Royal Armouries/Windlass 14th Century Longsword Review
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- čas přidán 30. 11. 2022
- In today's video we take a look at the Holy Roman Empire 14th century Longsword by The Royal Armouries and Windlass Steel crafts.
**Disclaimer**
We're not experts in weapons, history, or anything really. We don't study HEMA or any other form of material arts that would tell us how to use the weapons we talk about. We are simply enthusiasts and consumers. We'll give you our honest opinions so that you can make informed buying decisions.
Specs
Overall Length: 44"
Blade Length: 34-1/2"
Guard: 10-1/4" wide overall
Blade Width at Ricasso: 1-3/4"
Blade is distally tapered: 7/16" thick at guard, 7/32" at the tip
Weight: 4 lb / 2 oz
Material: 1080 High Carbon Steel
Edge: Double-edged with a bevel on each side, unsharpened
Unboxing video
• Holy Roman Empire 14th...
Where to buy
www.museumreplicas.com/holy-r...
Matt Easton's video
• Royal Armouries Collec...
Kane Shen's videos
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Excellent channel, and great review, guys! Thanks for the kind shoutout. Those are some very nice cuts considering this is a very thrust-centric sword with such a thick but narrow blade, especially near the foible. It has a lot of weight but it's nimble in its own way and precise mostly due to the insane amount of profile taper (as expected for a type XVa) and the fact that they did the distal taper right, finally, after this many years.
Looking forward to your future reviews!
Thanks for the kind words, and for watching. We are both big fans of your channel!
@Budget pc gaming I don't know about that. Arms & Armor Inc. have been already making reproduction swords for more than a decade by 30 years ago, and I think they did make blades with distal taper and Ewart Oakeshott personally inspected them and praised them.
I think the keyword here isn't really the "existence" of distal taper, but the "accuracy" of the distal taper. Lots of Windlass' offerings have A distal taper, it's just not the kind of distal taper that was on the originals. Take their rapiers for example, the majority of 16 and 17th century originals tapers from 9-10mm down to 3-4mm, while Windlass rapiers taper from 4-5mm down to 3-4mm. And you wonder they are floppy noodles instead of the rigid thrusting swords they should be?
If the originals' base is 3 times the thickness of the foible, but yours is only 1.3 times, that doesn't make them handle remotely the same way, does it? Now, I didn't collect repros in 1993, but I have to guess, they didn't receive the backlash because their swords have a distal taper and collectors for any bizarre reason despite distal taper. Quite the opposite, practically every other maker from the ones situated in Europe and North America to China and India has incorporated distal taper (and other mass distribution mechanisms) more and more accurately, but Windlass has stayed where they were 30 years ago--until the Royal Armouries Collection and the new 1796 Brit Light Cav Sabre that is.
The moment you pick up their new model to compare with their old ones over the same original, it's simply night and day. There is no dispute. And no customer will EVER claim the ones from Windlass with the accurate distal taper (and other features) are inferior.
@Budget pc gaming I get what you mean now. Yes indeed. Back then working on a windlass of reasonable base thickness to grind a more substantial distal taper yourself is the way to go for a budget-minded solution.
The new RAC series and 1796 Pattern sabre under the direction of Matt Easton have truly incredible distal tapers. If you haven't watched my recent reviews, it's on my channel.
I believe Windlass has long been capable of making great swords but chose to focus on entry level weapons & in that catagory you won't get their best possible work.
But even so many Windlass swords I've felt & owned have been worth the price.
Great review. One note - the chape on the scabbard is actually bronze, which is great because it's much more historically accurate than the steel chapes you see on a lot of scabbards.
Thanks for watching! I meant to say bronze and didn't catch that I said brass while editing 🤷♂️🤦♂️
Definitely looking forward to seeing the two-handed sword.
Great video, can’t wait for the next one.
Thank you!
Sharpener needs to go back to using blue painters tape. Have a feeling the geometry played a part in that. Some mothers mag should clear that right up. Cool to see a review from someone who did not design them. Lol.
Wow. Really good cutter for a sword primarily designed to thrust.
Thanks for watching! I'll definitely try some mother's mag, appreciate the suggestion. And yeah we were both blown away by how well it cut. Like you said it's designed to be a thrusting sword. So I wasn't expecting it to cut as well as it does.
