Great video! I hope you get better to see the cutting. You have a really nice and massive collection of swords it will be a great to do a video about your collection!
@@abumorgan1421 thank you very much. I’ve been doing some general videos involving groups of swords in my collection. One video series is the European sword maker tier list. The next one I’m working on is the Evolution of Medieval Longswords, and the Evolution of Medieval Arming Swords. Stay tuned.
Get better soon Kane! We are waiting to receive the same sword for review as well so this has us excited to try it out. I hope ours comes a bit sharper or more apexed!
Hi Kane, love the video. You said you didn't know why the Irish didn't wear plate and there's a few reasons. The weather was very harsh to plate which encouraged the wearing of mail armour. The island was very densely forested and the Irish liked to use gorilla fighting and ambush so less time was spent in the open. Also the English remarked a battle with the Irish was more akin to a rolling bitch battle, so long engagements were more common so comfort was preferable when fighting. And we often practiced raiding so speed of arming was necessary and being able to run and fight for extended periods was required.
Hey Kane, rest up mate. We need you back to full speed pronto ;-) Still made a great showing for this big big Irish sword! I'm really happy that this is on the market as once again the LK/BA partnership puts out tremendous value for price. A shame about that final sharpening but I have no doubt you'll put a nice edge on it and bring it up to scary sharp to really show us what it can do. If you haven't already tried it, I recommend using some painter's tape on the blade to see if you can protect the portion you don't want to get scuffed by the worksharp during sharpening. Depending on the angle you're using it can help. That's a whole lot of sword!
@@dlatrexswords hi Andy! Thank you for the kind wishes and the tips. I’ll try the painter’s tape trick. I still have a bunch leftover. I like how this Lk Chen’s Irish sword moves. Pretty lightweight but still tracks with authority.
I recently had an accident that messed up my shoulder, so I can understand the frustration of not being able to swing a sword around like you used to, especially with a Greatsword. I’m too afraid to use my Claymore because I’m might tear something up in the process.
Appreciate the understanding. I’ve had a crippling injury in the lower back/hip region. For days I can’t sit down or even lay down to rest without incurring unbearable pain. I lost 90% of the locomobility, too. Notice when I filmed the review, I almost stood in one spot the entire time, and that was after I stuffed myself full of painkiller pills. I probably won’t be able to edit any more complex videos until my full recovery.
@@frankknox9127 yeah you don't want to do that and make the injury horse but maybe you can find a lightweight synthetic trainer or a lighter sword in general and practice with your off hand I mean obviously as long as it doesn't aggravate your other shoulder hope you heal up well.
I really like the looks of these swords with the ring pommel, and the tang going through also the guards are very appealing visually. I just think the ring pommel might not be as functional if you want to place your hand on the pommel, but to me they just look nice, and im not even sure why because its so simple design, but i also love the chinese style ring pommels
Indeed, ring pommels stand out from the rest as they are so unique-looking. Being able to see through it is a big factor. With a tang going through like on Irish ring pommels it changes its look from being a hollow ring into two halves of a circle. It just works. Functionally you can place the base of the offhand palm by the side of it, just like wheel pommels but there’s no protruding central hub found on some wheel pommels to interfere with offhand maneuvering when you swing the sword. Ring pommel also drastically reduces the sword’s overall weight while shifting the balance further towards the blade so they tend to be lightweight but forwardly balanced swords which does a lot of the work for the user in cutting.
Hope you can recover fairly swiftly. There was one time I cramped my own back out at work bad enough to make it difficult to even carry a drink cup from Burger King. Ultimately it was exercising that area that fixed my ails, but not before two or three weeks of gimping around, I forgot how long at this point. I'm not sure if it'll be the same for you, but I fully understand the need to at least give it a rest for now. That said, my right shoulder is a bit strained at the moment, but the bright side of that is it helps me to train using my left arm for power in sword swinging.
Thank you for the understanding! I underestimated how many people have suffered from this, and how bad it can potentially get. Years ago, I met a neighbor in his 40s in the elevator, who told me that he just suffered a lower-back injury that causes intense spasm in the lower back that almost crippled him, and he could only limp around in a very slow pace painfully. I thought I would never suffer something like this, as I work out every other day and swim often. How wrong have I been?! On the day when this injury suddenly hit, getting out of the bed felt like getting hit by a truck, and the pain override other senses that I could barely even see or hear anything for 10 seconds. It took me 5 minutes to even walk with great pain to the bathroom next to my bedroom. Could sit down, or lay down without tons of pain, so all I could do was just standing still all day long, which is kind of fatiguing. After 10 days, I recovered maybe 25% of the range of motion so I thought it might be time to record my take on this Irish sword as so many people had asked me about it, and I saw no end in sight of my road to full recovery and the day I could finally sharpen this thing and then cut with it. I said in my recording that I would try to do minimal editing, but when I rendered the video I still inserted bunch of B-roll footage filmed earlier. Still nowhere from being ideal, but at least I can get this review out as soon as possible for this new offering. Sitting there 10 minutes at a time to review the footage and cut and edit the numerous B-rolls was just painful, but thankfully I managed. I suffered multiple injuries in the past due to the intensity of my workout, but never had an injury this life-altering. Thanks for the kind words, and watching the review!
