@@Wastelandman7000 My best guess would be Padouk, based on the red coloring (the non polished parts, where the metal pommel was glued on, are bright orange, so it's not just a stain). Padouk is actually very dense and hard, but the grain structure is shorter
Did they forget who Skall is and what he does? Were they hoping he’d just review its aesthetics? It’s a cool idea…wonder how well it would do if it had quality components and construction.
But it doesn't even look good tho Like the dragon head looks cheap as fuck, and the blade has this ugly shape that's too thin and has unconsistent width
That was wild. Nowhere near the destructive testing of Forged in Fire or anything, and yet it failed in most ways it could. Thanks for proving yet again you're always honest in your reviews Skall.
To be fair, a lot of failures on Forged in Fire are caused by the wide load old guy testers who have zero technique. Numerous times when blades have snapped it was because they heavily scalloped the cut and the blade actually turned sideways halfway through the target, putting all the stress on the blade in a way even a well-made sword would snap.
There was also a part were it kind of looked like there was some kind of crack/stress fracture on the blade just above the glue. Though this could just have been some kind of aestatic scuff mark or something, as I'm sure that if it was a crack/stress fracture Skall would have mentioned it.
maybe. I've seen comebacks tho. Can't remember the company but there was a sword review. Sword didn't perform. Then months or year later same company sends a new sword of same type to reviewer and boom: they fixed pretty much every issue reviewer had before. I wish i remembered who did the review and which company. Lets see if these guys are similar or if they just quietly try to play down low. Since they have made decent products in past there is some hope they care enough to improve and make changes.
@@samamies88 One example would be the Traditional Filipino Weapons Panabas that Skall reviewed years ago. The original model broke in a way very similar to this, they changed the design and sent him a new review piece, and it was great. Original model th-cam.com/video/IfRKYu4hp9Y/w-d-xo.html New model th-cam.com/video/yynZVcjuSNA/w-d-xo.html
This is something that was sent for review? Someone thought; 'let's go drum up some business by showcasing our products to reviewers who are well known to give honest and unbiased reviews.' And they send a $100 slapped together wall hanger that they sell for $600. Did they think because they sent it for free they would get a favourable review?
Who knows what was in their minds. Like did they know what they were doing? Knowing Skal they had to see this coming. Maybe someone in the company is out for revenge and is trying to tank their reputation! If so they did a good job, because I wouldn't buy anything from them after seeing this overpriced junk.
@@kinguin7 I dunno, star wars outlaws and dragon age veilguard got a lot of publicity, they did not sell well. Ubisoft in general has been getting a lot of publicity.
@@Skallagrim looking forward to see you sparring with RSW but your recovery is the first priority. Yes, failing cuts produce lots of resistance and is no good for injuries. Also glad no one is hurt when the stuff broke.
Swords of Northshire is reseller that sells stuff for higher prices than normal for profit. You can find this spear, alongside many of their other offerings, elsewhere online for substantially less.
@Skallagrim The lowest I can find is from an eBay seller named Swordkungfu based out of Longquan selling it for $387 USD. Edit: Albeit, it's out of stock at the moment.
@@fredEVOIX Well, I might have misused the term "reseller". I know they source items from the same place as many other businesses either from or in contact with Longquan-based production facilities. Swords of Northshire does have specific customer support employees, unlike most others, where as with other places like RyanSword or Hanbon Forge, you're talking directly to those AT the forges. Someone I once saw online ordered a sword rack from either SoN or Hanbon Forge (I think), and since they had orders from both places simultaneously, got the tracking number from the opposite business. It's really strange!
@@ShuajoX you're thinking of distributer/retailer. They purchase these products ahead of time in quantity to re-sell to a different or broader market than the original producer can or would. of course, taking their cut in the process.
honestly, if they sold JUST the metal parts, with a better socket and tang of the blade, and let the customer source the wooden shaft by themselves, it would be fine. So yes, I would love to see you make a new (and better) spear from it.
Am I the only one who partially expected the sirens to be police looking in on what some neighbor called in as "two guy flailing about with blades in their back yard" xD.
putting such a decent looking blade on a flimsy stick with hot glue is absolute weapon heresy... i mean, i have recently purchased a bundle from tods workshop that includes; a type 14 arming sword, a dagger and an eating knife ALL with scabbard for 700.. this poleweapon thing is just horrible for its price tag
An automaker built a car that would sell for about 16k (this was a while ago). The business jocks said they needed a car in the 26k price range, so they jacked up the price to 26k without changing anything in the car build. Just add 10k so it filled a gap in their price structure. I don't trust price by itself as an indicator of quality. Personally, I wouldn't mail order anything for that price. I'd want to hold it in my hands and inspect it thoroughly. The glue would have had me handing it back immediately. It isn't just the glue, but the fact that the glue is obvious and ugly.
Yep, this is true for all industries. Including guns. Just because it costs a lot doesn't mean its worth a lot. "You get what you pay for" is no longer generally true. You have to be watching like a hawk to keep from being what I call "Hype-charged" Because a lot of what you're paying for is brand name and hype.
@@Wastelandman7000 "You get what you pay for" still applies but now you are paying more for hype and less of the pay goes to craftsmanship/materials....
This might be one of the best video titles I've seen from you in a while: - Clearly marked what type of content it is (weapon test) - something specific that might be interesting (catastrophic failure) - The hint of something more thorough than mere cutty-cutty ("what we can learn from it"). Just commenting because I cought your "why no views"-livestream a while ago and was thinking about why I myself, despite having been subscribed for at least a decade now, have been watching less and less of your videos over the years, and maybe that might be a factor: It feels like your titles and thumbnails rarely tell me more than "oh, Skall is talking about swords again" (and... what else is new?) So when I'm in the mood for a specific type of content, it's kind of hard to tell if any given video of yours fits what I'm looking for. Just my two cents and I'm no TH-cam-ologist but maybe something worth looking into: Do videos with more specific and focussed titles and thumbnails do better than more general ones? IDK
I appreciate the feedback! Not sure it's that, because from what I can tell videos with more specific titles and thumbnails haven't done any better. Lately hardly anything does, seemingly no matter what I try. Or maybe I'm making mistakes that are obvious to others, but that I can't see myself. Who knows.
