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.
Rick M. –
Great Price… Good looks As far as protection, I can’t really comment because I haven’t been attacked by any Moors, Huns or even a small band of outlaws. I don’t know how well this would stand up to actual 14th century combat, but it stood up very well to my “Antiquing” process. To make it look a bit more authentic, I bashed pretty good with a small Polish mace, a Hanwei Hand and a Half sword and a Windlass English War-hammer. To my delight, the armor held up really well. I hit the armor (as it was lying on the sand” with a full swing from a sharpened 40oz. sword and it left a nice crease, but really did no real damage. The hammer left some good dents and the mace just put a dimple or three in the back-plate.
The overall look of the armor is good, and because the steel is only a bit over a millimeter thick, it wasn’t too hard to form the plates to fit my proportions. It’s fairly light weight so it’s not too heavy to wear for hours at a time. My only complaint is that the straps were not well placed on the armor for keeping it in place, but that was overcome by putting my sword belt on the outside and cinching it tight.
All in all, unless you crazy enough for Battle of Nations full contact, this is a great deal. I would feel absolutely confident in this armor for fencing with anything from Feders to 5 pound stage swords. I almost took a shot at it with my 150lb crossbow, but wasn’t sure that it wouldn’t actually fully penetrate the armor. I want it to look like I survived combat instead of making it look like I stole it from a corpse that died from a crossbow shot!
Well worth the price and a ton of fun!
Rj –
This is really good Just got it today for 1st impressions it’s good. I’ll update this if I start to not, but right now it really good
stykdude101 (verified owner) –
Fit is bad, all the weight rests on the shoulders instead of the hips, leading to bruising. Looks great, though; I just wish it was more historically designed.