Hey all. I'm looking at getting a longsword commissioned with one smith or another, and have two questions, the first of which I'm a bit more concerned with (at present). ​

1) Has anyone used an Oakeshott type XX/XXa sword? I can't seem to find many well-made examples or reviews of them online. The design intrigues me, but I wonder if there's a good reason that they don't seem common, or if it's just sort of chance.

For me, the sword's primary use would be cutting tatami. Secondary use would just be general solo practice and flow drills. I want to end up with a sword that cuts decently, but is still designed to be reasonable at both cut/thrust and has fairly nice handling without being excessively light.


2) Second question, probably difficult/impossible to answer, since I imagine the answer would change within every swordtype and even among similar swords. But does anyone have any advice on where I might want a center of percussion/center of balance placed, or (why) I would/wouldn't want it in certain places? ... maybe an easier question, anything to particularly avoid with either on a two-handed longsword primarily intended for cutting?

I don't actually have any swords at present, so the only thing I'm used to is my Castille Armory Mark V Feder, which I'm sure handles at least somewhat differently.

I'm not super hung-up on the details of where I'd want a CoB/CoP... I just don't want to end up spending a ton on something that ends up feeling off, and don't really know how to best watch out for that.

Thanks all.

Here's a review from a while back of Albion's Viceroy.

I had actually completely missed that sword when browsing Albion's site. Thanks for pointing it out, and the review!

http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=139...+revisited

There is also this sword, built by Ghazarian into a custom made Arms and Armor blade. It’s a big two hander and handles like one. I’m the owner and have it in my office if you have any questions I’m happy to answer as best I can.

I really like the type xx and you don’t see them too often. They’re very authoritative cutters in general, but as you said, they can be made more cut and thrust oriented too.

The center of balance is really the result of tuning the nodes of vibration. One is on the blade, the center of percussion, but the other one should be on the hilt, just behind the guard. You want that second dead spot under your guiding hand so that any shock taken by the sword isn’t transferred to you. Most of that tuning happens with the distal and or profile taper of the blade, and it’s fine tuned with the weight of the pommel.

For the first point, I've cut with the Viceroy in competition and it's a lightsaber.

For the second point, this really comes down to your smith in my opinion. If you pick someone good and you explain what you want to use the sword for, they should be able to take care of these details for you. Unless you really know what you're asking for, it's very easy to get this slightly wrong and produce something you really end up not liking. Pick a good smith and trust them to do the job.