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B. Pogue
Industry Professional
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 Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 7:32 am Post subject: Atrim Collaboration announcement - Blade Show 2016 |
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Hello folks, It's been a while since I've posted but I thought this might be of some interest. Over the last year and a half I've been working with Gus Trim to produce and design several swords for us. We hadn't started right off for several reasons but we are now in the full swing of it. At Blade Show in Atlanta last weekend we showed off the first Atrim produced sword (SA1501 Competition Cutting Longsword) and the first two of several swords Gus designed for us to produce by the Dragon King forge, a Type XVIII and a Type XIV. More info to come but for now check out this video interview that Thomas of Medieval Review was kind enough to put together at the show.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xzUq5XgzgQ
Thanks,
Blake
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B. Pogue
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 7:54 am Post subject: |
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We have a few other swords in the works that Gus has designed that will come later. But I can share the second Gus made sword that should be available in the next couple of weeks; the River Yare Falchion:
Blake
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Roger Hooper
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| Posted: Wed 08 Jun, 2016 10:16 am Post subject: |
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That's good news. With ATrim and Tinker, you folks have a real Seattle connection. Will Gus Trim be designing any Hema blunts for you, or will they all be cutters?
Nice looking falchion. I hope that we will see specs on it before long.
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Ant Mercer
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| Posted: Thu 09 Jun, 2016 5:00 am Post subject: |
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Very exciting, Blake. Can't wait to see these up for sale - you really seem to have upped your game with them.
I don't think it was mentioned in the vid (apologies if I missed it), but are these intended to be peened or hex nut? Or is that yet to be decided?
Cheers,
Ant
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Mike Ruhala
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| Posted: Thu 09 Jun, 2016 9:18 am Post subject: |
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Hmm... another Albion Meyer knockoff. Okay, I accept there's a market for modern sport feders but it would have been nice to see a higher quality historically accurate feder.
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Bram Verbeek
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| Posted: Thu 09 Jun, 2016 11:40 am Post subject: |
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| Mike Ruhala wrote: | | Hmm... another Albion Meyer knockoff. Okay, I accept there's a market for modern sport feders but it would have been nice to see a higher quality historically accurate feder. |
I don't really get this comment, it is a sword made for cutting competitions, which is something the Meyer would be very poor at. This sword, however, would make it quite challenging to find sparrings partners, especially for repeat performance.
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T. Kew
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| Posted: Thu 09 Jun, 2016 12:06 pm Post subject: |
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| Mike Ruhala wrote: | | Hmm... another Albion Meyer knockoff. Okay, I accept there's a market for modern sport feders but it would have been nice to see a higher quality historically accurate feder. |
A fair few of the Eastern European makers are doing historical reproduction feders now. Regenyei has a particularly nice one.
HEMA fencer and coach, New Cross Historical Fencing
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Mike Ruhala
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| Posted: Thu 09 Jun, 2016 5:34 pm Post subject: |
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| Bram Verbeek wrote: |
I don't really get this comment, it is a sword made for cutting competitions, which is something the Meyer would be very poor at. This sword, however, would make it quite challenging to find sparrings partners, especially for repeat performance. |
If you watch the video they're coming out with a modern sport feder too. That's fine, there's certainly a market for that kind of thing, but their federschwert was actually very close to the historical examples and only suffered from poor heat treating. I would like to see an improved version of that product. As far as the Gus Trim collaboration goes it looks like a big XIIa which is one of my favorite types, depending on the specs and whether or not it is peened I may be interested in adding one to my collection.
| T. Kew wrote: |
A fair few of the Eastern European makers are doing historical reproduction feders now. Regenyei has a particularly nice one. |
I love my Regenyei sport feder, best of the breed IMO. I've been eyeing his historically accurate feder for some time but unfortunately he's decided to stop dealing directly with his US customers. I wasn't aware other smiths were making historically accurate feders now, I'll have to do some searching around and see what the options are.
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B. Pogue
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Mon 20 Jun, 2016 10:49 am Post subject: |
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| Ant Mercer wrote: | Very exciting, Blake. Can't wait to see these up for sale - you really seem to have upped your game with them.
I don't think it was mentioned in the vid (apologies if I missed it), but are these intended to be peened or hex nut? Or is that yet to be decided?
Cheers,
Ant |
Ant,
The Gus made swords will feature the same "mechanical peen" assembly setup he is using on everything else these days. My understanding of the process is that Gus tightens the assembly multiple times over several days allowing the pommel and guard to fully compress and settle together. The end of the nut is then ground down and finished to resemble a round peen. Gus's tolerances are tight enough that I can't tell it's not a hot peen.
Full specs for the longsword are listed here: http://casiberia.com/product/atrim-competitio...ord/sa1501
The swords which will be made for Kingston Arms will be of peened pommel construction.
Blake
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Sam Barris
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| Posted: Tue 21 Jun, 2016 8:54 am Post subject: |
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Do you plan to include a basic scabbard with this?