Hope you make a hasty and complete recovery Kane, I am fine waiting for your stellar content. Noticed there were some oddities about the BA sidesword like the YUGE finger rings, though didn't know about how off the piece is in terms of historicity. Perhaps BA can rectify this, set up two different sidesword products, one with a type XIX blade and one like a type XVIII. ~Cheers 🍻
@@LurkerDaBerzerker thank you for your kind wishes. Recovery from this one seems to be a lengthy road. After 10 days I just recovered my ability to walk without immense pain. BTW Andy of Dlatrex Swords just discovered that the sidesword model is a direct rip-off of a Gus Trim/Christian Fletcher model back in the days. /facepalm Kult of Athena done did it again!
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Seriously?! Whoever they have designing these needs to be fired, they are gonna ruin the credibility of the BA line, KoA, and may even mar the image of LK Chen.
It's not a direct copy of course, more of an inspiration. But what I don't understand is why keep enough elements similar to be easily identifiable. They could have take any example from the Ducal Palace in Venice and LK Chen is fully capable of making a plausible recreation even without measuring in person at the palace.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold It is very confusing, why even make these risks that don't lead to stellar products? If they behaved as Albions or other higher end blades then it would make sense, but instead they fumble them and risk legal action. I like the width the sidesword has, but I don't like where the finger rings meet the blade, it just comes off as an incredibly amateur attempt, would expect this kinda stuff out of a newb like me.
@@LurkerDaBerzerker yeah I think part of it is on the designer of KoA, the direction is sometimes questionable. With LK Chen behind it, with some bit more refinement, and prudent design principles they could easily achieve Albion’s height-not replacing Albion but at least establishing themselves as a peer on the market-once they have enough models. They have to be very careful about taking others’ designs even when it’s done partially. I think the Fletcher/Atrim design was given to LK Chen even before the kriegsmesser controversy. They somehow didn’t manage to catch that and do it right. Like I said, it’s not as bad as a ripoff or plagiarism but there’s enough problems here and I think they could have easily avoided it.
Oh man that thing is sweet! 🤘💀 And I just bought a tinker gsow lol oh well... I'll have to save up for this one anyway. Instantly on top of my most wanted list as soon as I saw it. To bad the sharpness on yours was not up to snuff, the euro collectors curse strikes again. I'm sure it'll cut monstrously once you do. Get well soon brother!
Thank you very much! The H/T GSOW is a sweet sword when sharpened! This one is awesome, too. So many unique features of Irish swords stand out. Hope they will hear my suggestion of potential improvement and make it an even better sword in the next batch!
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold yeah man heal up so we can see some cutting from that bad boy.lol The h/t gsow is awesome! I can't wait for pumpkin season this year, something tells me it's gonna be a good one. Lol The Gallowglass and Norse-gales always appealed to me because I sort of am one. I'm Scottish on my dad's side and Norwegian on my mom's side. Unless balaur/ lk Chen drop a sweet ass claymore or the new windlass/royal armouries collection comes out, (and it has that baskethilt Matt teased in it), before I can scrape together the cash then I'm planning on getting one of these. Agreed with everything you said about the sidesword BTW, you might have seen Vic and Jon picked one up and it looks kinda weirdly proportioned. A bit of odd mash up for sure
I will fully heal before doing anything taxing. And you enjoy the imposing H/T Grete Swerde of War! Will be fun carving up those pumpkins! Just make sure to sharpen the edges as you know Hanwei's factory edges. I do think this BA/LK Chen collab is going to be the best Gaelic war sword the reproduction market has to offer in a while! As for the sidesword, there are odd combo bastard swords the market is conditioned to accept more willingly--the Albion Principe being one of the more prominent examples.
Excellent and very detailed video.. that beautiful swords a little bit out of my price range and I usually do more affordable weapon reviews like usually 300.00 or less usually more like $200 and less but anyways excellent video I'm still waiting on my ROM katana to come in so I can do my little review on it.
