The BEST swords
 

This may be interesting for those who are making add on weapons. A company called Albion Swords makes totally authentic, hand made, historically accurate swords. They are hand ground and polished of high carbon heat tempered steel, and absolutley awesome.

Anyway their web site has a huge gallery of historically accurate swords, with photos, drawings, facts and specifications for all kinds of swords. A totally awesome reference.

If you have never held a REAL sword, it is something else.

Here's thier site and pics of the one I own. Click on the "Next Generation" product line for pics of like 100 swords...

http://www.albion-swords.com/

http://sio.midco.net/111lll/0457580-R1-E002.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/111lll/0457580-R1-E006.jpg

http://sio.midco.net/111lll/0457580-R1-E001.jpg

Re: The BEST swords
 

Awesome site, Im checking that out right now :)

EDIT: How much did that sword cost you? I know they can be insanely expensive, but they really are beautiful pieces of craftsmanship. My cousin had one (not as nice as that though) and it was amazing.

EDIT2: Holy sh**! These things are light!
http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/...knight-xii.htm
Less than 3 pounds? Thats amazing. I always wondered how on earth people swung those damned things around, I figured they weighed like 10 pounds or more for a mid-sized sword.

If I had a little more money to play with I would deffinitely get one of the $350 ones... those are just too cool. I'd probably hurt myself trying to play with it though :o

Re: The BEST swords
 

Yeah after I saw that site I hovered over it for a couple months and finally bought one. I never knew you could actually buy totally real swords like that, I had only ever seen the cheap replicas for $100 or whatever that you can get at the mall.

Mine was $950.

Re: The BEST swords
 

Yeah, real ones are amazing.

I found yours:
http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/...iceroy-xxa.htm

Beautiful sword... man, I want one now. :o

Re: The BEST swords
 

are they sharp?

Re: The BEST swords
 

Yeah a real sword is harmonically balanced and everything. If you strike it and watch the how it flexes it looks like this with the blade arcing in this manner:

(|)
(|)
(|) handle

That way the sweet spot for cutting in the cetner of the blade remains motionless with no vibration, and agian it remains motionless with no vibration right at the cross guard above the handle. That way in battle minimal vibrations transfer into your hand, which is balanced right under the cross guard, and you remain in total control of the balde.

Plus the blade is so thin its hard to imagine it would hold up, and with such a small amount of steel out at the tip the blade moves around almost effortlessly. I was absolutly blown away when I picked up my sword for the first time, it seemed unreal how light it was. Since most of that 3lbs is in your hand, it wieghs almost nothing at the tip.

Even the two handed long swords are only like 4lbs.

Re: The BEST swords
 

thats awesome.. If i had the money id buy one... sooo... are they sharpened? like chop chop sharp?

Re: The BEST swords
 

They are knife sharp, but not razar sharp. You don't wan't a sword too sharp otherwise it does not hold an edge as well. The models that are designed for thrusting have tips that are literally needle sharp though. Mine is so sharp I was afraid for a while the the tip would break off when I touched it, it was that fine. But the way the blade geometry is design with a diamond cross section is has amazing strength for being so thin.

I set mine on the floor once and under its own wieght it went right through the carpet and mat underneath and into the floor board.

Re: The BEST swords
 

:drooling:

I want one.

:drooling:

Id get this one:
http://www.albion-swords.com/swords/...e-knightly.htm

Not too expensive, but still very very nice. I could even get it unsharpened if I was worried about hurting myself ;)

Re: The BEST swords
 

My bro has a Viking re-enactment sword, it isn't sharp .. but they usually stab pretty cleanly. He knows from experience...

.. he's run the blade down the back of my neck when the blade's been cold .. so his isn't sharp enough to pierce the skin that way, but the tip sure is sharp enough to jab pretty well.

Re: The BEST swords
 

Those are amazing works of art, all of them.

To think, though, that hundreds of those swords were churned out during the crusades. I'm sure the infantry grunt's sword didn't share the same quality as a knight, or some other high ranking field officer, but still had to be an impressive feat and quite a work load for the army's smiths.

Re: The BEST swords
 

Swords are kick ass! I like Japanese Katanas. I´ve seen once how an old man made a sword like that, by hand and it was simple amazing. I don´t remember his name but his swords were selling for like $50.000, at least thats what they said in that documentary. They are also incredibly light and flexible. They are excellent cutting swords, probably the best for that one purpose.

European sword designs are by no mean any worse but they are designed for a totally different type of combat. Also there is a reason why the japanese swords are so light, Japan doesn´t have a lot natural iron resources, while Europe has A LOT of iron. So it was much easier and cheaper to make excellent and high quality swords in Europe, something what wasn´t the case in Japan.