@@Skallagrim For example, you have a bunch of different types of content: unscripted ramblings and collabs, scripted deep dives, weapons tests, technique videos, reactions, etc., and I like some types more than others. My personal preferences don't really matter, but that's a bunch of different types of content with probably slightly different audiences each, and at times I find it hard to tell what a video is going to be before clicking it. Again, idfk, I got no analytics and I might just be rambling my random shower thoughts, but maybe something like very different thumbnail styles for each type of video or an " |Review" / "| Ramble" / "| HEMA techniques" whatever in the title might help?
@@Skallagrim tbh, it's Shorts content that gets pushed above longform video content rn because TH-cam and Google are directly competting with TikTok for the views of the past 2 generations of youth. So they're shunting their longform content into obscurity while Shorts are what get recommended more often.
@@sekira4516good point. I know of few channels that realized that shorts are killing their main channel. Yes people watch the shorts. Yes people sub. But then you post long form video and youtube is like "ur subs aren't interested about this content" when in reality its the shorts people not wanting to watch 5+ minute long video. (It is believed that yt pushes videos based on how many % or amount of subs click the video and if enough people interacted with the video then yt recommends it to others). So these few channels i know are making a new side channel for shorts to see if it makes a difference.
$600 is also the price of LK Chen's Han Dynasty Sha polearm shipped to North America...which looks better, is way more practical, and is presumably better built.
I know it is expensive, and time intenstive and requires an annoying amount of space and all that, but god was it fun to see you testing a weapon again. Id personally say its more fun when the weapon breaks, cause there is more to the story than "Its a properly made weapon and because of this it just works"
the design of the spear is actually from the Ming dynasty novel "romance of the three kingdom", which Dynasty warriors is based upon. Essentially the design of the spear is fantasy weapon before Hollywood.
Even then the original version would have likely been a bit less impractical (even if it was more of a trophy/display weapon) as the DW version is even more ramped up and stylised.
@@zaleost Have you seen historical ceremonial weapons/armor? Impractical is practically a selling point. Given, none of it would break like this because that would be shameful.
This is the most charitable, mindful review of something that exploded. Skall sounds like an engineer, maybe these companies can hire you as a contractor for qc and r&d
100% support you altering that spear to make it usable, hopefully the company that sent it will listen and make alterations to improve it for that price point.
That wood was rotten, and the screwy bit in the middle was rusted. Without talking about any of the other issues, I'd assume the weapon was stored improperly in a damp place
Now I wanna see other weapons form Dynasty Warriors aswell. A reaction video to all the different characters weapons would be something I'd definitely watch. While there are plenty of swords, spears and other polearms in the seires it also does have some rather "unique" weapons.
It should absolutely be possible to make the threaded multi-section haft work. But both coupling members have to be very substantial - the male half should be very girthy and the female part should be meaty. If the female coupling actually looks like a pipe and not just a solid hunk of metal with a giant threaded hole maybe 2/3-3/4 the diameter, then it's probably not thick enough. Also the threads should be pretty deep.
Also, if you can't do thaat... just design the head for thrusting, not swinging cus then any force travels down the pole instead of pushing against the pole. Pikes were alot more fragile than poleaxes and billhooks.
Seems to me that conventional threading isn't a good choice for the application, and that it would be better to look to bayonet mounting mechanisms for inspiration. After all, the purpose of both is to allow for a disassemblable polearm, and they share many design requirements and constraints. Edit: Also, something like a bayonet mount would allow use of a non-circular shaft.
Mail it to Tod Cutler and make it his problem! "Tod, we're having a contest to see what is the best thing you can make with this" He returns an ingot of steel.
Given the quality of the rest of the built I'd be a bit concerned the mounting collars would split or fragment launching the blade at the cameraman or Skal.
A pity. Glad you guys were not injured, and let's hope that, maybe, the right people in the production chain will take notice and do something about this. Either fix the problems, or lower the price and advertise it as a "display piece", or something.
That's a shame. The threaded shaft can probably be solved with judicious use of loctite, but there are no remedies for any of the other defects/shortcuts. It's almost like they didn't even design this as a battle ready piece, though I suspect you wouldn't have tested it as such if that was notated anywhere.
For some reason I only saw the $154.75 and I was like "Well... a bit on the high side, but not all that bad for a wall hanger." But the actual price is outrageous.
@@absolutelyliberated1357 Still, for that price you would expect it to look and fit better. Edit: After finding out the reseller added a large markup, now it makes sense. Apparently, you can find it for half the price elsewhere.
Let's see... the pole and the decorative castings would cost $20 at most. Maybe take half an hour to join them (with hot glue) and finnish the result. That'd leave still 500$ for just the blade which looks like grinded in a couple of hours from base piece of generic fake damascus steel.
It would be interesting to see it disassembled so we can see if there are any other horrors awaiting us inside that handle. Quality like this makes me wonder if the blade is even attached to that peg.
I'm not subbed and I don't watch all the videos of you that appear in my timeline, but this was actually a great title/thumbnail and the video really delivered.
Some of my favorite videos of yours are when you retrofit weapons (especially bad or broken ones) so I would absolutely love to see that blade given a proper dressing. I also find it funny how a single enthusiast can refit weapons into better ones than the actual companies behind the product sometimes.
Woof! Glad you guys survived that testing without any injuries. Thanks for your contribution to consumer reviews and sharing what you learned about the spear. As a historical note, the type of weapon 蛇矛 (She Mao) is a historical design; it looks like over the course of the Dynasty Warrior series Zhang Fei was given increasingly more outlandish versions of the spear in the artwork. But we do have (rare) surviving examples as well as plenty of depictions of them from from the Ming. Let me know if you'd like me to post some images.
@7:12 The haft wouldn't have to be round. You could have the metal fitting made to be ovoid on one end and round and threaded on the other. Wouldn't look as nice, who knows if it would hold up as well, but well, this broke after six hits anyway.