Regarding the sidesword, I'll wait for Vic's review and comment more there. I don't like it, but now I know why the proportions are wrong. The side-port ring closes on the widest part of the blade, not in the ricasso just before the blade widens. So the finger-rings end up being too large, and all other proportions end up being bad. The bade is also too wide, about 5cm (from KoA website). Balaur Arms designed the sword, the fault lies with them, and LK Chen just respected their plans (from what he said in a comment on his channel). You are right that a type XIX is more common, but we see these diamond profile blades on these hilts in the period. See the Rapier of Charles the V as the most famous of them. Fencing manuscripts also show these type of blades being quite fashionable, and you are right that they took off later, mounted in more developed rapiers hilts. Regarding the Gallowglass, Balaur Arms managed to reproduce the pieces housed in the National Museum of Archeology in Dublin. Bsed on the pictures I saw, it looks 1:1 with the original. I like S-quillons on swords, and I like ring-pommels, but swords like Albion's Kern are more inspired by than reproductions of originals. I actually don't like the Irish wings-like S-quillons, however, this is a personal preference and unlike the sidesword, this is a historical design done right. People that want an Irish sword should really consider this piece: this is the best one out there short of bespoke pieces. Kane, if your back hurts, look at Thibault rapier. 😅Straight back, straight legs without bending the knees, small steps and no lounge. It looks like it's a style made for people that hurt their backs but refused to give up on fencing. 😂 Or you can rest and get well soon. 👍
I think they miscalculated the dimensions of the rings on the sidesword as this model design was inspired not by any historical original but a Christian Fletcher piece that put this style of hilt onto a Angus Trim type XVIII blade. The originals have the ring terminate to a type XIX blade, which is far narrower than the width of this type XVIII blade, think 40-42mm base width versus 55-60mm base width on the latter. So the rings suddenly feel overly large and bizarre looking. On the original Venetian pieces, the ricassos all have the same width as the base of the blade above the ring guard. I like this Irish sword, given how many unique Irish traits have been implemented. But like you, I, too, find the quillons difficult to handle. But it's not the designer or manufacturer's fault, it's just how it is on the originals. BTW I am indeed making progress in the past couple of days. Perhaps it will take less days to fully heal than I anticipated.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBoldYou are 100% right. I checked the Christian Fletcher piece on myarmoury. Btw, it's 13oz off in weight. Why would they do that? And with is 4.12cm vs 5... man that's bad. Not only that's rip-off, it's a bad one. 😂 Take it easy, and stay away from Bolognese full torso cuts and the like for a while. Just wait until you get back to 100%.👍
The 1st batch is already sold out. The 2nd batch will generally become available in 3 to 4 months. They probably will even make some improvements based on customer feedbacks.
Take your time to fully heal, some light exercise and stretching can help but hastily getting back to demanding activities would wipe out the progress you have made so far.
Never say never but I haven't seen a single-edged blade on a hilt with Irish ring pommel. Interestingly enough, the new BA sidesword hilt does occasionally come with a single-edged straight blade with a false edge on the top portion of the spine. As far as I know, medieval Irish people liked straight double-edged blades.
You may already know this but sharing it anyway. Only single edged weapons Im aware of for Irish arms were the scians or "skeens* the Irish long knife.
Indeed skeans are single-edged Irish bladed implement. My brain immediately went to thinking about swords when he asked about Irish single-edged swords. But yeah skeans are single-edged daggers that can get pretty long even approaching shortsword length.
We live in modern times, I see why history ethicists prefer blades to be historically accurate but that only applies if you're making a replica from a particular time period. It's much more interesting to marry different things together from a design perspective than live in the past.
It's fine to come up with unique designs that take different aspects from swords (or weapons) from different time period and come up with a modern of fantasy design. I have reviewed some of these and I like them, too. But a sword is designed from the beginning to end to be a reproduction of historical sword, its merits will be assessed by the faithfulness to the historical original that the reproduction maker ITSELF is claiming to represent. Why do most people enjoy historical swords? Because swords are primarily a weapon that's more used in the past (not as common as today, but still relevant in certain scenarios), and the effectiveness only measured by its design in its original context because that's what they were designed for.
Indeed. Federschwerts tend to have long blades for reach and long hilt, definitely more so than their live-bladed counterparts. Medieval longswords rarely have hilts longer than 11"--the mid-15th century longsword preserved at Bayerisches Nationalmuseum is a rare exception with a 12" (30 cm) hilt. Feder blades are very narrow but also thin, because they don't need the rigidity real longswords have, and the mass distribution makes them very light on the hits--hence "feather swords". Historically a hilt 13" long usually indicates the sword is intended to be built as a two-handed one.
I just got a worksharp with attachment but have yet to try it on my swords. Is 5-10 passes really enough with fine grit to get my albions sharp? Sorry, new to sharpening and for now practicing on knives only.
5-10 passes of medium or fine grit on Albion swords seem to suffice most of the time as their edge geometry is great. You can practice on knives first, but just be aware, sharpening knives and sharpening swords are very different tasks. They geometries are so different that if you apply your experience with sharpening knives without modification to swords, you are going to end up mar the blade and not doing anything to the apex of the edge of a sword blade.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Thank you. Hope you get better. I will probably buy a cheaper one to practice sharpening on first. Any good advice on how to transition from knives to swords in the future?
@Stampianirrationalism you can get some sense of the basic functionality of Work Sharp by working on knives. Just be aware you need to be infinitely more familiar with sword blades’ edge angles before you can even start sharpening than working on knives. A sword blade also changes edge angle before it’s much more distally tapered. An angle that works on a section of the sword blade isn’t necessarily going to work a few inches down the blade. Work on a few cheaper ones first for sure. I recommend Hanwei sword blades to practice sharpening with. One, they are decent swords themselves, especially the Tinker line, so you don’t waste your money. Two, their edge geometries actually similar to higher end swords like Albion. Try not to practice on swords made blunt like Windlass, creating a big and jarring secondary bevel is very dissimilar to refining good edges found on swords like Albion and LK Chen’s.
