Holy smokes, all. Apparently I crossed some line here. I have no doubt that these are quality functional trainers. Both of the A&A longsword trainers I own are. I was merely asking about why the particular look. Answer – Cost. Thank you.
What drove my initial concern (as I feel I must explain myself) is that $400 is still considered a lot of money in my neck of the deep Midwest. I guess I had higher expectations.
Please, no lectures about supply and demand, I get that.
On a lighter note, I am happy to see this hole in the market being filled. It wasn’t long ago that the US had no steel messer trainers.

Hi Aron,

It might be the fact that I though you were Aron Montaini Of the Kansas based Great Plains Fechtschule and if you aren't then you never have played with my clip point aluminum messer. ;)

And...

I'd feel pretty stupid. :)

Cheers,

DT

I picked one of these up from Kult of Athena -

It's an impressive little piece. For those concerned about edge durability, I measured the "cutting side" at

At guard - 4.6 mm
Midpoint - 3.7 mm
1 inch from tip - 2.54 mm

The back side stays a little thicker as it goes down the blade, which is pretty much rectangular shaped. the edges are squared off, though there are 2 small radii on the "sharp" side edges, which may not please those who like them to be more rounded.

It's good looking, fast, and durable, great for HEMA or for stage work - a good sword for one of Falstaff's tavern buddies at the Battle of Shrewsbury.

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Hi Roger,

Thanks for bringing these back to people's attention ... I reckon these are one of the 'unsung heroes' of training equipment - it's such a boon to have a quality messer trainer at this price.

And thanks for reminding me to hassle Craig about making a production sharp!

When the A&A messer came out in 2011, there were 3 blunt models on the market -

The A&A
The Albion Maestro Marxbruder
The Hanwei Langmesser

The Albion was described by Christian Tobler as very well made, but so hard-hitting that it was dangerous to use.
The Hanwei Practical Langmesser see the old KOA section - was noticeably heavier, and a little cheaper. It had a short life - perhaps partly due to that Hanwei factory fire, perhaps partly a decision that it couldn't compete with the A&A and the Albion.

The A&A seems to me to have the best overall design.

Hi guys,
I'm not online much anymore, but I saw this thread was resurrected, so I thought I'd update the status of my messers (as well as the many used at my school).

Since I got the prototypes in late 2010, these have seen A LOT of heavy use. And once these trainers became available, I believe 12 have been purchased by my group. They have seen a lot of serious training, and are all holding up beautifully. Mine has a very slight rattle in the guard, as do a couple of the older ones. Note that when I say very slight rattle, I mean it is so slight that you really have to force the sword around hard to even hear the noise.

The newer versions of these have slightly longer grips than my original prototype, and the balance point is a little closer to the hand. I personally prefer the balance of my prototype more, but I still like the newer ones that my students have.

I wish I had a video of close ups of these weapons in use, but the best I can do is this video below of my student Doug and I using them in the messer finals at WMAW 2013:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6JBTVimgZXI