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.
Vlad P. –
Sizing was a lie, buttons fall off I got this in medium, believing the store page’s claim that medium fits a 43″ chest size. Wrong. I have a <40" chest and could barely fit in it out of the box. I'm also skinny, yet the arms were so tight I could barely move while wearing them. I had to stuff all my clothes in it and leave it for days to stretch it out til it was minimally wearable.
Pros: It looks cool and authentic, and probably would be comfortable if you order a size up. It'll keep you warm at night at SCA events.
Cons: Buttons are terrible. Every time I spar in it - even though it's light sparring with Rawlings synthetics - buttons fall out. I sew them back in, but then other buttons will fall out, sometimes while I'm just wearing it and walking around. Also, the button holes haven't been sewn - they're just cut holes, so they fray. I didn't notice until some of them frayed to the point that they were too big for the buttons to stay in. So expect to spend hours of your time sewing the borders of the button holes, because the manufacturer didn't feel like doing it themselves, and also re-sewing the buttons repeatedly as they'll keep falling off. Also, this is very thin for a gambeson, as it was meant to be padding under plate armor, and does very little to absorb impact on its own, so don't expect to rely on it for HEMA sparring.
R*t*rd (verified owner) –
Gambeson is pretty good quality, price is fair. Many reviews on this and the other colors reccomend ordering a size up, I cannot reccomend against this enough. I’m normally a medium, and got a large believing the reviews and was made a fool of. Don’t listen to the reviews that tell you to order a size up, the large gambeson is entirely too big for me as a medium. Though the gambeson I received I unfortunately cannot use, I can attest to the quality of the gambeson. The sleeve tailoring is high quality, the grande assiette sleeves are not just for show and you can put your arms almost all the way up before the rest of the garment is affected, the elbow tailoring does just fine I am not restricted. I am quite sad I have gotten an ill fitting garment, but that’s my own fault for believing the reviews.