Functional Gladius?

[Josh Feltman]

Can somebody recommend me a functional gladius for $150 or so? I'm more interested in good carbon steel and a decent heat treat than anything fancy.
--Josh

 

[HankS]

Mineral Mountain Hatchet works used to have one, but I can see at their site all they have is their long knife, which is a little narrower than their gladius. I think their gladius was 3" wide, and the long knife is 2" wide, bboth were 21" long.

Hank

 

[Benjamin Liu]

I can only think of two in that price range. Museum Replicas www.museumreplicas.com has a gladiatorial sword for somewhere around $135.00 IIRC. If you want a really inexpensive one and want do some work to put a new handle and guard on it you can get the Sword of Tigris on clearance at www.eknifeworks.com for $30.00. Most places sell it for over $200.00. I bought one for my dad as a decoration (he doesn't train with swords) and it was very heavy due to the large solid brass guard. Both of these are made by Windlass. They are real swords but come dull and you have to sharpen them yourself. For the $200.00 and under range you can get three gladius designs from Museum Replicas but I'm pretty sure you'd have to sharpen them as well. In the same price range you can get the Kris Cutlery gladius www.kriscutlery.com which should come with a functional edge. I don't have that model but I have 7 other KC swords and they all have functional edges and I have used them all in practice cutting. Another alternative is the gladius-like blade, the qama, sold by Atlanta Cutlery www.atlantacutlery.com for 32.95. Of all these the Kris Cutlery version would probably be the most useful as a real weapon.