[Markus Haider]

Bladelength: 80cm (31.4961 Inches)
Length over all: 97cm (38.189 Inches)
Width of the blade: 3cm (1.1811 Inches), tapering to 2.5cm (0.984252 Inches) at 11cm ( 4.33071 Inches) from the tip
Ricasso: 5cm (2 Inches)
Length of the fullers: 59 cm ( 23.2283 Inches)
The blade is 5mm ( 0.19685 Inches) thick, tapering to 3.5mm (0.137795 Inches) at the COP and 3mm ( 0.11811 Inches) at the tip.
COP: ca. 60cm (24 Inches) from the hilt
COG: 8cm (3.14961 Inches) from the hilt
Weight: 1260g ( 2.77782 Pounds)
Price: about 160 GBP, (around 230 Euro or 260 Dollar) including shipping, no scabbard.

I ordered the sword in May and received it this week from Armour Class from Scottland. Ian and Allen were very responsive and friendly, dealing with them is really easy and fast.
I wanted a plain complex hilted sword with backsword blade and the mortuary hilt appealed me most of the offerings in the production price segment.
One customization is the sharkskin wrapping, which is very tight, no gap or rattling. It is a bit rough, like others said, but not uncomfortably so. Originally the sword would come with a leather wrapping.
The hilt is blued, the blade is - while normally sporting a mirrorfinish - satinfinished like ordered.
The two narrow fullers are straight, but a bit rough at both ends.
The blueing is even and well done, except the two ribs on one side, where the blueing is missing. Not a problem for me, since it should be a plain sword.
I did cut a couple of soft targets with the sword, and while it did its job, it wasn't nearly as good as my ATrim XVII-Single hand sword (a bit of an unfair comparison I admit).
The sword is quite well balanced, a bit heavy for the blade size maybe, but I don't know what the historical weight of such swords was (while it is easy to find data of Scottish basket hilts, it is hard to find something about this style), but it is agile and fast (due the near COG).
The basket is large enough to grip the sword with two hands, again I don't know how historical this is.
Overall I am very satisfied with this sword, it is even better than I expected, and I can wholeheartedly recommend Armour Class. I expect that the higher priced swords have a better finish, the only gripe I would have with the sword if I expected to get a sword for display.

Some pictures:

[W. Patrick McGuigan]

Congratulations! That looks really nice!

[Bill Grandy]

Hey Markus,
That looks really good. I'm not sure how I feel, though, about Armourclass sending a sword to you that has a big spot where they missed the blueing. That just seems too obvious to escape their attention. You said since you weren't looking for a display sword it doesn't matter, which is good... but something like that seems a little sloppy to me.

Overall, though, the pictures look great, and the prices of their swords are also very nice.

[Markus Haider]

Well, I ordered the sharkskin grip a bit later than the sword, and they only noticed it shortly before sending, and changed it. Maybe the bluing was scratched off when they changed it. The spot surely looks like it was blued and then sanded off (unintentionally).

[David Wilson]

The blade looks identical (and probably is) to the blade on my AC Stirling-style Basket hilt. Except my Stirling weighs a hair over 3 lbs.
If it's one thing Armour Class really excels at, it's getting that PoB/CoG down, to where even a heavier sword (like my Stirling) can feel quite agile and even a bit lively.

[Russ Ellis]

I've got to say I like the looks of that one better then a lot of the Armor Class stuff I've seen. I very much like that blade form.

[Lee O'Hagan]

Hi Markus,
For £160 odd that look's quite the bargain,
Your pic's do it alot more justice than those i saw on the AC site,and thanks for the detailed specs,
very nice addition,good choice on the grip looks very well done,
lee.

[Scott Bubar]

[Nathan Robinson]