That's scary. Also already subscribed also +1 like. And I would love to see you forge a new price of work from the remains. This would be really cool to see who knows maybe something you could branch into like forging your own weapons and testing them. That's something I would for sure be interested in seeing. Either way great video, scary with that hot gloo but I am gland no one was hurt.
I'll tell ya, starting Kingdom Come, having Skall for the pros and cons of weapons is so helpful. I'm ready for any battle situation because of him. Thanks, Skall!
Here's the problem with weapons that appear more in historical fictions than in museums or documents, such as the 蛇矛 or "snake spear": The manufactures can only design it from artworks. Not a replica by any means because there's nothing to replicate from.
I think a full remount would be cool, but honestly, I'd want to take a look at that tang to see if it's worth it... Don't know if I'd trust that connection otherwise, and wouldn't wanna waste the time putting it back on a pole if the blade is just gonna pop out next.
If the tang is short, maybe a few inches of the base of the blade could be converted into more tang? I'd also like to see those two tips cut away and the remainder ground into a proper point.
This does give me a great idea for a D&D game. The heroes try to enter a castle, and are stopped by guards wearing beautiful armor worth 1000s of gold pieces, holding ornate polearms worth almost as much. But the guards dont train in combat, they are just supposed to be good looking. They know how to order peasants around, and have never had to actually swing a weapon. The first time one of these guards tries to make an attack (or defend) the blade falls out of it's socket, and the guards run inside. Hilarity ensues. Or, maybe the blacksmith has been using cheap materials as a substitute, and pocketing the balance for himself, that utter bastard!
As to the endcap, I bet the wood has shrunk and I bet the threaded middle would have backed out over time as well. The pin kinda looks like it goes in between the grain instead of perpendicular to it. Hot glue I have seen used, it does worrk and dapens vibration a lot, so it's not as bad as it seems especially if it is high temp that won't melt under any real world conditions.
Anyone building weapons with hot glue does not know what the fuck they're doing. Slopping glue into a void won't dampen vibrations. It is as bad as it seems.
I bought a 90 year old cleaver over the summer that weighs 3.5 lobs. A little bit of care and it is in fantastic shape and even kept the original oak handle. The have been butchering my deer tonight and honestly these being my first experience using something like this I was completely blown away by what it can do. I would love to see you do some testing with something like this.
Pro tip, when you try to tighten threads like that put your hands as close to the connecting point as you can. You might not feel it, but when your hands are separated from the thread area like you have, you are also twisting the wood, that takes away from the twisting force at the thread area even if the pole seems stiff, also your body has more mechanical advantage to twisting motion when hands are close together.
My guess of the Price: a) Up charging due to Recognisability b) Licensing for the Design, after all it is based on a pretty well known IP and that'll cost
Dynasty Warriors is based off of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" a 14th century historical fiction novel by Luo Guanzhong. Its old as dirt. I doubt its still under copyright. The spear is probably just over priced.
I ordered a "Messer / Bastard Sword / Katana Hybrid Straight Blade European Folded Steel Blade Longsword" when it was called that, and the guard/hilt was a total disaster, I made a video and left a review but they removed my pictures. It looks like the actual blades are very well made from SoN, but anything other than katanas are slops assembled with glue.
12:00 sculptor here, just wanted to add that this bronze cast or more like the original positive the original sculpt for that casting mold was not made by a sculptor for sure XĐ that just screams craftsman for me in the derogatory sense of the word
The snake spear is actually from the romance of three kingdoms books, which dynasty warriors is based on. Still fictional, just 600 years older fiction XD Also in the book its 18 feet long, and the snake name likely just referred the bronze head, not having a wavy blade.
7:12 Having a threaded connection does not require a round handle as you could transition from the threaded round section to and number of shapes. Even the threaded piece could be made oval or octagonal ( like a bolt nut) or whatever on the outside as long as the internal threads were still round.
Yes, but you would have to make the threading extra precise so that wenn fully screwed onto each other the pieces align correctly, else you end up with two misaligned oval crossection handles.
@@Skallagrim right, but that's not hard to manufacture especially at the price point they are selling it. Making a round oversized haft then shaping it afterward would be so quick with industrial machinery or even just a mill.
The issue with the threading isn't any inherent weakness of the connection, it's that the threaded section is far too short. To provide a solid, durable connection the threads would need to be at least twice as long, and the socket on the haft correspondingly longer to distribute the load. That'd *probably* get around the issue of the threaded section loosening up...but you'd be stuck for a good while screwing it together. The round haft is another issue entirely. You *could* make an ovoid or rounded rectangle work, but the sockets would need to be custom fit to each individual weapon and very securely fastened *without reducing the strength of the haft* . And you'd need to precisely calculate and cut the threads to ensure that the two halves bottomed out at the precise point when they were perfectly aligned (you *could* use shims matching the profile of the haft to make your job easier). A lot of work for one polearm, let alone an entire unit's (or army's) supply. And you'd want lots of them, because polearms are, for the most part, much more effective in groups.
This definitely has decorative, slight fun written all over it. The weapon for the "oh snap that looks cool!" or "heck yeah Zheng fei!" collectible that's usable enough to look and feel functional to those not into any real martial weapon training.
I had a staff you could take down in fact you could separate it in to 3 sections. It had a turned steel threaded section but each was stepped down with a larger diam that was threaded and a smaller diam section also threaded. It was made with very good wood and the threaded sections were well fitted. It eventually broke with me and my friend going pretty hard core with ours we both had 1 and the point of failure was mid way up the middle wooden section no where near the steel fittings. We burned out the wood and got some poly carbonate rods of the same diam and fit that in to both of ours we broke cinder blocks and any thing else we wanted to with it it never did fail after that and it never loosened up at the joints. I also had hiking sticks like it as well that could be broken down for easy transport as they both had very sharp spiked ends. I am fairly sure both were made by the same company as the construction was identical on both other than 1 split in to 3 parts and was much larger around than the other. The hiking stick had a steel cable that kept the 2 parts together when taken down
10:00 In general suggestions seem good. But on the topic of number of pins, I doubt second pin is a benefit. Maybe in some edge cases. But single bamboo pin has proven to work really well on wide array of edged weapons.