For the 15th century, probably three-point suspension was the most popular. It would be a little awkward for this sword as it is too long to carry by the side.
The hilt--like I said in the video--is very representative to Venetian swords circa 1500. The blade, however, is not like the historical Venetian swords at all, but it isn't like the Malleus Martialis one either. The MM Marozzo is 30mm at its widest. This BA one is almost twice as broad and has a far more pronounced profile taper.
The true Claymore--from the gaelic, claidheamh-mòr--Great Sword. The later basket-handled one-edged sword Highlanders used, and called by the same name, was a fine weapon, but not so impressive as this.
I'm not sure if this sword was called claidheamh-mòr in Ireland--certain was in Scotland. Some of the two-handed swords in Scotland had similar blades with full lenticular cross section sans fuller, but their hilts have very different styles than Irish ones.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Well, the Gallowglass were Irishmen of Scottish descent, in an era where the great majority of Irish spoke Gaelic as their first language (this was true right up to the 19th century, and the Great Famine that decimated the Irish-speaking areas most). Not exactly the same language as Scots Gaelic, but damned close, they could understand each other quite well, can to this day, those that still know Gaelic. So seeing as it's a purely descriptive term, what would you expect them to call a big sword? Possible that to them there was no other weapon that even merited being called a sword, so they just called it claíomh. It's basically the same weapon as the Highlander greatsword, with some minor differences. Related warrior cultures. If we don't have a separate term for it, odds are they called it the same, descriptively. Gallowglass Sword is hardly a term they'd have used. Too much of a mouthful. Actually, do we know the Highlanders of that time period called them Claymores? We know they didn't wear kilts. Much of the terminology used is after the fact and romanticized. I mean, you have a big sword, you'll call it a big sword, and that's how you say big sword in gaelic. ;)
Yes, this is true. Calling two-handed swords claymore is more plausible. It's a term that got popular in the 17th century onward, but it was indeed used to describe both basket-hilted broadsword, and two-handed swords.
Oh! That is a wonderful sword. I like Japanese swords, but I also like Western swords. As a matter of fact, I think they are more destructive than Japanese swords. Instead, it is heavy and may be difficult to handle in a different sense from Japanese swords.
Thank you for the understanding! I probably understated the severity of my injury in the video. On the day when this injury suddenly hit, getting out of the bed felt like getting hit by a truck, and the pain overrode other senses that I could barely even see or hear anything for 10 seconds. It took me 5 minutes to even walk with great pain to the bathroom next to my bedroom. Could sit down, or lay down without tons of pain, so all I could do was just standing still all day long, which is kind of fatiguing. After 10 days, I recovered maybe 25% of the range of motion so I thought it might be time to record my take on this Irish sword as so many people had asked me about it, and I saw no end in sight of my road to full recovery and the day I could finally sharpen this thing and then cut with it. I said in my recording that I would try to do minimal editing, but when I rendered the video I still inserted bunch of B-roll footage filmed earlier. Still nowhere from being ideal, but at least I can get this review out as soon as possible for this new offering. Sitting there 10 minutes at a time to review the footage and cut and edit the numerous B-rolls was just painful, but thankfully I managed. I suffered multiple injuries in the past due to the intensity of my workout, but never had an injury this life-altering. Thanks for watching the review!
Learning a painful lesson. Back in the days when I had a trainer, he always instructed me to do stretching before and after sets. It's been a mistake skipping that.
Great video! I hope you get better to see the cutting.
You have a really nice and massive collection of swords it will be a great to do a video about your collection!
@@abumorgan1421 thank you very much. I’ve been doing some general videos involving groups of swords in my collection. One video series is the European sword maker tier list. The next one I’m working on is the Evolution of Medieval Longswords, and the Evolution of Medieval Arming Swords. Stay tuned.
My best wishes for fast recovery my friend!Cheers from Greece!
Thank you very much! You have been a good friend!
Get better soon Kane! We are waiting to receive the same sword for review as well so this has us excited to try it out. I hope ours comes a bit sharper or more apexed!
Thank you, buddy! Hope you will received a sword with much better apex'ed edges, which is per LK Chen's usual standards.
Wish you a swift recovery, so you can wield this marvelous sword once more.
Many 🙏🏻! I hope so, too!
Dude your living room is freaking epic .
Thank you very much!
Sorry to hear you that, please get rest, the back is the core of the body, take it easy, great looking display, review, and sword
Thank you, Joe. The recovery has bern a painful and lengthy process.
Hope you get better soon.
Thank you!
