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.
TC –
Pretty decent “beater” parma For starters, this parma is pretty decent for the money. At just over 7lbs. and at 2ft. in diameter, its smaller than many later style round shields but still has a very solid weighted feel to it. It does great in basic skill and strengthening drills, and is quite handy due to its smaller size. However, its gets four out of five stars due to a few cost cutting features. There are no pre-drilled holes for mounting the umbo, you must center it then pre-tap the screws yourself. Not terrible in itself, but one of the screws that came with the parma didn’t even have threads cut into it. Make sure you center and screw the umbo in carefully, the painted linen front scratches extremely easily, even more so if you plan on sparring. Thanks to fantastic KoA customer service, the screws were replaced with no issue. Overall, not many signifier style shields out there mass made for the price to begin with, so this is a welcome entry for any signifer/cornicen kit or more n wieldy sparring shield. Just mind the linen front.
dw260 (verified owner) –
As others have said, this is an okay parma, especially for the price. When Deepeeka is good it’s really good, but oftentimes their quality control falls short; my example is one of those times.
The linen facing is supposed to cover the front of the shield; on my example it covers the back. I can’t speak to the resilience of the paint in sparring, because I will be repainting mine. The brass used for this parma is good for the rim, but I am not so sure how much I would trust the boss in sparring; the shaping gives it some strength, but I am able to easily bend the rim of the boss and suspect it’s a very low gauge brass.
I am also not really a fan of the handle configuration; the square handle is too thick, and not ergonomic. Not a difficult fix, but still worth mentioning. The diameter of the shield is smaller than basically any historical source I know says this should be, but I knew that coming in and Deepeeka made the shield to their specs.
Sitting above all this and justifying it though is “usable Roman shield for under 100 bucks.” After some touching up, this will make a great piece for my Velites kit, and would probably be just as fitting in a Signifer kit; just be prepared to work on it a bit to get it where you might want it for your purposes.