With today's post we bring you into the shop and check out our development of a new item, a Type XVIIIc sword from the group of swords that were inscribe as trophies of war or tribute by the Mamluk rulers of Alexandria, Egypt in the first part of the 15th century. They were later moved, probably as tribute, to the Sultan's armory and later Museum in Istanbul. Today there are several of these swords in museums in Europe and the US.
Original sword on display at the Royal Armouries Leeds.
After many requests from customers for reproductions of some of these swords we choose one to add to our stock swords. The piece we choose is now the property of the Leeds Castle Foundation and is on display at the Royal Armouries in Leeds, UK.
Alexandria Swords
These magnificent swords are identified by broad long type XVIIIc blades and are some of the largest examples of these to have survived. The majority of the swords have simple wheel pommels and straight guards. Our rendition will be to similar specs as the original and done with a wooden cored grip covered with a stitched leather covering. The pieces today have slab grips that are riveted through the tang but there is a high probability this was done at a later date when they were on display.
Original swords displayed in Istanbul.
The piece we are producing has a classic beveled wheel pommel of slightly ovoid shape. The guard is hexagonal in cross section with two very short facets on the outer faces. the tips of the guard arms are slightly turned towards the point of the sword.
This piece is a large sword but moves well in the hands and has a great ability to cut. Check out the videos of Philip Martin working with a prototype of our sword.
Preview
Several styles of cutting
There will be some slight adjustments to the dynamics of this sword for the stock version. One being the blade will be a cm or so shorter as the published specs on this sword had two different dimensions for the blade length and we did not catch the discrepancy until after the prototype was done and we were double checking everything. One of the hazards of working from published details as opposed to working with dimensions measured oneself. This happens quite a bit when you really dig into references so always look at things with a grain of salt when researching such things.
Our production model will have a slightly modified blade cross section from the one in Philip's video. This will result in the shorter blade and be slightly stiffer than the prototype. The rest should be very close and all will be quite close to the original to the point one would hopefully not notice much difference if blindfolded and allowed to handle each.
We had planned to release this sword at the beginning of April, but we have run into a few slow downs with the Covid situation. We are working around those and will be pushing this along as quickly as is possible and plan to have this sword on the web page soon.
Thank you to Phillip for putting his talents into giving us feedback and critique of our new sword and making it a better piece. Check out his YouTube Channel here Aikidoka for some great examples of cutting. Read his review of the sword here.