Hi Kane, love the video. You said you didn't know why the Irish didn't wear plate and there's a few reasons. The weather was very harsh to plate which encouraged the wearing of mail armour. The island was very densely forested and the Irish liked to use gorilla fighting and ambush so less time was spent in the open. Also the English remarked a battle with the Irish was more akin to a rolling bitch battle, so long engagements were more common so comfort was preferable when fighting. And we often practiced raiding so speed of arming was necessary and being able to run and fight for extended periods was required.
@@mrshindig1992 thank you so much for the explanation. My guess was half there. I thought it was due to mobility and range of motion during fighting.
I'm absolutely loving the lk chen balaur arms swords. I have bought 3 of them so far and eagerly await the upcoming redesigned kriegsmesser.
@@fredurdead absolutely! Some of the best sub-$1000 swords made.
Hey Kane, rest up mate. We need you back to full speed pronto ;-)
Still made a great showing for this big big Irish sword! I'm really happy that this is on the market as once again the LK/BA partnership puts out tremendous value for price. A shame about that final sharpening but I have no doubt you'll put a nice edge on it and bring it up to scary sharp to really show us what it can do. If you haven't already tried it, I recommend using some painter's tape on the blade to see if you can protect the portion you don't want to get scuffed by the worksharp during sharpening. Depending on the angle you're using it can help.
That's a whole lot of sword!
@@dlatrexswords hi Andy! Thank you for the kind wishes and the tips. I’ll try the painter’s tape trick. I still have a bunch leftover. I like how this Lk Chen’s Irish sword moves. Pretty lightweight but still tracks with authority.
I recently had an accident that messed up my shoulder, so I can understand the frustration of not being able to swing a sword around like you used to, especially with a Greatsword. I’m too afraid to use my Claymore because I’m might tear something up in the process.
Appreciate the understanding. I’ve had a crippling injury in the lower back/hip region. For days I can’t sit down or even lay down to rest without incurring unbearable pain. I lost 90% of the locomobility, too. Notice when I filmed the review, I almost stood in one spot the entire time, and that was after I stuffed myself full of painkiller pills. I probably won’t be able to edit any more complex videos until my full recovery.
@@frankknox9127 yeah you don't want to do that and make the injury horse but maybe you can find a lightweight synthetic trainer or a lighter sword in general and practice with your off hand I mean obviously as long as it doesn't aggravate your other shoulder hope you heal up well.
I really like the looks of these swords with the ring pommel, and the tang going through also the guards are very appealing visually. I just think the ring pommel might not be as functional if you want to place your hand on the pommel, but to me they just look nice, and im not even sure why because its so simple design, but i also love the chinese style ring pommels
Indeed, ring pommels stand out from the rest as they are so unique-looking. Being able to see through it is a big factor. With a tang going through like on Irish ring pommels it changes its look from being a hollow ring into two halves of a circle. It just works. Functionally you can place the base of the offhand palm by the side of it, just like wheel pommels but there’s no protruding central hub found on some wheel pommels to interfere with offhand maneuvering when you swing the sword. Ring pommel also drastically reduces the sword’s overall weight while shifting the balance further towards the blade so they tend to be lightweight but forwardly balanced swords which does a lot of the work for the user in cutting.
Hope you can recover fairly swiftly. There was one time I cramped my own back out at work bad enough to make it difficult to even carry a drink cup from Burger King. Ultimately it was exercising that area that fixed my ails, but not before two or three weeks of gimping around, I forgot how long at this point. I'm not sure if it'll be the same for you, but I fully understand the need to at least give it a rest for now.
That said, my right shoulder is a bit strained at the moment, but the bright side of that is it helps me to train using my left arm for power in sword swinging.
Thank you for the understanding! I underestimated how many people have suffered from this, and how bad it can potentially get. Years ago, I met a neighbor in his 40s in the elevator, who told me that he just suffered a lower-back injury that causes intense spasm in the lower back that almost crippled him, and he could only limp around in a very slow pace painfully. I thought I would never suffer something like this, as I work out every other day and swim often. How wrong have I been?!
On the day when this injury suddenly hit, getting out of the bed felt like getting hit by a truck, and the pain override other senses that I could barely even see or hear anything for 10 seconds. It took me 5 minutes to even walk with great pain to the bathroom next to my bedroom. Could sit down, or lay down without tons of pain, so all I could do was just standing still all day long, which is kind of fatiguing.
After 10 days, I recovered maybe 25% of the range of motion so I thought it might be time to record my take on this Irish sword as so many people had asked me about it, and I saw no end in sight of my road to full recovery and the day I could finally sharpen this thing and then cut with it. I said in my recording that I would try to do minimal editing, but when I rendered the video I still inserted bunch of B-roll footage filmed earlier. Still nowhere from being ideal, but at least I can get this review out as soon as possible for this new offering. Sitting there 10 minutes at a time to review the footage and cut and edit the numerous B-rolls was just painful, but thankfully I managed.
I suffered multiple injuries in the past due to the intensity of my workout, but never had an injury this life-altering. Thanks for the kind words, and watching the review!
Hope you make a hasty and complete recovery Kane, I am fine waiting for your stellar content.
