[Dustin Faulkner]

Hello:

I was wondering if anyone can offer opinions of the Hanwei/Tinker Pierce sharpened longsword. It is on sale at KOA right now for about $160. It seems like a good deal. The sword appears to be very authentic. Not sure about what type of Oakeshott blade it has, but it looks like the kind you see in historic fight manuals.

Obviously, it is not an Albion or A&A sword. However, Tinker seems to be a good name too in the sword industry. I am a man of modest means, and I thought I was doing good getting Hanwei's antiqued bastard sword a couple of years ago. But this Tinker longsword seems more authentic, whereas the bastard sword seems more generic in nature. Of course, my comments are about appearances. Can anyone comment upon handling characteristics?

I am thinking this longsword might be my Christmas present for myself this year.

Happy Holidays!

[Daniel C. Rossetti]

I purchased the Tinker pierce blunt longsword trainer (same as the sharp except fitted with a blunt blade). The handling is very nice, with good balance and maneuverability. I would have liked the pommel to be a little heftier, but for the price it was a steal. The blade can be removed via allen wrench allowing for blade replacement. Other than the high polish on the fittings, I really like this sword for the price and quality.

[Scott Woodruff]

I don't know about complete swords, but I recently bought a hanwei-tinker longsword replacement blade. One good thing I can say about it was that it did have decent mass distribution and distal taper. Problems incuded extreme crookedness, very wavy grinds, and a very crooked, uneven fuller that was cut way to deep near the distal end, creating a bad weak spot halfway down the blade. Even after cutting the blade in two at the center of the worst bend, the remaining pieces were too crooked to do anything with without re-forging or re-hardening/tempering. The finish was quite good and the edge bevel did not require too much work to sharpen. I must say though that the blade had a beautiful profile and a sturdy, long tang. For decorative or costume use, this could be the basis for a pretty cool project, but for any martial use, it just doesnt make the cut.

[J R Johnson]

I have the Hanwei/Tinker Pearce sharpened longsword, also purchased at KOA over a year ago. It's a beautifully balanced sword, easy to wield with one hand and very quick when using two hands. The blade is quite sharp and a good cutter as well as thruster. Good luck!

[Eric W. Norenberg]

Hello Dustin,
I picked up a sharp H/T Longsword during their last mad sale, and I'm very happy with it. Tinker and Hanwei are labeling it as a type XVIII, but others consider it more like a XVIa. I wouldn't consider it to be more "authentic" in appearance than the Hanwei Bastard Sword, the pommel is a bit too abstract to pass for historical.

I've never handled the Hanwei BS, but hazarding a guess based on KoA's published stats, they should be very different in hand. The Tinker piece is about 4" shorter, most of the difference here being in the blade length, it is half a pound lighter, and the point of balance is an inch closer to the cross (keep in mind that, being at least partly hand-made, each specimen will be different). This should all add up to a very appreciable difference in handling.

Somewhere here on myArmoury, I read a few lines comparing the blade geometry of a particular sword to a steak knife. Similarly (and I want to associate this tidbit with Oakeshott), somewhere I've read a description of certain medieval swords as having a balance like a fly-fishing rod. I don't fish, but I think that description isn't too far off; I would also say that the last six, maybe eight inches of the H/T's blade do remind me of a double-edged chef's knife, scary pointy and thin. The blade's balance coupled with the long, slim grip make for a very responsive thing; it feels the way I imagine one of those fight manual swords would, especially something fine-tuned for unarmoured dueling.

Speaking of safe practice...

You might consider KoA's package deal, the sharp and the blunt for $50 more than the sharp. Still a heckuva deal, and, if you ever get the itch to try out some of those moves you've seen on You Tube, you'll have fewer embarrassing injuries to show off if you reach for the trainer first. Some of the modern day Fechtschules have given the blunt good reviews even for light sparring.

Best to you, and Happy Holidays.

[Colt Reeves]

While I'm no expert on swords, I do own both the blunt Tinker Longsword and the blunt version of the Hanwei Bastard Sword. My 2 cents:

The Tinker is lighter and handles great. It's much quicker and easier to swing. If I was in a simple tag-each-other-with-the-tip game I would choose this one over my Hanwei Bastard.

The blade is a lot more historical than the Bastard I think, but that's not really my area of expertise. I don't even know Oakeshott's typology to tell the truth.

Concerning the hilt, the issue with the ahistorical pommel has already been mentioned, so I'll ignore that. As I mentioned in my recent thread about rehilting my Hanwei Bastard, the Tinker has a much thinner hilt. It also has a rounded rectangle cross-section, something I sort of don't like. Just doesn't scream sword to me. On the other hand, I have to admit this thin flat hilt really works for the Tinker. Good for edge alignment.


Comparing the Hanwei Bastard now, I'd say it doesn't handle as well per se, but it feels... Not sure what to call it... Like a man's sword. Not so quick on the draw, but feels like it would hit hard. I guess you already know that, or maybe it's just me. Anyway, something that interested me when I was redoing the hilt was that when I got it down to about the Tinker's thickness I didn't like it. Didn't feel right, felt like it should be thicker. Guess that's not really the issue here though.


