[Lancelot Chan]

Tinker sword:

http://www.rsw.com.hk/tinker-review.htm

Fred's Dragon Two Handed Jian:

http://www.rsw.com.hk/dragon.htm

However, in addtion to what I've already said in the webpage above, I would like to add some "not so positive" comments on the Fred Chen sword one to make it more fitting as a review.

First, the tip of the Dragon Two Handed Jian was a bit wobbling too much because the blade geometry was as mentioned in the webpage, just an elonged single handed Jian. For that thickness and cross section, the tip thickness was actually too thick, making the tip carrying too much weight for the blade's mid-part to support it rigidly.

There are 2 or more options to stiff the blade up. The first one is to go historical accuracy and make the blade with a cross section just like the period 2 handed Jian, where the forte features octagonal or hexagonal cross section, leaving only the foible with flattened diamond.

Another method was to go European way: More distal taper to the tip, make it thinner to lighten it up so that the forte can support the tip better.

Upon discussion with Joe Zhu, he also thought of making a fuller on the blade but I dunno if it would make the Jian still look good as a Jian or not. He also mentioned if the Jian was not that long, he could go for hollow grind to make a protruling spine. But for a sword that long the hollow grind option would take too much labor work.

Another "not so positive" comment about the sword was the carving on the pommel would actually cut into someone's hand like my Brescia Spadona's pommel does. But then, since the hilt was SO long, it was not necessary to grip the pommel and that's why I did not mention it on the page. Yet, I would like to bring this issue up here to make it more objective and less biased.

The final comment was the the scabbard was mis-made that the Jian can only enter it with one side. With the other side, the guard would stuck with the mouthpiece of the guard and cannot get into it.

[Chad Arnow]

Lance,
Thanks for the reviews. I was surprised to read that the Tinker sword had pitting on the guard, though. In cast fittings, like Del Tin, Albion, and Arms & Armor use, pits are usually the result of bubbles in the casting or imperfections in the wax, etc. Pitting is to be expected (in small amounts) in any cast fitting, at least from what I've seen. Tinker uses stock removal, though, so pits shouldn't end up in the guard at all, unless there was some gunk in the steel that the grinder caught or something. Strange...

[Lancelot Chan]

There might be an explanation to this. I didn't mention in the review that Calvin the Taiwanese customer demanded the guard to be more curved upon seeing the photos Tinker sent to us, so the guard was took down and reworked. The pittings I saw should not be bubbles but some working marks. In fact, there were other indications on the guard telling a tale that it had seen some rework.

[Chad Arnow]

[Kenneth Enroth]

Lance,

Did you get a replacement Brescia or what?

[Lancelot Chan]

Not yet. Still waiting on it.