Noticed there were some oddities about the BA sidesword like the YUGE finger rings, though didn't know about how off the piece is in terms of historicity.
Perhaps BA can rectify this, set up two different sidesword products, one with a type XIX blade and one like a type XVIII.
~Cheers 🍻
@@LurkerDaBerzerker thank you for your kind wishes. Recovery from this one seems to be a lengthy road. After 10 days I just recovered my ability to walk without immense pain.
BTW Andy of Dlatrex Swords just discovered that the sidesword model is a direct rip-off of a Gus Trim/Christian Fletcher model back in the days. /facepalm Kult of Athena done did it again!
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Seriously?!
Whoever they have designing these needs to be fired, they are gonna ruin the credibility of the BA line, KoA, and may even mar the image of LK Chen.
It's not a direct copy of course, more of an inspiration. But what I don't understand is why keep enough elements similar to be easily identifiable. They could have take any example from the Ducal Palace in Venice and LK Chen is fully capable of making a plausible recreation even without measuring in person at the palace.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold It is very confusing, why even make these risks that don't lead to stellar products?
If they behaved as Albions or other higher end blades then it would make sense, but instead they fumble them and risk legal action.
I like the width the sidesword has, but I don't like where the finger rings meet the blade, it just comes off as an incredibly amateur attempt, would expect this kinda stuff out of a newb like me.
@@LurkerDaBerzerker yeah I think part of it is on the designer of KoA, the direction is sometimes questionable. With LK Chen behind it, with some bit more refinement, and prudent design principles they could easily achieve Albion’s height-not replacing Albion but at least establishing themselves as a peer on the market-once they have enough models.
They have to be very careful about taking others’ designs even when it’s done partially. I think the Fletcher/Atrim design was given to LK Chen even before the kriegsmesser controversy. They somehow didn’t manage to catch that and do it right.
Like I said, it’s not as bad as a ripoff or plagiarism but there’s enough problems here and I think they could have easily avoided it.
By Akatosh, that’s a big sword! Shame you can’t cut with it yet. May you get well soon
Thank you for your kind words!
How do you keep that white carpet so spotless when walking in with the blood of your enemies dripping from the sword?
@@josephbicknell6522 my wife runs the most professional crew to clean up the mess after any mishap, haha.
Oh man that thing is sweet! 🤘💀
And I just bought a tinker gsow lol oh well... I'll have to save up for this one anyway. Instantly on top of my most wanted list as soon as I saw it. To bad the sharpness on yours was not up to snuff, the euro collectors curse strikes again. I'm sure it'll cut monstrously once you do.
Get well soon brother!
Thank you very much! The H/T GSOW is a sweet sword when sharpened! This one is awesome, too. So many unique features of Irish swords stand out. Hope they will hear my suggestion of potential improvement and make it an even better sword in the next batch!
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold yeah man heal up so we can see some cutting from that bad boy.lol
The h/t gsow is awesome! I can't wait for pumpkin season this year, something tells me it's gonna be a good one. Lol
The Gallowglass and Norse-gales always appealed to me because I sort of am one. I'm Scottish on my dad's side and Norwegian on my mom's side. Unless balaur/ lk Chen drop a sweet ass claymore or the new windlass/royal armouries collection comes out, (and it has that baskethilt Matt teased in it), before I can scrape together the cash then I'm planning on getting one of these.
Agreed with everything you said about the sidesword BTW, you might have seen Vic and Jon picked one up and it looks kinda weirdly proportioned. A bit of odd mash up for sure
I will fully heal before doing anything taxing. And you enjoy the imposing H/T Grete Swerde of War! Will be fun carving up those pumpkins! Just make sure to sharpen the edges as you know Hanwei's factory edges.
I do think this BA/LK Chen collab is going to be the best Gaelic war sword the reproduction market has to offer in a while!
As for the sidesword, there are odd combo bastard swords the market is conditioned to accept more willingly--the Albion Principe being one of the more prominent examples.
Excellent and very detailed video.. that beautiful swords a little bit out of my price range and I usually do more affordable weapon reviews like usually 300.00 or less usually more like $200 and less but anyways excellent video I'm still waiting on my ROM katana to come in so I can do my little review on it.
Thank you! Looking forward to your own review of the ROM katana!
Regarding the sidesword, I'll wait for Vic's review and comment more there. I don't like it, but now I know why the proportions are wrong. The side-port ring closes on the widest part of the blade, not in the ricasso just before the blade widens. So the finger-rings end up being too large, and all other proportions end up being bad. The bade is also too wide, about 5cm (from KoA website). Balaur Arms designed the sword, the fault lies with them, and LK Chen just respected their plans (from what he said in a comment on his channel). You are right that a type XIX is more common, but we see these diamond profile blades on these hilts in the period. See the Rapier of Charles the V as the most famous of them. Fencing manuscripts also show these type of blades being quite fashionable, and you are right that they took off later, mounted in more developed rapiers hilts.