I think I read somewhere that the Macedonian pikes were two part weapons. I also used a breakdown oak spear in the SCA for years and subjected it to considerable force both radially and tangentially with no issues. It had a bolt imbedded in one side and a T nut in the other with a metal sleeve over the joint. As for the joint requiring a circular shaft, only the area where they join would need to be circular. That could be an issue though especially if there was a significant deviation from circular for the rest of the shaft.
Was this really meant for hitting things? Maybe there was some confusion. EDIT: Oh, I see the 'battle ready', nevermind. That wavy effect on the steel is nice, at least. Is this the 'engraving'?
@@jamesmaybrick2001it looks like. But it also could be etched. But I guess pattern welded steel is also available cheaply, so possibly it's actually that
How about sharpening it and using it as a sword of sorts? Perhaps reattach the conical brass end part directly to the handle by braising it on or using a very short part of the wood, perhaps both?
Speaking on the round vs ovoid halved handle with threaded joining, you definitely _could_ do it, I'm just not sure there's a world where you want to. But if you did want to, all you have to do is match the thread size to the smallest circular diameter of the oval, and have the visible fittings be matched to the shape of the handle. I've seen MANY assemblies done in this way, and all they have to do is make sure that the threads align so that when it is fully screwed in, it hard-stops where the two pieces line up. It's not as hard as it sounds, and can be made more effective with a compression-fitted hidden ball pin so that it locks into place and requires significant force to begin unscrewing. Of course, possible and desirable are two different animals. The only real reason to use such an assembly is to avoid sourcing a longer stave.
Octagonal haft and a cam lock for the disassembly perhaps with an additional safety pin to prevent it from camming out in use. Also before you refit it just try the brass fitting as a handle and use it as a sword.
Oof that's bad. 😬 What was the rep thinking sending _that_ to you, usually you'd expect them to send a version that's above and beyond what a normal consumer would get, but it's like the sent the version that was in a failed QC inspection pile. 😂
the way the wood split in big chunks in the haft reminds me of wood that hasn't seasoned properly, like it seems water damaged or rotted in there
The rust on the threads would agree, likely water damaged
Good point.
I agree, it did look rotten.
Looking at the grain it also appears to be of softer wood. The grain pattern wasn't very dense like hickory or walnut.
@@Wastelandman7000 My best guess would be Padouk, based on the red coloring (the non polished parts, where the metal pommel was glued on, are bright orange, so it's not just a stain). Padouk is actually very dense and hard, but the grain structure is shorter
the ultimate wall hanger
Not even that, ugly ahhh weapon
It would nothing but infuriate me. Seeing all those flaws and constantly being reminded about the cost. That thing is trash.
In an outhouse maybe
The ultimate overpriced piece of crap is more accurate.
no kidding
Did they forget who Skall is and what he does? Were they hoping he’d just review its aesthetics? It’s a cool idea…wonder how well it would do if it had quality components and construction.
And a one piece handle with proper joinery
As is said above (or below depending on View), I guess a Trainee was bigmouthing and they did this to teach him a lesson.
But it doesn't even look good tho
Like the dragon head looks cheap as fuck, and the blade has this ugly shape that's too thin and has unconsistent width
@@levi2725 Congrats, you're annoying enough you make me want to defend this garbage.
@@seigeengine Noooo I don't want to be annoying T^T
That was wild. Nowhere near the destructive testing of Forged in Fire or anything, and yet it failed in most ways it could. Thanks for proving yet again you're always honest in your reviews Skall.
To be fair, a lot of failures on Forged in Fire are caused by the wide load old guy testers who have zero technique. Numerous times when blades have snapped it was because they heavily scalloped the cut and the blade actually turned sideways halfway through the target, putting all the stress on the blade in a way even a well-made sword would snap.
That's a shit show in my book. Just saying. :)
@@thisdude9363 I like how you wrote what I wrote, but nicely and kind.
There was also a part were it kind of looked like there was some kind of crack/stress fracture on the blade just above the glue. Though this could just have been some kind of aestatic scuff mark or something, as I'm sure that if it was a crack/stress fracture Skall would have mentioned it.
Probably won't get sponsored by them again but honesty matters more
maybe. I've seen comebacks tho. Can't remember the company but there was a sword review. Sword didn't perform. Then months or year later same company sends a new sword of same type to reviewer and boom: they fixed pretty much every issue reviewer had before. I wish i remembered who did the review and which company. Lets see if these guys are similar or if they just quietly try to play down low. Since they have made decent products in past there is some hope they care enough to improve and make changes.
@@samamies88 One example would be the Traditional Filipino Weapons Panabas that Skall reviewed years ago. The original model broke in a way very similar to this, they changed the design and sent him a new review piece, and it was great.
Original model th-cam.com/video/IfRKYu4hp9Y/w-d-xo.html
New model th-cam.com/video/yynZVcjuSNA/w-d-xo.html
Wow.
A Skallagrim weapon destruction video.
Something I didn't know I missed until I saw another one.
The perfect gift for the holidays!
This is something that was sent for review? Someone thought; 'let's go drum up some business by showcasing our products to reviewers who are well known to give honest and unbiased reviews.' And they send a $100 slapped together wall hanger that they sell for $600. Did they think because they sent it for free they would get a favourable review?
No publicity is bad publicity 🤷♀️
if they are resellers maybe drop shipping they might not have even seen the product irl and tought it was good
Who knows what was in their minds. Like did they know what they were doing? Knowing Skal they had to see this coming. Maybe someone in the company is out for revenge and is trying to tank their reputation! If so they did a good job, because I wouldn't buy anything from them after seeing this overpriced junk.
@@kinguin7 I dunno, star wars outlaws and dragon age veilguard got a lot of publicity, they did not sell well. Ubisoft in general has been getting a lot of publicity.
I'm glad your shoulder / elbow seems to be better.
Still not fully healed, and this made it worse. But better than it was a couple months ago, so I'm slowly getting there.
@@Skallagrim looking forward to see you sparring with RSW but your recovery is the first priority.
Yes, failing cuts produce lots of resistance and is no good for injuries. Also glad no one is hurt when the stuff broke.
