[Karl Knisley]

Hello
I`ve owned several Albion mark swords but never a squire line. So I ask those of you who`ve owned both,whats the main difference,in quality and functionality?

Thanks in advance

[Roger Hooper]

Squire Line swords have a lower level, more rugged finish on them. They come unsharpened (but not blunt), though Albion will sharpen them for a fee.The grip wraps come only in black. Also, the pommels and guards tend to be simpler and less expensive to make than the furniture on many of the Next Gen swords. This last refers to the Squire Line swords on the Albion site, not the SL Vikings over at Viking Shield.

the main functional difference is probably with the blade edges. Since the Squire Lines come unsharpened, after Albion does put an edge on them, it may not have exactly the same geometry as a Next Gen edge.

[Craig Peters]

A couple of other points to build on what Roger said. On the whole, the Squire Line swords tend to be a little bit heavier than their nearest Next Generation equivalent. The one exception to this is the 13th Century Knightly Sword, which is a bit lighter than the NG Knight. As well as only having black grips, the squire line swords do not have the cord wrap grip. Also, it used to be the case that some of the swords were slightly more rounded than their Next Generation counterpart at the tip area; I am thinking specifically of the Late 15th Century Bastard Sword here.

Overall, the Squire Line swords still feel quite nice in hand and look fairly similar to Next Gen swords. If you did a customized grip and sharpened the edges, the differences will become even less noticeable. In terms of performance difference, the main thing as Roger mentioned is the different edge shape, and the more rounded point on the 15th C Bastard; I have not handled other Squire Line swords so I cannot comment on their points.

[Jeffrey Faulk]