Regarding the Gallowglass, Balaur Arms managed to reproduce the pieces housed in the National Museum of Archeology in Dublin. Bsed on the pictures I saw, it looks 1:1 with the original. I like S-quillons on swords, and I like ring-pommels, but swords like Albion's Kern are more inspired by than reproductions of originals. I actually don't like the Irish wings-like S-quillons, however, this is a personal preference and unlike the sidesword, this is a historical design done right. People that want an Irish sword should really consider this piece: this is the best one out there short of bespoke pieces.
Kane, if your back hurts, look at Thibault rapier. 😅Straight back, straight legs without bending the knees, small steps and no lounge. It looks like it's a style made for people that hurt their backs but refused to give up on fencing. 😂
Or you can rest and get well soon. 👍
I think they miscalculated the dimensions of the rings on the sidesword as this model design was inspired not by any historical original but a Christian Fletcher piece that put this style of hilt onto a Angus Trim type XVIII blade. The originals have the ring terminate to a type XIX blade, which is far narrower than the width of this type XVIII blade, think 40-42mm base width versus 55-60mm base width on the latter. So the rings suddenly feel overly large and bizarre looking. On the original Venetian pieces, the ricassos all have the same width as the base of the blade above the ring guard.
I like this Irish sword, given how many unique Irish traits have been implemented. But like you, I, too, find the quillons difficult to handle. But it's not the designer or manufacturer's fault, it's just how it is on the originals.
BTW I am indeed making progress in the past couple of days. Perhaps it will take less days to fully heal than I anticipated.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBoldYou are 100% right. I checked the Christian Fletcher piece on myarmoury. Btw, it's 13oz off in weight. Why would they do that? And with is 4.12cm vs 5... man that's bad. Not only that's rip-off, it's a bad one. 😂
Take it easy, and stay away from Bolognese full torso cuts and the like for a while. Just wait until you get back to 100%.👍
Thanks for the advice! I will be careful with the recovery this time.
👍
👍
You have refined taste when it comes to home decor.
Thanks! You must be talking about the swords.
Nice
Thanks!
I salute your spirit and work ethics, when you are injured badly you are still making videos.
Thanks, the show must go on!
I want one of these! Do you think they will sell out if I wait for tax season?
The 1st batch is already sold out. The 2nd batch will generally become available in 3 to 4 months. They probably will even make some improvements based on customer feedbacks.
Thanks! I can’t wait
It’ll be my first sword ⚔️
@notJEllis exciting!
Take your time to fully heal, some light exercise and stretching can help but hastily getting back to demanding activities would wipe out the progress you have made so far.
Thanks for the tips!
were there single edged versions of these Irish ring hilted swords? since they are typically cut specialised designs
Never say never but I haven't seen a single-edged blade on a hilt with Irish ring pommel. Interestingly enough, the new BA sidesword hilt does occasionally come with a single-edged straight blade with a false edge on the top portion of the spine. As far as I know, medieval Irish people liked straight double-edged blades.
You may already know this but sharing it anyway. Only single edged weapons Im aware of for Irish arms were the scians or "skeens* the Irish long knife.
Indeed skeans are single-edged Irish bladed implement. My brain immediately went to thinking about swords when he asked about Irish single-edged swords. But yeah skeans are single-edged daggers that can get pretty long even approaching shortsword length.
We live in modern times, I see why history ethicists prefer blades to be historically accurate but that only applies if you're making a replica from a particular time period. It's much more interesting to marry different things together from a design perspective than live in the past.
It's fine to come up with unique designs that take different aspects from swords (or weapons) from different time period and come up with a modern of fantasy design. I have reviewed some of these and I like them, too.
But a sword is designed from the beginning to end to be a reproduction of historical sword, its merits will be assessed by the faithfulness to the historical original that the reproduction maker ITSELF is claiming to represent.
Why do most people enjoy historical swords? Because swords are primarily a weapon that's more used in the past (not as common as today, but still relevant in certain scenarios), and the effectiveness only measured by its design in its original context because that's what they were designed for.
The blade length and grip length are actually very close to that of the federschwert that I use for HEMA.
Indeed. Federschwerts tend to have long blades for reach and long hilt, definitely more so than their live-bladed counterparts. Medieval longswords rarely have hilts longer than 11"--the mid-15th century longsword preserved at Bayerisches Nationalmuseum is a rare exception with a 12" (30 cm) hilt. Feder blades are very narrow but also thin, because they don't need the rigidity real longswords have, and the mass distribution makes them very light on the hits--hence "feather swords".
Historically a hilt 13" long usually indicates the sword is intended to be built as a two-handed one.
I just got a worksharp with attachment but have yet to try it on my swords. Is 5-10 passes really enough with fine grit to get my albions sharp? Sorry, new to sharpening and for now practicing on knives only.
5-10 passes of medium or fine grit on Albion swords seem to suffice most of the time as their edge geometry is great. You can practice on knives first, but just be aware, sharpening knives and sharpening swords are very different tasks. They geometries are so different that if you apply your experience with sharpening knives without modification to swords, you are going to end up mar the blade and not doing anything to the apex of the edge of a sword blade.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Thank you. Hope you get better. I will probably buy a cheaper one to practice sharpening on first. Any good advice on how to transition from knives to swords in the future?