Pax,
Sam Barris
"Any nation that draws too great a distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards, and its fighting done by fools." —Thucydides
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B. Pogue
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 22 Jun, 2016 6:15 am Post subject: |
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| Mike Ruhala wrote: |
If you watch the video they're coming out with a modern sport feder too. That's fine, there's certainly a market for that kind of thing, but their federschwert was actually very close to the historical examples and only suffered from poor heat treating. I would like to see an improved version of that product. |
Mike, Two things:
We may very well re-visit that Feder so I appreciate your comments. I'd want to stiffen the blade a bit and work on the grip leather for longevity sake. Stiffening would put a little more metal where these tended to suffer breaks (near the point) and several rounds of testing would be in order to make sure they got the heat treat right.
Secondly the Feder shown in the video is not made by Hanwei but the Dragon King forge (info here). Just FYI.
Blake
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Mike Ruhala
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| Posted: Wed 22 Jun, 2016 10:58 am Post subject: |
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Hi Blake,
I would like to see that. I've got a pair of the Hanwei feders that Ben Floyd and I put a couple hundred hours on half a decade ago, they don't see as much use as they did because of rule changes in common bring-your-own-steel tournaments but they are still serviceable and get a workout from time to time. I had a third from the post-fire batch I bought for evaluation hoping the heat treatment had become more reliable but I broke that one with Mike Edelson's guys within a few bouts. Based on experience with my own examples and those I encountered in the greater community I noticed 2 chief things that contributed to their longevity,
-good heat treat
-rounding the edges, I did this myself but it would be a good factory feature
There's another component though and that's intended use. Historically accurate feders aren't used in open steel HEMA tournaments because frankly the kind of fencing going on there is quite different than the kind of fencing these feders were designed and used for hundreds of years ago. In the modern tournament it's mostly heavily padded fighters using free techniques in relatively "flat" parry-riposte exchanges with the competitors often relying heavily on the speed of their strikes to overwhelm their opponents. It's a different environment with its own rules and that's what's given rise to the modern sport feder. Historically accurate feders were intended to be used by lightly equipped fighters using more feints, deceptions, evasions, redirections and bindwork. There are plenty of practitioners who engage in both forms of longsword fecing, myself included, but we're dealing with two different products for two different applications here and it would be a mistake to stray too far from historical specs for a historical feder, we don't so much need a new design as we need the highest quality reproduction of an original design. The Hanwei Tinker line is supposed to be martempered, wouldn't be a bad idea to do that with the feders.
Thanks for the info on the Dragon King MSF. Part of the reason I was disheartened to see it rather than a product improved HAF was a few years ago I contacted Darksword about a quality historically accurate feder for mass production and put down a small pile of cash to get it done. Initially they seemed enthusiastic but as time wore on and on with lots of talk about prototypes yet not a single picture and similar such circumstances I pulled out of the project. A short while later they released a knock-off of the Albion Meyer. They did refund my money so I give them credit for that but I'm now convinced that they don't make their swords in Canada and given the amount of money involved and the timeline I'm pretty sure what happened was I unwittingly floated them the cash to purchase a Meyer from Albion for them to have cloned in India or somewhere. There's lots of MSF's out there but quality HAF's are few and far between at the moment.
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Julien M
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| Posted: Wed 22 Jun, 2016 11:25 am Post subject: |
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Hi Blake,
Exciting stuff! Would share a few shots of the slender Type XIV seen on the blade show video?
Looking forward to see these close. Any idea on the price point?
Cheers,
J
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J. Helm
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| Posted: Wed 22 Jun, 2016 12:04 pm Post subject: |
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I eagerly await more info on the XIV as well. 
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B. Pogue
Industry Professional
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| Posted: Wed 06 Jul, 2016 5:12 am Post subject: |
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More to come on the Type XIV soon! This prototype has met with Gus's approval so it should not be long before we are able to gather final info on pricing, specs, etc.
In the mean time Gus has delivered the first of the longswords, and it is exceptional;
http://casiberia.com/product/atrim-competitio...ord/sa1501
Blake
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Julien M
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| Posted: Wed 06 Jul, 2016 5:53 am Post subject: |
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| B. Pogue wrote: | More to come on the Type XIV soon! This prototype has met with Gus's approval so it should not be long before we are able to gather final info on pricing, specs, etc.
In the mean time Gus has delivered the first of the longswords, and it is exceptional;
http://casiberia.com/product/atrim-competitio...ord/sa1501
Blake |
Nice stuff Blake, though it's not what I expected - I thought these were Atrim designed prototypes to be produced in China - same as the Tinker Hanwei line. But this is a 100% Atrim made sword that you guys will distribute - not exactly the same price point great stuff nonetheless.
J
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Roger Hooper
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| Posted: Wed 06 Jul, 2016 11:56 am Post subject: |
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Are you sure that this sword will be made by ATrim? He has designed it of course, but I doubt he is set up to produce/manufacture it himself as a production item.
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Julien M
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| Posted: Wed 06 Jul, 2016 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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| Roger Hooper wrote: | | Are you sure that this sword will be made by ATrim? He has designed it of course, but I doubt he is set up to produce/manufacture it himself as a production item. |
Not sure really: it's, quote "Made by Gus Trim by Kingston Arms" but further down the page states that:
"Key Features:
Designed and Made by Gus Trim (Atrim)
5160 Spring Steel Blade
Made specifically for HEMA competition tournament cutting"
So it looks that these are made by Gus and distributed by Kingston Arms (not to mention that it is priced at 1400$, so that reinforce the point).
J
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This is a standard topic