One Sword... or Many?

[sgainbrachta]

Lots of good advice in this thread. I makes 'em, so I can add a few tidbits...

For most folks, I'd tell you to NOT go with stainless ANYTHING, as typically, even the force of a good swing can cause most of those cheapy swords to fail, and do so horribly!

The best money/value/function sets I've seen to date are the Tinker-Hanwei blades, both the blunt and sharps. I hilt many of them- usually the blunts, as we do public stuff, so blunt is just safer~ BUT I have sharps to mount into my hilts... The longsword and bastard sword blades (both out of stock at the factory, sadly~) are both by far the best of this lot. The "early medieval" is also very nice in the sharp, but a wee bit "brick-ish" in the blunt, the same for the viking, although to a slightly lesser degree.

In any case- these can be bought complete, or as bare blades. As mentioned, they run about $110-150 for a bare blade. I hilt them simply for between $100 and $300, depending on how complex the "simple" hilt is, and a single-layer sheath (soft, although a can do a scabbard, too~) runs anywhere from $50 to $200.

Now, do these compare to an Atrim or Powning? No freakin' way! Valiant? Nope, not really...

BUT the Tinker-Hanwei have had consistent handling, hardness and quality on every single one I've played with- and that amounts to about 60 blades... Heck- I have 7 sitting in the corner, now- my double-ring competition piece (bastard blunt), my wife's trainer/ranger piece (longsword blunt), and a complete viking blunt, as well as 3 bare blunt "bastard" blades, and one (longsword sharp blade) I'm hilting for a friend~ The longsword makes a great single-hand sword for taller guys, too...

Now- to answer the OP, I carry a longsword for fighting, a long knife (bauerwehr) for camp work and backup, a pair of small blades- one utility and one skinner. A spear head used as a small dagger with a socket-so I can make a spear if I want, and of course a bow! As I make them- I made sure the quality is very high on each. On the custom market, the load of steel here would run roughly $1000 or so, for all the blades. I work pretty cheap, all things considered! Dunno about the bow's value, really~ It's only the second I've made~