The
initial thought you get when viewing
this sword in person, is that this sword
is solid. From the steel pommel, steel
guard, and long polished blade you get a
good impression of a well built sword. semi-mirror polished blade, but not
polished well enough, in my opinion.
This will be a blade that I will be
sanding into a brushed steel look.
Especially after the cutting I've done,
it only ruins the mirrored polish
anyways.
Once I got the pictures out of the way,
I couldn't wait to do some dry handling
with this sword. My initial impression
was that this sword is blade heavy. So I
setup my trusty workbench vice to do a
quick check on just where that POB was.
The grip was comfortable, and gave me a
very good feeling of alignment, so that
I knew the blade was going to strike
true. I also like the narrow guard, as
this can be a problem when wielding a
one-handed sword, and catching the guard
on your clothing, or even the head when
swinging over it. I went through some
repetitious left right swings, and some
dry
cutting routines to get a better
feel for this sword, and what I
discovered was my arm got pretty tired.
I could only imagine using this sword in
battle, with one hand on a shield, and
the other wielding this! I decided I was
a hand-and-half sword guy after this.
This sword was modeled after the
Oakshotte Type X, with a pommel type M.
The sword shown in
Oakshotte's book was
found in the river Thames, in King's
Reach off the temple of London. I must
say it is a neat looking sword, and the
long wide fuller is fairly attractive.
It is a nice addition to anyone's
collection.
The few visible flaws on this sword are
the polishing of the blade (a common Gen
2 polishing), which could be a better
mirrored polish. Though I
would prefer a
brushed look anyways, unless I was never
going to use it. Also, the fuller isn't
straight along the length of the blade,
but this is only visible if your looking
down the length of the blade, and not
straight on..
If not for the grip on this, I might
lean towards a disappointment when it
comes to swinging this sword.
But
fortunately, it always aimed true, and
made it fairly easy to trust your
intentions upon the target. Structure
wise, it doesn't get any better than
this as far as Generation 2 is
concerned. After all the cutting I've
done, the blade is true, and the
furniture is tight.
The usual swordfodder of bottles and
milk cartons easily were dispersed, and
most of my cuts were true with the
bottom half of the bottle remaining on
the stand. I also did some hanging
bottles and jugs with ease, as this
sword demonstrates Gen 2's razor sharp
blades well.
I did some thrust testing into a 2 x 4
and it did quite well, with one thrust
closer to the edge than I wanted, it
split the 2 x 4 and made for a nice
touch. All said, this is a great
sword,
but not recommended for the weak of
hand. It will wear you down if you swing
it around continuously. But I love the
grip, and the blade is strong, yet has
enough flex for forgiving you upon an
errant swing. The blade flex feels
perfect for this size of sword.
The
second round of a pickle cut exercise on
a milk carton.
The hilt on this sword made
it easy to trust your angle.
Another
true swing, leaving the bottom half of
the bottle on the stand.
Personalized custom grip on Viking
sword (not included).
Personalized custom grip on Viking
sword (not included).