Damm, hope it gets better soon!
@@Skallagrim Hope you get back to 100% soon. Peace and healing good sir.
@@Skallagrim take your time to heal
Swords of Northshire is reseller that sells stuff for higher prices than normal for profit. You can find this spear, alongside many of their other offerings, elsewhere online for substantially less.
Where did you find that one?
@Skallagrim The lowest I can find is from an eBay seller named Swordkungfu based out of Longquan selling it for $387 USD.
Edit: Albeit, it's out of stock at the moment.
@@ShuajoX I was going to say maybe they used a dubious sub-contractor but if they're just resellers it makes sense
@@fredEVOIX Well, I might have misused the term "reseller". I know they source items from the same place as many other businesses either from or in contact with Longquan-based production facilities. Swords of Northshire does have specific customer support employees, unlike most others, where as with other places like RyanSword or Hanbon Forge, you're talking directly to those AT the forges.
Someone I once saw online ordered a sword rack from either SoN or Hanbon Forge (I think), and since they had orders from both places simultaneously, got the tracking number from the opposite business. It's really strange!
@@ShuajoX you're thinking of distributer/retailer.
They purchase these products ahead of time in quantity to re-sell to a different or broader market than the original producer can or would. of course, taking their cut in the process.
@1:54 Ambulances respond to the last guy to swing this thing...
"that's a lot of pommel"...
I'm lying on the floor.
So is the pommel
honestly, if they sold JUST the metal parts, with a better socket and tang of the blade, and let the customer source the wooden shaft by themselves, it would be fine. So yes, I would love to see you make a new (and better) spear from it.
Yeah I would definitely pay like $150-200 or just the hardware
All the meatal is crap.
Useless. Those fittings are the cheapest of Chinisium pot metal.
The painted "patina " is a dead giveaway.
@@vorpalblades looked like brass to me. A simple cast. Just like the blade is made of a simple Carbon Steel. Not bad, not worth 600$. Mediocre
@bl4cksp1d3r Nah, that's definitely the cheapest of shit.
I've seen plenty of them.
Brass patina does not look like that.
Am I the only one who partially expected the sirens to be police looking in on what some neighbor called in as "two guy flailing about with blades in their back yard" xD.
Nah, that was just the quality police. :)
@@Skallagrim I'm sure your neighbors are used to weirdness at your place by now.
@@artor9175 It's not my place, but either way the one neighbor probably is used to it.
putting such a decent looking blade on a flimsy stick with hot glue is absolute weapon heresy...
i mean, i have recently purchased a bundle from tods workshop that includes; a type 14 arming sword, a dagger and an eating knife ALL with scabbard for 700..
this poleweapon thing is just horrible for its price tag
Your definition of decent is QUITE different from mine.
@@RetiredRhetoricalWarhorsesame here. 1095 with a fake Damascus etch is nothing to write home about
That's not descent looking at all, it's supposed to be a replica weapon not a deformed reinterpretation of a pool cue bayonet.
Maybe you’re getting fooled by the “Damascus steel” which is almost certainly just acid stained replica
It's also potentially lethal to anyone who decides to watch someone waving it around
An automaker built a car that would sell for about 16k (this was a while ago). The business jocks said they needed a car in the 26k price range, so they jacked up the price to 26k without changing anything in the car build. Just add 10k so it filled a gap in their price structure.
I don't trust price by itself as an indicator of quality. Personally, I wouldn't mail order anything for that price. I'd want to hold it in my hands and inspect it thoroughly. The glue would have had me handing it back immediately. It isn't just the glue, but the fact that the glue is obvious and ugly.
Yep, this is true for all industries. Including guns. Just because it costs a lot doesn't mean its worth a lot. "You get what you pay for" is no longer generally true. You have to be watching like a hawk to keep from being what I call "Hype-charged" Because a lot of what you're paying for is brand name and hype.
@@Wastelandman7000 "You get what you pay for" still applies but now you are paying more for hype and less of the pay goes to craftsmanship/materials....
@@Wastelandman7000 also especially true in gaming. $60 games (and higher) tend to be significantly worse than even $15 games.
This might be one of the best video titles I've seen from you in a while:
- Clearly marked what type of content it is (weapon test)
- something specific that might be interesting (catastrophic failure)
- The hint of something more thorough than mere cutty-cutty ("what we can learn from it").
Just commenting because I cought your "why no views"-livestream a while ago and was thinking about why I myself, despite having been subscribed for at least a decade now, have been watching less and less of your videos over the years, and maybe that might be a factor: It feels like your titles and thumbnails rarely tell me more than "oh, Skall is talking about swords again" (and... what else is new?) So when I'm in the mood for a specific type of content, it's kind of hard to tell if any given video of yours fits what I'm looking for.
Just my two cents and I'm no TH-cam-ologist but maybe something worth looking into: Do videos with more specific and focussed titles and thumbnails do better than more general ones?
IDK
I appreciate the feedback! Not sure it's that, because from what I can tell videos with more specific titles and thumbnails haven't done any better. Lately hardly anything does, seemingly no matter what I try. Or maybe I'm making mistakes that are obvious to others, but that I can't see myself. Who knows.
@@Skallagrim For example, you have a bunch of different types of content: unscripted ramblings and collabs, scripted deep dives, weapons tests, technique videos, reactions, etc., and I like some types more than others.
My personal preferences don't really matter, but that's a bunch of different types of content with probably slightly different audiences each, and at times I find it hard to tell what a video is going to be before clicking it.
Again, idfk, I got no analytics and I might just be rambling my random shower thoughts, but maybe something like very different thumbnail styles for each type of video or an " |Review" / "| Ramble" / "| HEMA techniques" whatever in the title might help?
@@Skallagrim tbh, it's Shorts content that gets pushed above longform video content rn because TH-cam and Google are directly competting with TikTok for the views of the past 2 generations of youth. So they're shunting their longform content into obscurity while Shorts are what get recommended more often.
