Overview
Our sharpening service will provide a good serviceable edge on the blade. The result is typically “very sharp” with a small secondary bevel and a bit of an “apple seed” profile. The resulting edge is somewhat dependent on the particular blade. Some blades will take and hold sharper edges than others and the thickness of the blade will determine how wide the bevel will need to be. We adjust the angle of the edge to suit the specific blade and attempt to get as close to a bevel-less edge as possible without marring the surface of the blade.
The Sharpening Process
The sharpening service is done with a belt sander. The process involves many passes with sanding belts of various grits. The blades are rested between passes to prevent them from becoming hot and damaging their temper. By default we will sharpen as much of the blade as possible including any false edges if appropriate. If you have a different preference, feel free to make that request in the special instructions at check out. We can sharpen only the last half or third of an edge, for example. Our sword sharpening expert has personally sharpened several thousand swords at this point, so will provide you with a professional service.
What the Service is Not
The resulting edge will be “sword sharp” not razor sharp. Our goal is to provide you with a usable edge for cutting practice that will hold up to some use and not require constant re-sharpening. In other words, we intend to provide you with a serviceable weapon, not a personal grooming implement. The service will not provide a completely bevel-less edge. To create that type of edge will necessarily scratch up the blade surface and we lack the machinery and time to provide a full re-polishing of a blade’s surface. A service of that nature would be significantly more expensive as a great deal more time would be required. We do not offer this type of service at this time.
Disclaimer
We make no guarantee that the resulting edge will meet with your expectations. Every blade is different and some will take and hold a sharper edge than others, due to the blade material, heat treatment or geometry. Some customers can also have incorrect assumptions about sword sharpness and improper expectations as a result. All we can say for sure is that the resulting edge will be sharper than the default edge, in most cases, significantly so. We can not provide any refunds for the service once it has been completed, so consider it to be provided “as is”. That being said, if you are unhappy with the product for any reason, we do still allow you to return the item for a full refund, including the sharpening costs under our normal return policy. This does not apply to special sharpening requests, for example if we sharpen something specially for you that does not normally list that option on our site. The vast majority of our customers are happy with the results of the service, so as long as you keep the above mentioned in mind, we are confident you will be pleased with the results as well.
rockmodenick (verified owner) –
I bought this because I’ve been meaning to get an inexpensive sharp long sword and actually quite like both of my prior generation Balaur swords, despite both being seconds due to a small warp, specifically a very slight twist in the geometry.
I’ll start with the good.
The weight and balance are excellent. The blade actually weighed in at 2 lbs 9.5 oz, which is 2.5 oz lighter than the published specification. It sounds like a small difference but I like light and getting a sword this size down to basically 2.5 pounds is great. It feels very lively, I think a strong person used to longsword could easily use this one handed if they wanted.
The grip has a good thickness and feel. The leather has a nice texture, as though shrunken over cord. Easy to index, with nice, smooth risen ridges at the top, bottom, and two in the center, prominent but not uncomfortable.
It is on the short side for a modern hilt, exactly as I like it, only about an inch between my hands. If you use gauntlets you will probably have to palm the wheel pommel, which seems suitable for it, but I don’t actually have gauntlets to test that. The pommel is smooth and solid, with the tang peen smoothly integrated. It’s a squared tang, so this pommel will NOT be twisting on you.
I like the guard as well, the geometry seems designed to be strong in the directions it would be taking impacts, but still light. The inset for the blade is quite tight to the blade shape.
The overall build of the hilt is very tight guard to peen, with no movement at all. The finish is on the course side, but good for a working blade. Kind of a “wire brush” look that won’t show scratches and would be easy to clean dirt and tarnish from.
The base of the blade is solidly set into the guard, with the fuller running down to the tang. The first half to 2/3 of the blade shows good symmetry with an even, smooth, deep fuller grind. The lines where the fuller ends are parallel with the cutting edge and acceptably crisp for the price point. The surface of the blade shows some rippling, especially in the fuller, but again, acceptable for the price point.
The very tip is also pleasing – good shape, good symmetry, and sturdy but pointy.
Now, the bad.
The whole last 1/3 of the blade other than the tip is a bit of a mess. The lines of the fuller become irregular, giving the whole fuller an unpleasant wobbly appearance. The rippling kicks way up as well, creating a messy look, but it’s not just the finish – the irregularities are in the structure as well. The cutting edges stop being straight, curving in, then back out in different places on each side – it’s not an uneven taper, it’s random wandering, caused by uneven grinds. I had this sharpened, so I can’t imagine how bad they were before that evened it a bit, especially next to where the fullers end. The fuller terminations themselves are bad as well, sudden and not at all symmetrical or centered.
The edge is also not great. I can see the sharpening service brought it to an edge, it’s just not very keen. Forget a paper test, it couldn’t even cut into corrugated cardboard neatly, tearing and crushing it instead. The blade steel seems to stay quite thick right up until the edge bevel starts, that might play a role.
Overall, while the bottom half of the blade is good, very good for the price, there’s still issues. To compare, even the known second quality Balaur items I bought at a steep discount show much fewer irregularities and a much more even surface than this sword has. The fullers terminated evenly and remained perfectly centered on one, the spine created by the hollow grind was similarly perfect on the other. The edges are even, not clearly suffering from an uneven surface that’s more than cosmetic. This hilt on the new versions does seem to be nicer, as does the scabbard, and there’s no twist in the blade at all. The first half or so of the blade seems as well ground. But even with the twist, the blades on the discounted seconds were overall nicer – a small warp literally was literally the only thing off, vs one of the most important cutting areas of the blade with those grind issues.
I had originally considered that this might be an outlier which didn’t meet required standards, but having paid for the sharpening service, I know for a fact this blade was closely examined along the whole length during that process. Several of the defects which reached the edges probably even made it more difficult. Since there’s no way the state of this blade could have been unknown before it was shipped, what I’m seeing must be considered within acceptable tolerances.
I wish I could give this three and a half stars instead of only three, but with the issues with the fuller near the end and surface/edges in that area of the blade, I can’t give it four.
It’s still not bad for the price, but with general appearance near the end of the fullers I doubt I’d display it. It’s just slightly disappointing because one area that makes up less than 1/4 of the total blade length brought the overall impression down so much. If you’re not a stickler for structural details and don’t mind the cosmetics this is probably a four star item.
Jesse Southwick (verified owner) –
I bought this sword with the sharpening service and I can say that the sword itself is quite good for the price point. Mine in particular has a great balance to it, not too heavy, a good edge, and a semi straight fuller. My issue comes with the scabbard. The scabbard with mine is completely loose and does not hold the sword when held upside down, the sword is barely held in there anyway. I may have just been unlucky with a bad scabbard and a great sword, but at least the sword is good! I’ll make a makeshift shim for the scabbard with paper towels most likely :)
kawayama (verified owner) –
Very nice sword, well balanced and light.