Radio Talk Show.

Oh, the content is also interesting and looking forward to more Podcasts.

thank you Jean! I'm very glad folks seem to be enjoying the podcast; hopefully I will be bringing out more content next week.

I liked the podcast too. Do you mind if I use your quote about making SLOs battle-ready via duct tape and M16 as a sig? I need me a sig. ;)

Quote:

The podcast thing is actually simple; click on the image, then when the podcast screen loads click on the play symbol. Of course that requires that you sit in front of your computer for a bit over 40 minutes.... Not everyone's thing!

Well, I also had to download QuickTime, but I just turned up the volume while I ate breakfast and got ready for class.

Quote:

They also felt that customers would like the ease of customization and the ability to purchase the sword with one blade and buy another blade that could be swapped into the same furniture, which would save the customer money over buying two complete swords.

I am one of those customers. I just spent the evening watching movies while sanding rust and filing the tip of my sharp Tinker Longsword blade. (Shipping wasn't too kind to it.) I bought it to switch out blades with my Practical version if I should ever feel the need to do some cutting.

Excellent sword, by the way. I'd recommend them to anyone looking for cheap but high quality choppy things. Only complaint is how "modern" the pommel looks. I sanded it to remove the chrome look pretty quickly after getting it, but it still looks funny. Just my opinion.

Hi Colt;

Feel free to use the line for a signature by all means! Yes, I have to agree that the pommel is not what I would do for that sword today but at the time we were setting up the line we wanted to keep it simple and utilitarian. I just got that one wrong; pommel changes are the most frequent request for the customization on the longsword. If circumstances allow the line to be revamped that pommel might well be one of the things that changes but in this uncertain economy... who knows?

Tinker

Michael, I listened to your narrative in one go.
It was natural in tone and very informative in content.

Excellent !

I like your style.

I think this is the best thing happening for a long time now !

Gabriel

Absolutely delightful! The best thing I've heard at work for months, and that's saying a lot considering my workplace is a laptop. :D

Geek on, man!

Jean Thibodeau wrote:

Tinker, enjoyed the Podcast a lot as well as the semi-dark humour and I now really want to order a " Battle ready bodice eating dagger in a style stolen from the Conan Movie sword ". :p :lol:

Didn't Xena have one of those...?

Wait, didn't she carry it bare between her boobs of (apparently) steel...?

Can't wait to listen to it! And I like your website layout ;) ;) (http://www.speakingwindowproductions.com/Home.html)

OK, now I have listened to it. Great job! Can't wait to hear more.

Will you be setting these up on itunes? This had no problem syncing with my iphone, but I'm lazy and itunes would automatically put new ones on my phone for me :D

So a bit off topic, but since they got talked about I'll mention that the Tinker lines can be tweaked quite nicely. Self service upgrades are not my thing but I've had a Norman enhanced. Its quite nice and remained economically reasonable.

The Sword Geek has it's own Facebook page now- you can find it here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sword-Geek/...47?ref=sgm
I'm already preparing this weeks Podcast- if you have questions that you would like answered on the show submit them today to theswordgeek@gmail.com

Hey Tinker, I wanted to let you know I subscribed to your podcast through the button on the website. When I opened itunes just now your newest episode automatically started downloading.

Just wanted to let you know its working and all, can't wait to listen :D

Excellent! I am very glad to hear it.

If you didn't catch it in Christopher's post, the 2nd episode of The Sword Geek is live! This weeks edition comes with a question from a listener and perhaps more than you really want to know about how swords are put together. We also discuss ‘Blood Grooves,’ The Mongoliad, Journey Quest and a few thoughts on the best ‘bad-but-good’ sword movie ever made. Hope you enjoy the show!

Hi Michael,

I still haven't been able to catch your podcast so I will have to get my wife to work on it since she likes those kind of shows and should know how to do it.

I just wanted to say that I just purchased your Great Sword of War and liked it very much, a lot of sword for the money in my opinion. Just one comment though...oh! oh! I think the cross is a bit too long for my liking because I kept hitting my head with it on my overhead strikes and I had to be careful of it when I brought it up close to my head. It could be because I am used to using a katana but I didn't seem to have that problem with my Albion Baron. I felt that maybe 1/2 an inch shorter on each side of the cross would about do it for me...and now for the rebuttal...The sword handles very well even for its size with two hands and surprisingly well single handed even given its weight of 3 lbs 14 oz. I took it out and worked out with it yesterday when it first arrived. The cross was a bit loose but a quarter turn with my allen wrench fixed that. The catalog stated that an Allen wrench was supplied with it...but hey...for the money who is complaining? It is a whole lotta sword for the money...a whole lotta sword!

Regards,

Harry