@@sekira4516good point. I know of few channels that realized that shorts are killing their main channel. Yes people watch the shorts. Yes people sub. But then you post long form video and youtube is like "ur subs aren't interested about this content" when in reality its the shorts people not wanting to watch 5+ minute long video. (It is believed that yt pushes videos based on how many % or amount of subs click the video and if enough people interacted with the video then yt recommends it to others). So these few channels i know are making a new side channel for shorts to see if it makes a difference.
@@sekira4516 Neat. I disabled shorts. The youths can have em.
It looks to me like this was not supposed to be fully functional; hopefully it is not advertised as such.
It has "battle ready" in the link and tags. And the price tag is WAY too high for a wallhanger.
@@Skallagrim that's wild
@@Skallagrim Holy crap.
For 600 goddamn dollars I expect it to shoot laser beams and cut through tanks. This is criminal.
No kidding. This is the kind of results you expect from “Asian Imports Store” *high quality stainless steel* kind of stuff.
$600 is also the price of LK Chen's Han Dynasty Sha polearm shipped to North America...which looks better, is way more practical, and is presumably better built.
@@Intranetusa Couldn't be much worse
Criminal? That would explain the sirens.
or maybe made out of gold, then it would really commit to being a wallhanger at least
Glad you put that disclaimer at the beginning. I have a sword I got from them, and I haven't had any issues with it so far.
I know it is expensive, and time intenstive and requires an annoying amount of space and all that, but god was it fun to see you testing a weapon again. Id personally say its more fun when the weapon breaks, cause there is more to the story than "Its a properly made weapon and because of this it just works"
Please remount, sharpen, and test its hidden potential
the design of the spear is actually from the Ming dynasty novel "romance of the three kingdom", which Dynasty warriors is based upon. Essentially the design of the spear is fantasy weapon before Hollywood.
Even then the original version would have likely been a bit less impractical (even if it was more of a trophy/display weapon) as the DW version is even more ramped up and stylised.
@@zaleost Have you seen historical ceremonial weapons/armor? Impractical is practically a selling point. Given, none of it would break like this because that would be shameful.
This is the most charitable, mindful review of something that exploded.
Skall sounds like an engineer, maybe these companies can hire you as a contractor for qc and r&d
The confidence of this maker to send you a product to test...and send you this.... Someone at that business lost a bet or something
100% support you altering that spear to make it usable, hopefully the company that sent it will listen and make alterations to improve it for that price point.
That wood was rotten, and the screwy bit in the middle was rusted.
Without talking about any of the other issues, I'd assume the weapon was stored improperly in a damp place
6 weeks in the hold of a ship in a non airtight container will do that
So glad that it was sent to you. You dodged the bullet there.
Now I wanna see other weapons form Dynasty Warriors aswell.
A reaction video to all the different characters weapons would be something I'd definitely watch. While there are plenty of swords, spears and other polearms in the seires it also does have some rather "unique" weapons.
It should absolutely be possible to make the threaded multi-section haft work. But both coupling members have to be very substantial - the male half should be very girthy and the female part should be meaty. If the female coupling actually looks like a pipe and not just a solid hunk of metal with a giant threaded hole maybe 2/3-3/4 the diameter, then it's probably not thick enough. Also the threads should be pretty deep.
This does, of course, substantially increase weight. Swings and roundabouts, eh?
Also, if you can't do thaat... just design the head for thrusting, not swinging cus then any force travels down the pole instead of pushing against the pole. Pikes were alot more fragile than poleaxes and billhooks.
And acme threads are your friend. They won't stretch when stressed.
Seems to me that conventional threading isn't a good choice for the application, and that it would be better to look to bayonet mounting mechanisms for inspiration. After all, the purpose of both is to allow for a disassemblable polearm, and they share many design requirements and constraints.
Edit: Also, something like a bayonet mount would allow use of a non-circular shaft.
"Meaty Female Parts" sounds like a great name for a punk rock band.
Remount the blade and see how it does.
Mail it to Tod Cutler and make it his problem!
"Tod, we're having a contest to see what is the best thing you can make with this"
He returns an ingot of steel.
@@null6634He returns a stick
They could even try multiple different poles to see how the weight/length of the pole effects performance.
Given the quality of the rest of the built I'd be a bit concerned the mounting collars would split or fragment launching the blade at the cameraman or Skal.
@Wastelandman7000 I ment just the blade, not the dragon mouth part.
A pity.
Glad you guys were not injured, and let's hope that, maybe, the right people in the production chain will take notice and do something about this.
Either fix the problems, or lower the price and advertise it as a "display piece", or something.
Well, that's an interesting BBQ fork...
Yeah, as soon as he stabbed the mat around 4 min, I was like "hot dog!"
At least you can repair it with a proper haft as a project now.
Glad to see you cutting again.
That came out totally wrong LOL
That's a shame.
The threaded shaft can probably be solved with judicious use of loctite, but there are no remedies for any of the other defects/shortcuts. It's almost like they didn't even design this as a battle ready piece, though I suspect you wouldn't have tested it as such if that was notated anywhere.
Yeah, "battle ready" is in the link and tags. And the price would be crazy high for a non-functional wallhanger.
For some reason I only saw the $154.75 and I was like "Well... a bit on the high side, but not all that bad for a wall hanger." But the actual price is outrageous.
You forgot to activate its fire enchantment
[6:16] $619?? That's outrageous!
Makes me kinda sad that if you gave that kind of money to a blacksmith, he could probably make you a really good spear point for that.
@@kilppa I mean its a replica of a fictional characters weapon so its not exactly designed to be used and something you'd just hang on your wall
@@absolutelyliberated1357 Still, for that price you would expect it to look and fit better.
Edit: After finding out the reseller added a large markup, now it makes sense. Apparently, you can find it for half the price elsewhere.
Let's see... the pole and the decorative castings would cost $20 at most. Maybe take half an hour to join them (with hot glue) and finnish the result. That'd leave still 500$ for just the blade which looks like grinded in a couple of hours from base piece of generic fake damascus steel.
It would be interesting to see it disassembled so we can see if there are any other horrors awaiting us inside that handle. Quality like this makes me wonder if the blade is even attached to that peg.
"Oo, a hair pin! This is better than their last spear which used those paper finger cuffs!"
