Review on Windlass Hungarian Saber -- myArmoury.com

Harri Kyllönen

Greetings.
This will be my first review so don't be too disappointed if it doesn't come out too professional.

I ordered the Windlass Hungarian Saber for 210e (sharpened) from a German webstore. Took a month to deliver. It's my first battle ready sword and also the first battle ready sword I've handled. This is why I can't offer a very good review on it since I don't have much experience to compare.

The sword was delivered sharpened. The sharpening was quite good but the seller could have bothered to whipe the metal dust of the blade before sending it...
There were plenty scratches and dents on the pommel and crossguard but I can't tell if that was from the reseller, Windlass or shipping.

- Blade.
This looks like a beautiful piece of workmanship to an amateurs eye. Once polished I have no complaints about the quality.
The blade seems surprisingly thick from the back at 4mm. The feel is very solid and not at all "bendy" or "whippy". Though I'm no expert on how a good saber blade should feel like and I don't dare to try to bend it with any real force.

At first I was put off by the blade not having a fuller or other similar characteristics. But when I saw the blade live I actually prefer it clean like this. It's also historical.

The entire sword feels solidly put together. No rattling or anything loose from swinging carboard and empty air.

- Pommel.
It's peened but the finish is ugly. There are ugly (hammering?) marks all around it and the bottom of the pommel.
Karabelas had an eagle's head shaped pommel and I've never seen any historical swords of the era that have a pommel like this but I'm fine with it.

- Crossguard
Looks good. Some sracthes of course. For a Hungarian sword the crossguard is very short. This one's more like the Polish karabela crossguard than Hungarian. Anyway I like it better short like this.

- Hilt
Black leather. Looks and feels good. Nothing more to say about that.

- Scabbard
The same leather here. Looks good enough. Stainless steel(?) fittings but that doesn't bother me. What does bother me is that there are no rings or anything to hang this thing from a belt (or wall).

- Handling
This is where my inexperience will show the most...
Anyway the sword feels very heavy for it's size. The manufacturers 1,25 kg sounds abound right.
Point of balance is 63cm from the pointy end and around 29cm from the other. Dunno if that information is worth anything to you.

The size feels ok for a man of average size like me (185cm, 95kg... Okay I'm fat but some of it is muscle too since I do powerlift. Happy

). Interesting thing about the hilt is that since the pommel is shaped like a funnel you can grip it with both (small) hands if needed. Though I don't know how that grip would hold in real use...

What I like about the blade is how it's very mildly curved next to many historical (Hungarian) sabers. I don't like extremely curved blades. The point is also very acute for thrusting and the mild curvature makes thursting accurate/easy. But the handling doesn't give you the feel that it's a thursting sword. The blade wants you to chop something.

The sword doesn't feel particularly responsive and agile but that could just be my inexperience. So again it's a chopper for me.

All in all I'd give this one 3 stars out of 5.
It's a good looking wall hanger and propably great for chopping something for giggles. Given the relatively cheap price I'd buy it again for my first battle ready swords.

Sorry, no pics. I own a cellphone camera so anything you'll find on the net will look better than anything I could offer you.
Any questions?

Scott Woodruff · Posted: Thu 28 Jun, 2012 4:50 pm Post subject:

Interesting that the COM that you report is more than twice as far down the blade as the 5.25" that KOA claims for it. Thanks for the review.

Luka Borscak · Posted: Thu 28 Jun, 2012 5:04 pm Post subject:

I'm not sure but he might have measured PoB from the start of the sword, not start of the blade.

Harri Kyllönen · Posted: Thu 28 Jun, 2012 9:52 pm Post subject:

J. Hargis · Posted: Thu 28 Jun, 2012 9:54 pm Post subject:

Hello Harri,

Thanks for your opinions. If I may add, a few pictures of the Windlass Hungarian Saber would certainly help emphasize your points.

Cheers and welcome to myArmoury.com. I'm glad you're stepping up and telling us your views. No need to be shy around here.

Jon

William P · Posted: Thu 28 Jun, 2012 11:21 pm Post subject:

the one question i have swirling abou in my head is what PERIOD is this sabre meant torepresent since hungarian/ magyar sabres changed a fair bit during the areas history,

i mean, rus/hungarian/ magyar/ khazar sabres during the 10th century weighed on average 8-900grams (yeah i know, pretty light, and hey were on average a meter long but some examples run up to 1.2 m (4 ft long) these were very very agile sabres (i can attest o this personally since i am constantly facing them on the reenactment field.

ok its a sabre from approx 1500,
no idea what their handling characteristics are

Harri Kyllönen · Posted: Thu 28 Jun, 2012 11:59 pm Post subject:

William P · Posted: Fri 29 Jun, 2012 10:50 pm Post subject:

theres also an example of a 16th-17th ccentury Hungarian sabre in the austrian graz armoury it has a flat bottomed pommel

Phil D. · Posted: Sat 30 Jun, 2012 7:26 am Post subject:

Is this the one...(pic from KoA)

If so,you can find multiple pics here http://kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=501084

You can also find more pics of originals in this past topic http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=19092