[Daniel Staberg]

Working on two diffrent 16th Century projects at the same time with a limited budget I turned to Del Tin of Italy to get the items I needed at a price that was afordable.

My serious collection of arms & armor began with a couple of Del Tin pieces purchased second hand many years ago but I have never ordered directly from Del Tin. All in all doing so was a good experience, e-mails usually got replies within a couple of days, the estimated time for producing the sword & dagger was spot on and the actual delivery by UPS courier was quick even with hurricane Ophelia disrupting flights to northern Europe.

Del Tin 2167 is sold as a late 16th Century ”German dagger” and is clearly based on the many daggers that have survived as part of the armoury of the Saxon Electoral guard and the Saxon Court.

I chose this dagger as a companion piece to my Arms & Armor Saxon Military Sword, while A&A have two fine Saxon daggers in their catalog customs fees and taxation made them too expensive for my budget. So rather than aiming for the ”perfect” Saxon dagger I chose one that was ”good enough” and with the finished dagger in hand I am very happy with that choice.

The DT 2167 has a strong, robust blade that is effectivly balanced by the large pommel and the dagger sits almost effortlessly in my left hand. The grip is just the right size for me but could prove too small for someone with larger hands. The grip and crossguard are nicely done and capture the style of the original very well. The brass decorations on the grip are nicely done and faithfully resemble the orginals. All in all I felt that I got a lot of dagger for my money.


Del Tin 6166 is described as a Venetian infantryman's sword from the 17th Century but oddly enough it is found in the 16th Century section of their website. I chose this sword because of it's resemblance to an early type of Katzbalger found in drawings by Albrecht Dürer and Paul Dolnstein. While not a perfect match it was close enough for my purpose and I aimed to do some work on the grip to make the apperance closer to that seen in the artwork. The photo sent by Del Tin when the order was complete surprised me in a good way as the design of the hilt had been improved compared to the one seen on the website. When the sword was delivered it turned out that the hilt was even better in it's finished version and was a lot closer to the Dürer and Dolnstein drawings despite me never mentioning them or why I was ordering this particular sword.

The sword is a bit blade heavy but that is to be expected due to the lack of the substancial pommel seen on many early katzbalgers of a similar size. The grip fits my average sized hands very well and makes it easy to align the blade when cutting. (At least when dry-cutting). All in all the sword gives the impression of being a no-nonsens munitions sword meant to give the average soldier a reasonably effective sidearm to fall back up on if his pike or halberd was lost or damaged.

All in all I am very happy with my two new Del Tins, I felt that they provided a lot of ”bang for the buck” and delivery & service was also a pleasant experience. I will certainly return to Del Tin for other projects in the future.

[Mark Tan]

That saxon sword and dagger combo is absolutely stunning!

[Nathan Robinson]

I have been interested in that katzbalger for years and I'm glad to see somebody post about it. It looks great!

[Roger Hooper]

I've also found the DT6166 katzbalger to be an intriguing piece. It's too bad that it has so much blade presence, but that isn't surprising.

[J. Nicolaysen]

Congrats, those both look very nice. The Saxon sword and dagger are on my next list from A&A but that dagger looks very good. Nice to hear about a direct order from Del Tin. I have wondered about doing so myself, though I can get many models through KOA here. That Katzbalger looks really nice, I did not notice that model before. Thanks for the review. Have fun with those great additions.