I'm not subbed and I don't watch all the videos of you that appear in my timeline, but this was actually a great title/thumbnail and the video really delivered.
Some of my favorite videos of yours are when you retrofit weapons (especially bad or broken ones) so I would absolutely love to see that blade given a proper dressing. I also find it funny how a single enthusiast can refit weapons into better ones than the actual companies behind the product sometimes.
Woof! Glad you guys survived that testing without any injuries. Thanks for your contribution to consumer reviews and sharing what you learned about the spear.
As a historical note, the type of weapon 蛇矛 (She Mao) is a historical design; it looks like over the course of the Dynasty Warrior series Zhang Fei was given increasingly more outlandish versions of the spear in the artwork. But we do have (rare) surviving examples as well as plenty of depictions of them from from the Ming. Let me know if you'd like me to post some images.
I would not want to be in the same zipcode as someone swinging this thing.
@7:12 The haft wouldn't have to be round. You could have the metal fitting made to be ovoid on one end and round and threaded on the other. Wouldn't look as nice, who knows if it would hold up as well, but well, this broke after six hits anyway.
I would love to see more about this weapon! Also your most recent wave of videos has been quite good.
got major mall ninja wall hanger vibes from this.
It's costs 600 dollars tho, that's too much for a wallhanger
What kind of wood was that even? do you know? the haft must have been made out of cheapo wood, maybe even a soft wood to snap so easily.
"Am I seeing that right?" that was unscripted comedy
That's scary.
Also already subscribed also +1 like.
And I would love to see you forge a new price of work from the remains.
This would be really cool to see who knows maybe something you could branch into like forging your own weapons and testing them.
That's something I would for sure be interested in seeing.
Either way great video, scary with that hot gloo but I am gland no one was hurt.
Hope you let us know if the seller gets back to you with an explanation
I'll tell ya, starting Kingdom Come, having Skall for the pros and cons of weapons is so helpful. I'm ready for any battle situation because of him. Thanks, Skall!
As soon as you said "spear" I had to pause and look at it and profoundly exclaim; "SPEAR!?"
That's the thing skall, it failed everywhere BUT the hot glue. Feedback for the next model is to make it entirely out of hot glue!
1000% re haft this! For all its faults it seems like the blade is not completely garbage and it has a unique design you can experiment with
Here's the problem with weapons that appear more in historical fictions than in museums or documents, such as the 蛇矛 or "snake spear": The manufactures can only design it from artworks. Not a replica by any means because there's nothing to replicate from.
That dragon looks like he's been paying for college in less than savory ways.
I think a full remount would be cool, but honestly, I'd want to take a look at that tang to see if it's worth it... Don't know if I'd trust that connection otherwise, and wouldn't wanna waste the time putting it back on a pole if the blade is just gonna pop out next.
If the tang is short, maybe a few inches of the base of the blade could be converted into more tang? I'd also like to see those two tips cut away and the remainder ground into a proper point.
@billberg1264 yea, but at that point, we're practically recommending a reforge...
Huzzah,, enjoy your honest reviews.
Stay Safe Sir!
I want to tell you that I have been getting recommended your videos again upon upload! I actually see them in my suggested videos
Love your shirt Skall!😎🤘
This does give me a great idea for a D&D game. The heroes try to enter a castle, and are stopped by guards wearing beautiful armor worth 1000s of gold pieces, holding ornate polearms worth almost as much. But the guards dont train in combat, they are just supposed to be good looking. They know how to order peasants around, and have never had to actually swing a weapon. The first time one of these guards tries to make an attack (or defend) the blade falls out of it's socket, and the guards run inside. Hilarity ensues.
Or, maybe the blacksmith has been using cheap materials as a substitute, and pocketing the balance for himself, that utter bastard!
As to the endcap, I bet the wood has shrunk and I bet the threaded middle would have backed out over time as well. The pin kinda looks like it goes in between the grain instead of perpendicular to it. Hot glue I have seen used, it does worrk and dapens vibration a lot, so it's not as bad as it seems especially if it is high temp that won't melt under any real world conditions.
Anyone building weapons with hot glue does not know what the fuck they're doing.
Slopping glue into a void won't dampen vibrations.
It is as bad as it seems.
Looking good, skal. The diet is really working.
I bought a 90 year old cleaver over the summer that weighs 3.5 lobs. A little bit of care and it is in fantastic shape and even kept the original oak handle. The have been butchering my deer tonight and honestly these being my first experience using something like this I was completely blown away by what it can do. I would love to see you do some testing with something like this.
Pro tip, when you try to tighten threads like that put your hands as close to the connecting point as you can. You might not feel it, but when your hands are separated from the thread area like you have, you are also twisting the wood, that takes away from the twisting force at the thread area even if the pole seems stiff, also your body has more mechanical advantage to twisting motion when hands are close together.
The police while you describe the build quality tells everything we need.
My guess of the Price:
a) Up charging due to Recognisability
b) Licensing for the Design, after all it is based on a pretty well known IP and that'll cost
Dynasty Warriors is based off of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" a 14th century historical fiction novel by Luo Guanzhong. Its old as dirt. I doubt its still under copyright. The spear is probably just over priced.
I ordered a "Messer / Bastard Sword / Katana Hybrid Straight Blade European Folded Steel Blade Longsword" when it was called that, and the guard/hilt was a total disaster, I made a video and left a review but they removed my pictures.
It looks like the actual blades are very well made from SoN, but anything other than katanas are slops assembled with glue.
Thank you, Skall! I am glad there were no injuries. Maybe can try hyping the chat and liking other people's comments to boost the algo?
It would be neat to see it remounted
12:00 sculptor here, just wanted to add that this bronze cast or more like the original positive the original sculpt for that casting mold was not made by a sculptor for sure XĐ that just screams craftsman for me in the derogatory sense of the word
"If the wood went deeper into it, that would be much better" - well Skall What can be said than you just spitting god honest truth :)
The shaft snapped? That's a yikes.
The snake spear is actually from the romance of three kingdoms books, which dynasty warriors is based on. Still fictional, just 600 years older fiction XD
Also in the book its 18 feet long, and the snake name likely just referred the bronze head, not having a wavy blade.
