A Superior Training Sword for Me?

I was perusing the Sword Buyer’s Guide list of swords under $300; I’m always on the lookout for less expensive training swords that my classmates and I can consider for use once we pass our first rank test, from Karl to Vikingr. Yah, Viking-style fighting: sword-and-shield, spear-and-shield, axe-and-shield, etc.

I’d tried out the Grimfrost Asgautr and my feelings have been “meh.” It was a very heavy sword for me, and the hilt furnishings never felt right. So when I found the Hanwei/Tinker 9th Century Viking Sword, I was intrigued.

Would it feel superior to the Asgautr? If nothing else it would be almost 160g lighter by the numbers…

What Was Advertised/What I Got

The SBG store lists a bunch of sub-$300 swords. This one is spring steel, has a mostly classic blade profile, and looks like it was originally based on something remarkably like the Type E that I asked to be modified into something more fitting to my hand with a custom blade from Swordmakery Elgur that I expect ANY FREAKING DAY NOW.

Ahem.

One note: In two places in the marketing materials for this sword (line), it mentions that the furniture is fully dismountable with an allen key. As every Viking sword but the excellent ones at Arms & Armor feature too-long grips (usually 4″ or 100mm), I always have to modify the grip. I have dismounted and remounted a peened pommel before…but it wasn’t fun. I was hoping to be able to just dismount the thing, then cut down the handle, remount, and poof, all done but the blade dulling. I’m not really looking for sharps yet. When my training gets to that point, I’ll hopefully know exactly what I want.

In any case: I should have read more closely. While both the “Specifications/Materials and Construction” and “More Details/About the Tinker Designed Sword Line” sections mention the allen key for easily customizing the grip…the main text notes buried in a dense paragraph “The construction of the Viking “pair” differs from other swords in the Tinker series inasmuch as they are tang-riveted (peened) in period fashion at the pommel, primarily to satisfy Viking re-enactment requirements.”

Nonetheless, I’d have purchased it anyway.

Spec wise, here’s what they said I’d get, and what I actually got is in parenthesis.

• Overall: 37 3/8″ (37″)
• Blade Length: 30 7/8″ (30 11/16″)
• Handle Length: 6 1/2″ (6 1/4″, measured from top of crossguard to bottom of pommel)
• Grip Length: Unspecified (3.96″)
• Weight: 2lb 12oz (2 lbs 9 oz)
• Point of Balance: 4 3/4″ (5.9″)
• Point of Harmonics: 20 1/4″ (21.5″)
• Width at Guard: 2 3/16″ (2 3/16″)
• Width at Tip: 1 1/2″ (1.5″ is at 6.25″ from the point; where the tip curvature starts it’s 1 3/16″)
• Thickness at Guard: .200″ (0.190″)
• Thickness at Tip: .085″ (0.138″ at top of fuller, 0.105″ an inch back from the point)

The grip itself is mildly wasp-waisted, with 1.3″ at both guards, and 1.2″ in the middle. The grip thickness is a uniform 0.7″. The pommel is 2.9″ wide and 0.7″ thick (matching the handle). For those who like more svelte pommels like the lobed pommels found on Arms & Armor’s Shifford and Anglo-Saxon swords…you’ll be right at home with this one.

The scabbard is nothing to write home about, but hey, sub-$300 sword! It does have some metal attachment points so that it’s not just secured by hope and prayer, which is how I describe the scabbard “fixture” of the Grimfrost scabbards, which seemed purpose-build to have the scabbard fall out of the belt. It is slim, light, and not at all over-built. The blade is a tight fit in the scabbard, so it’s not falling out any time soon, but don’t expect to practice, um, Viking iaido or something.

Overall, I’m disappointed with the lack of hex-nut, but that could also just be “RTFM,” as the “hey, we peened this one” is right there in the text, although the allen-nut mention is also there. Twice.

It’s closer to 2.5 lbs than 2.75 lbs…but that works for me too. It has a substantial profile taper, shrinking down from 2.2″ to 1.2″ a 45% blade width reduction. It also has substantial distal taper, reducing blade thickness by 26%. It’s more blade-heavy than advertised, but still well within the norm for the swords of the type, and the 15cm point of balance matches both my new custom sword and my home-built weighted hickory training sword (2.5lbs, PoB 16cm, 29″ blade length).

In the end, I’m glad I got it, and I’m looking forward to playing with it, first just dulled, then with the adjusted grip. It’s cold out today though (3F/-16C), so I’m not sure I’m up for working outside to remove the pommel, even in the garage. It came in 240g less massive than the Asgautr (good!), with a point of balance that gives more blade presence (I’m used to that). The grip needing a change-out is expected, and there are very, very few swords out there that don’t.

I do note that the Hanwei/Tinker 9th Century sword offers a blunt blade “designed for reenactment rather than sparring.” So I feel pretty good about buying the sharp and dulling it rather than taking the risk with some of the more dead-in-hand feel of some of the training blunts I’ve handled.

Importantly to me, it also offers some real benefits over, say, the Arms & Armor Viking Training Sword. First, you get two of the Hanwei for one of the A&A; THREE if you include the $200 scabbard. The balance point on the trainer is 5″ (13cm) so that’s a bit closer to the hand, but not 2″ like the Shifford. Grip length is 3.5″, which is still a bit too long than I’d prefer compared to the “fits my hand like it was made for it” furniture on the Shifford. Finally, it’s got a short (but not ahistorically short) 28″ blade, and I prefer mine to be more like 30-31″. One advantage to the shorter Viking Trainer: only 890g (1.96 lbs). So again, I’m happy with my choice, even though it’s going to require some elbow grease to get it where I want it.

What’s Next?

The first thing on the list is making the blade training safe by grinding down the sharp edge. The base of the blade is basically an unsharpened 1.2mm flat edge; I will probably grind it down slightly more, targeting a blade root of 1.5mm. I’ll shave off the same thickness through the entire sword, and that means that the roughly 25% reduction in blade thickness due to distal taper will make the rounded edge near the point about 0.9mm, which isn’t bad. In fact, I expect the very tip to be thicker, as I’ll probably take a nickel or dime and use that to round the edge. My training partners take understandable exception to being impaled.

Removing and replacing the pommel so I can shorten the grip by 15-17mm will be quite the job. I’ve done it before, but how easy it is depends very much on what Tinker/Hanwei did inside the pommel. The Grimfrost Asgautr had epoxy helping the pommel stay attached, which I had to degrade first with a blowtorch. I’m hoping once I carefully grind out the peen I’ll be able to just slide the pommel off, use an Xacto knife to remove the leather at the bottom, then cut off the wood grip to match, then reattach the pommel. I’ll need to grind or slice off the same 15-17mm of the tang, but I expect that won’t be a problem.

We shall see.

Alterations Round 1

I dulled the blade quickly. Just used a carbide dremel grinder to round the tip and dull the edge. Then followed up with dremel polish wheels of 120, 180, and 300 grit. I feel no burrs on my skin rubbing it hard against my wrist, and the tip is nicely rounded and thick. I haven’t yet shortened the grip, as I want to take my time on that and do it right. The dremel grinder left some chatter marks on the blade, which is an oops, but the polish wheels smoothed out any rough edges, so I think this one’s sparring safe now.

Photo Gallery (As Received)

Photo Gallery (Alterations)