New to swords

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Wunderbar

Joined
May 2, 2003
Messages
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My son and I bought a sword from Dwarf Mountain Knives at a faire. It's a very awesome Norman sword and I paid $120. We also bought a large one from a military guy stationed in Spain. His looked really old. This about sums up my "sword experience". My question is, what manufacturers make a "real" sword and not wall hangers? I am very familiar with Cold Steel knives but not their swords. They're swords seem a bit pricey. Are there other sword makers out there or will I just be purchasing from my local sword maker next time?
 
I guess it depends on what you would consider "real"

i am sure that you can find plenty of sites selling "combat ready" swords but as with anything you will get what you pay for. I personally consider "Combat ready" code for crap.

Paul Chen's practical tactical are decent and fairly inexpensive

Swamp Rat is still accepting orders for their Rat Waki Sword for about $400

And of course the Busse Ak-47 (if you can find one)

Cold steel swords are alright but it depends on what you are going to use it for:)
 
There's a lot of ways to go, depending on a lot of factors.

Your aesthetic preferences: What TYPE of swords are you interested in purchasing?
Your price preferences: How much are you willing to spend?
Your expectations: What functions are you expecting out of your purchase?
 
Real is a very subjective term, and can be applied in a myriad of ways.

A Medieval type sword to be real, would have to be hand made and of a certain pattern. We are talking aesthetically not historically.

The above also applies to Japanese style swords.

More modern sword types can be machine made and still be considered real.

If you are talking real, as in, it can be used for its intended purpose without self destructing regardless of method of manufacture, then you are faced with several choices.

What do you want to do with it? Will you actually cut with it? and so forth.

Chuck
 
I'm looking for a sword that can be used to attack an assailant and still be put up on the wall for display.:)
 
What type of sword? If you are looking for functional swords, different companies specialize in European, Japanese, Filipino, etc. style swords.

Lots of people really like Albion for European swords, but they wouldn't be the ones to buy a katana from. Cheness has Japanese-style swords that are very good for the money, but don't expect to find a gladius on their site. Windlass has European-style swords that don't cost very much but are still functional. Hanwei, Cold Steel, and Kris Cutlery make swords from various cultures.
 
Wunderbar said:
Looking for European swords from around 500 A.D. to 1400 A.D.
Click to expand...

That's still a pretty broad range, but for the purposes of conversation, I would check out Kris Cutlery, Del Tin and MRL for more entry level items and Arms and Armor and Albion for more upscale production pieces.
 
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