@Unsheathed Sword Reviews welcome. Also shows very good edge alignment skills. Gotta be spot on to cut with a blade like that
@@erichusayn It might look like we know what we are doing but let me assure you, we are faking it the entire time. :-)
Excellent review. I also own this sword, & I also scratched the finish trying to sharpen it, LOL! It's a cool sword & totally worth the price point. I also picked up the 15th century two-hander from the same line, & I love it too! 🥰
Thanks for watching! How do you like the two hander? I definitely wanna pick that one up.
@@UnsheathedSwordReviews Well, it was easy to put an edge on. Using the ken onion work sharp, I had it shaving sharp in 15 minutes. For a great sword, it is very fast & maneuverable for its size, & also has a substantial tip on it, so it can thrust well. I am going to get in some cuts with it tomorrow, weather permitting. Will keep you posted!
I've handled the original sword at the royal armouries, anyone can ask for a tour of the storage rooms where these are kept. It was an amazing sword. I've not held this version but did just get the Kvetun fiore version which is now my favorite sword by a mile.
What an amazing experience! I'm envious.
We've got a trip to NY in the not too distant future. So we may take a shot at that.
Thanks for watching!
Great review guys!!
Thank you!
I love that Matt decided to introduced the swords that most modern users aren't used to but are historical. There are some swords enthusiasts on the web that I've seen that had lean a bit to the extreme side and mentioned ALL swords must be lively, light and super easy to handle when historically it is not. Not all swords are extremely light and lively, some are a bit heavy as per its intended uses.
If my country doesn't have an unreasonably strict requirement on sword import, I would have gotten this one in a heartbeat.
I totally agree with you. I enjoy a light and lively sword as much as the next guy. But I really love swords that are accurate representations of historical examples. I personally want different sword types in my collection. And when I come across something that is built for a purpose, and its handling reflects that, I'm all about it. Thanks for watching and the comment!
Definitely. Different tools for different jobs.
What we liked about this sword the most is that when you think about the task it was used for, it feels like it would be really good at that in your hand.
Really enjoying your videos.
Got any messers in the pipeline?
I love me a good messer and currently have my eye on a few. First up will probably be the Cold Steel kriegsmesser. Then probably a couple from Landsknecht Emporium. I'll probably have the 1st one in the next couple of months. Until then we have several reviews already filmed and lined up to release. Thanks for watching and appreciate the comment!
The joy of cutting is lost on me. I am mostly a poker and this one looks pretty good for poking. I am also with Sir Mix-a-lot when it comes to pommels.
This pommel thicc. Probably with more cs even.
Thanks for watching. :-)
@@UnsheathedSwordReviews Just letting you know that I did get one. I was very afraid a dud would slip through their QC and get to me. That didn't happen. It's quality commensurate with it's price and I am happy with that. My only other longsword to compare it to is my Arms and Armor Fechterspiel with a two ring guard. It is notably more difficult for me to rotationally accelerate the RA Windlass. I am old and soft though. However, I like thrusting much more than cutting and I can accelerate it in a thrust only negligibly slower than the Fechterspiel. I am not a longsword guy but I wanted something that I could do things like ramming it through a car door or a soft ballistic vest. Those aren't things I expect to do with it but rather things just chosen to get the point across. I think this is about the best sword I have seen for that. I wish it had been made with a perhaps tougher and less brittle steel. I don't much care about how well it holds an edge because I rarely practice cutting things and when I do I enjoy resharpening blades. As for the ripples/waves in the blade they seemed minor and I was able to almost get ride of them with a stropping paddle and just the cheap white compound. It took me about 6 hours. I have some more abrasive diamond paste coming to actually get it sharp since the white compound was taking forever. Anyway, I'd say your assessment was right on.
How cool is it that you went from not knowing how exactly to pronounce Kane Shen to doing a collaboration with him within a year?
It's unbelievably cool! Kane is a cool dude with a wealth of sword knowledge. It was a lot of fun to do that collab with him. It's crazy to think how quickly we've been able to do collabs with he and other CZcamsrs.
As always thanks for watching!
@@UnsheathedSwordReviews Thank you for putting out such great reviews! You keep making ‘em, I’ll keep watching ‘em. Hopefully it can help support that sword buying habit.