In conclusion, I'd say the Tinker Pearce Longsword is worth the money. Scott's review is the first negative one I can recall about a Tinker blade. I wouldn't say mine is crooked at all. My Hanwei Bastard has a spiral to the blade, but nada for the Tinker.

[Aleksei Sosnovski]

I bought a blunt Tinker bastard sword blade (shorter than longsword but longer than one-hander). The blade itself is very well-balanced and pretty well-made, with good distal taper. No wavy fullers, etc. With custom hilt the sword handles approximately like Hanwei's old practical one-handed sword, having blade 4 inches longer. In two hands it feels like feather, very fast, yet capable of decent cutting blow. The only problem is relatively thin edges (approx. 1.5 mm). Have to be very careful when deflecting incoming blows in order not to damage the blade. U have seen blunt longsword blades with custom hilts. Also very light and fast. And again no manufacturing defects. If sharp sword has same weight and balance (and it should have) than it would be a good example of "civilian" longsword designed for unarmored use.

[Scott Woodruff]

With so much positive feedback about Hanwei-Tinker swords I may give them a try again. I should have returned the crooked blade but it is so much more fun to chop it up and churn out a couple of dagger blades without too much work than to send it back and wait.

[Tom Kinder]

I don't currently own either the Han / Tinker longsword or the Han bastard but I have encountered a good selection of most of the Hanwei Tinker line swords.

the longsword and bastard sword of the H/T lines are really fun swords, they move fast, are easy to control and cut well (though you will probably want to clean the edges up). they are better examples of historical sword blades than most, if not all swords in the price range ($200 - $300) but they are roughly finished. and by roughly finished I don't just mean the polish. the polish does tend to be very even but also of very coarse grit. the lines on the H/T line swords do tend to wander a bit but they are rarely bad enough to cause any real trouble or to be blatently obvious. the leather is cheesy but sufficient, and many people dislike the overly shiny hilt parts. so in the end while they are wonderful budget swords they ARE still budget swords and that fact can be seen in the detailing. If you are on a budget (and most of us are) then these are high on the list of best-buys.

[Colt Reeves]

Well Scott, not to discourage you or anything, but do keep in mind the source. In my case at least, all my swords are around $200, a mix of Windlass and Hanwei. While I look at my Tinker and don't see any problems like you mention, perhaps you would find fault if all you own are customs and Albions.

I have to admit, the finish is a little wavey. Since this is a blunt practice sword that will be smashed into another sword and generally abused I haven't thought much of it though. Edit: The sharp blade I bought and left in the corner in case I wanted to do any cutting looks much nicer.


Oh, and another thought occurred to me: Dustin, one of the mods I have in progress is attacking the scabbard throat with a grinder. Basically sword good, scabbard bad. It seems to be made of metal and doesn't fit the sword tightly at all. The only tight part was the throat, which had a piece of leather to grip the blade.

More importantly however, they decided to make this thing with the metal of the throat touching the blade! It scratches the blade when you pull it out or put it in, so I took it off and have been half-heartly trying to remove the metal lips with a file and grinding bit. Should you intend to wear this around in a kit, you'll need to do something similar if you don't want the blade scratched up. If you just remove it the sword rattles away in there. Maybe I'd be better off redoing the whole scabbard.

[Tom Kinder]

[J R Johnson]

I noticed the pommel on the Hanwei/Tinker Pearce has been called A-historical and too abstract to be historical in a couple of posts. I would urge those forumites to look at page 200 of Oakeshott's "Records of the Medieval Sword", XIX.3. It's a T.1 Pommel and nearly identical to the pommel of the H/T longsword. The hex sleeve that is used to secure the pommel to the tang is, of course, not historical.

[Scott Woodruff]

Colt, no worries. I can be a pretty picky little perfectionist sometimes. This was my 1st experience buying a sword, so I am still learning. I have not seen more than 2 or 3 replica swords with my own eyes (stainless katanas and fencing foils excepted) whereas I have seen dozens of original 16th c swords in the flesh. Experience molds expectations. I do plan to buy an Albion sword in the next year, which is really kind of silly considering that I have been unemlpoyed for a looooong time and live in a camper in a crack-ridden ghetto.

[Johan Gemvik]

I haven't used the tinker longswords but I've built several swords out of the viking replacement blade. Same factory different model, but quality should be comparative.

On my blades the fuller is very even, straight and not too deep, the distall taper and regular taper are both flawless. The edge is differentially heat treated to be hard while the core is flexible. The edge is hard enough to bite into cold rolled steel without noticeable damage so it's probably around the HRC 50-53 hanwei claims. I use these for cutting regularly with no problems and I plan on making more swords with these blades in the future.

I'm always a bit cautious about screw fastened pommels on swords though, this isn't an issue with the Viking blades since they don't have it. I realise this feature is to be able to change from blunt to sharp with the same fittings to keep it reasonably low cost and as close between blunt and sharp as possible for training reasons. However it's a potential weak spot on all threaded swords. There are enough accidents with japanese blades flying off the handles from someone forgetting the tang fastening pin during re-assembly to also worry about the one time the longsword practitioner didn't remember to tighten the fastening screw on these. Ingenious in some respects it's also a potential danger if handled incorrectly one need to be aware of when using them.
Whether it's all that historically inaccurate I can't say, certain illustrations in the Talhoffer manual shows a similar thread system and some pommels there are far more outlandish.