Actually the snake tongue spear is something associated with Zhang fei much earlier than dynasty warriors, at least during the song dynasty
Remounting with new test would be nice to see.
Thank you skall for doing this so we dont waste money
7:12 Having a threaded connection does not require a round handle as you could transition from the threaded round section to and number of shapes. Even the threaded piece could be made oval or octagonal ( like a bolt nut) or whatever on the outside as long as the internal threads were still round.
Sure, but then they would have to fit it perfectly so that the two halves don't misalign (or become twisted with use).
Yes, but you would have to make the threading extra precise so that wenn fully screwed onto each other the pieces align correctly, else you end up with two misaligned oval crossection handles.
@@Skallagrim right, but that's not hard to manufacture especially at the price point they are selling it. Making a round oversized haft then shaping it afterward would be so quick with industrial machinery or even just a mill.
@@profezzordarke4362 just replied.
The issue with the threading isn't any inherent weakness of the connection, it's that the threaded section is far too short. To provide a solid, durable connection the threads would need to be at least twice as long, and the socket on the haft correspondingly longer to distribute the load. That'd *probably* get around the issue of the threaded section loosening up...but you'd be stuck for a good while screwing it together.
The round haft is another issue entirely. You *could* make an ovoid or rounded rectangle work, but the sockets would need to be custom fit to each individual weapon and very securely fastened *without reducing the strength of the haft* . And you'd need to precisely calculate and cut the threads to ensure that the two halves bottomed out at the precise point when they were perfectly aligned (you *could* use shims matching the profile of the haft to make your job easier).
A lot of work for one polearm, let alone an entire unit's (or army's) supply. And you'd want lots of them, because polearms are, for the most part, much more effective in groups.
Thank you for the demonstration. Guess now you have some firewood and a very fancy barbecue skewer?
Well... if you like to make fondue in a 190 liter pot...
😃- That's about 50 gallons, for us Americans!
as soon as we saw the blunt edge and hot glue it was obvious this was just a wall hanger. fun to watch how it failed though
This vid is proof that skall isn't just a shill for any company that gifts him a sword
This definitely has decorative, slight fun written all over it. The weapon for the "oh snap that looks cool!" or "heck yeah Zheng fei!" collectible that's usable enough to look and feel functional to those not into any real martial weapon training.
12:26 that part here seem sloppily brazed to me as if that brass part was in fact made of 2 pieces brazed together for some reason.
I had a staff you could take down in fact you could separate it in to 3 sections. It had a turned steel threaded section but each was stepped down with a larger diam that was threaded and a smaller diam section also threaded. It was made with very good wood and the threaded sections were well fitted. It eventually broke with me and my friend going pretty hard core with ours we both had 1 and the point of failure was mid way up the middle wooden section no where near the steel fittings. We burned out the wood and got some poly carbonate rods of the same diam and fit that in to both of ours we broke cinder blocks and any thing else we wanted to with it it never did fail after that and it never loosened up at the joints. I also had hiking sticks like it as well that could be broken down for easy transport as they both had very sharp spiked ends. I am fairly sure both were made by the same company as the construction was identical on both other than 1 split in to 3 parts and was much larger around than the other. The hiking stick had a steel cable that kept the 2 parts together when taken down
That looked promising :-(
And yes - I would watch part two :-D
I missed the test cutting videos and that sweet slo mo camera action.
I'd love to see you remake this and test it again.
10:00 In general suggestions seem good. But on the topic of number of pins, I doubt second pin is a benefit. Maybe in some edge cases. But single bamboo pin has proven to work really well on wide array of edged weapons.
I think the blade could be salvaged into something interesting, it's just a question of is it interesting enough for the effort required
I think I read somewhere that the Macedonian pikes were two part weapons. I also used a breakdown oak spear in the SCA for years and subjected it to considerable force both radially and tangentially with no issues. It had a bolt imbedded in one side and a T nut in the other with a metal sleeve over the joint. As for the joint requiring a circular shaft, only the area where they join would need to be circular. That could be an issue though especially if there was a significant deviation from circular for the rest of the shaft.
Would love to see a remounting and re-fitting to a single piece haft. It actually being sharp would also significantly help.
it is useful for a weapon to look intimidating but its also important for them to be robust and practical enough
Was this really meant for hitting things? Maybe there was some confusion. EDIT: Oh, I see the 'battle ready', nevermind.
That wavy effect on the steel is nice, at least. Is this the 'engraving'?
That is pattern welding /damascus.
@@jamesmaybrick2001it looks like. But it also could be etched.
But I guess pattern welded steel is also available cheaply, so possibly it's actually that
8:10 circles can absolutely fit inside of other geometric shapes. It would not be a problem to have the outside of the fitting be other shapes.
How about sharpening it and using it as a sword of sorts? Perhaps reattach the conical brass end part directly to the handle by braising it on or using a very short part of the wood, perhaps both?
Speaking on the round vs ovoid halved handle with threaded joining, you definitely _could_ do it, I'm just not sure there's a world where you want to. But if you did want to, all you have to do is match the thread size to the smallest circular diameter of the oval, and have the visible fittings be matched to the shape of the handle. I've seen MANY assemblies done in this way, and all they have to do is make sure that the threads align so that when it is fully screwed in, it hard-stops where the two pieces line up. It's not as hard as it sounds, and can be made more effective with a compression-fitted hidden ball pin so that it locks into place and requires significant force to begin unscrewing.
Of course, possible and desirable are two different animals. The only real reason to use such an assembly is to avoid sourcing a longer stave.
Zhangfei is my favourite from dynasty warriors haha never expected his weapon to get tested. Please do xu-Zhu’s next
Octagonal haft and a cam lock for the disassembly perhaps with an additional safety pin to prevent it from camming out in use. Also before you refit it just try the brass fitting as a handle and use it as a sword.
Oof that's bad. 😬 What was the rep thinking sending _that_ to you, usually you'd expect them to send a version that's above and beyond what a normal consumer would get, but it's like the sent the version that was in a failed QC inspection pile. 😂