@Stampianirrationalism you can get some sense of the basic functionality of Work Sharp by working on knives. Just be aware you need to be infinitely more familiar with sword blades’ edge angles before you can even start sharpening than working on knives. A sword blade also changes edge angle before it’s much more distally tapered. An angle that works on a section of the sword blade isn’t necessarily going to work a few inches down the blade. Work on a few cheaper ones first for sure. I recommend Hanwei sword blades to practice sharpening with. One, they are decent swords themselves, especially the Tinker line, so you don’t waste your money. Two, their edge geometries actually similar to higher end swords like Albion. Try not to practice on swords made blunt like Windlass, creating a big and jarring secondary bevel is very dissimilar to refining good edges found on swords like Albion and LK Chen’s.
What kind of belt suspension would you recommend?
For the 15th century, probably three-point suspension was the most popular. It would be a little awkward for this sword as it is too long to carry by the side.
Good sword to keep you fit.
Yes, I have many swords that are bigger and way heavier, and to use them effectively you will need some muscle.
That non-historic LK Chen sidesword looks a lot like a sharp of my Malleus Martialis Morazzo.
The hilt--like I said in the video--is very representative to Venetian swords circa 1500. The blade, however, is not like the historical Venetian swords at all, but it isn't like the Malleus Martialis one either. The MM Marozzo is 30mm at its widest. This BA one is almost twice as broad and has a far more pronounced profile taper.
The true Claymore--from the gaelic, claidheamh-mòr--Great Sword. The later basket-handled one-edged sword Highlanders used, and called by the same name, was a fine weapon, but not so impressive as this.
I'm not sure if this sword was called claidheamh-mòr in Ireland--certain was in Scotland. Some of the two-handed swords in Scotland had similar blades with full lenticular cross section sans fuller, but their hilts have very different styles than Irish ones.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Well, the Gallowglass were Irishmen of Scottish descent, in an era where the great majority of Irish spoke Gaelic as their first language (this was true right up to the 19th century, and the Great Famine that decimated the Irish-speaking areas most). Not exactly the same language as Scots Gaelic, but damned close, they could understand each other quite well, can to this day, those that still know Gaelic.
So seeing as it's a purely descriptive term, what would you expect them to call a big sword? Possible that to them there was no other weapon that even merited being called a sword, so they just called it claíomh.
It's basically the same weapon as the Highlander greatsword, with some minor differences. Related warrior cultures. If we don't have a separate term for it, odds are they called it the same, descriptively. Gallowglass Sword is hardly a term they'd have used. Too much of a mouthful.
Actually, do we know the Highlanders of that time period called them Claymores? We know they didn't wear kilts. Much of the terminology used is after the fact and romanticized. I mean, you have a big sword, you'll call it a big sword, and that's how you say big sword in gaelic. ;)
Yes, this is true. Calling two-handed swords claymore is more plausible. It's a term that got popular in the 17th century onward, but it was indeed used to describe both basket-hilted broadsword, and two-handed swords.
@@FortuneFavoursTheBold Well, they are both swords. And pretty great. I mean, Braveheart vs. Rob Roy. Who wants to take odds on that match-up? ;)
Indeed!
Oh! That is a wonderful sword.
I like Japanese swords, but I also like Western swords.
As a matter of fact, I think they are more destructive than Japanese swords. Instead, it is heavy and may be difficult to handle in a different sense from Japanese swords.
Less excuses and more videos! hope you get better though
Thank you for the understanding! I probably understated the severity of my injury in the video.
On the day when this injury suddenly hit, getting out of the bed felt like getting hit by a truck, and the pain overrode other senses that I could barely even see or hear anything for 10 seconds. It took me 5 minutes to even walk with great pain to the bathroom next to my bedroom. Could sit down, or lay down without tons of pain, so all I could do was just standing still all day long, which is kind of fatiguing.
After 10 days, I recovered maybe 25% of the range of motion so I thought it might be time to record my take on this Irish sword as so many people had asked me about it, and I saw no end in sight of my road to full recovery and the day I could finally sharpen this thing and then cut with it. I said in my recording that I would try to do minimal editing, but when I rendered the video I still inserted bunch of B-roll footage filmed earlier. Still nowhere from being ideal, but at least I can get this review out as soon as possible for this new offering. Sitting there 10 minutes at a time to review the footage and cut and edit the numerous B-rolls was just painful, but thankfully I managed.
I suffered multiple injuries in the past due to the intensity of my workout, but never had an injury this life-altering. Thanks for watching the review!
STRETCH OUT YOUR PSOAS!!!
Learning a painful lesson. Back in the days when I had a trainer, he always instructed me to do stretching before and after sets. It's been a mistake skipping that.
Your living room is most men's dream!
Thanks! Took many years to get here!
Hope you get better soon.
Thank you!