A poorman's longsword?

[Stacy Clifford]

We have had John and Jonathan Waller as guests at ARMA events I have been to in the past, and I do not recall them being excessively gentle in the way they used their swords. Perhaps not quite as vigorous as we use them in ARMA, but certainly not slo-mo. On the other hand, I also seem to recall they were using either wasters or steel when demonstrating for us too, not aluminum. I've worked with aluminum as a material before and it is definitely pretty easy to scratch and dent. I don't think it would stay pretty for more than an hour using it the same way we use steel, much less 20 years. I would rather just stick with steel for durability and realistic weight and performance. Less worries that way.

[Mars Healey]

There is nothing wrong with Aluminium as long, as with most kit, you have good stuff.
The key is to have the right kind of aluminium with the right kind of hilt, it then wieghs and balances right. Then they don't saw or chipped edges. Obviously don't use them against other materials.
We have some that are still good after best part of 20 years.

However its all about personal taste and what others in your training group use, no point in having the perfect if no one else does and they don't want to change!

Best
Jonathan

I find this statement hard to believe. I'm not sure if I understand how the weight and balance of a sword makes the softer metal of aluminum become less prone to saw edging and chipping. In my experience, aluminum swords are great if you are gentle and do not fight with any intent, but put to the test, the edges are just too soft and don't hold up to any realistic sparring. All I can think of is that, if you still have swords in good condition after 20 years, they must have seen some pretty slow and gentle use.

Ken

I use the SwordCrafts aluminum sword. I swing with intent against other aluminum swords, also made by SwordCrafts. They do not dent or scratch. The edges are rounded and don't bite into each other. The weight and balance on the swords are excellent. I've been using mine every week at class since March of 2007 and there are no appreciable marks on it. We have two older aluminums at the school that have squared-off edges and they are a mess; scratched and jagged. I will not spar with my blade against them. All-together, including school blades and personal ones, there are 6 of the SwordCrafts longsword in constant use at our classes. They are very well made blade.

I'll be at class tonight and will take pictures of the two different blade types side-by-side, flats and edges.

[Mars Healey]

I took some side-by-side pictures of the blades we use at our school. The older blades are made by Valentine Armory and the newer blades are by Swordcrafts.com. You can see how well the Swordcrafts blade stands up to constant use.

Click here to see the pictures.

[Jonathan Waller]

Well the Aluminium swords have taken pretty hard use. If you have the correct aluminium and the swords are made properly then they work well. I know that with the wrong type of Aluminium they are useless and if made less well, as was mentioned with with square as opposed to rounded edges they will get more damage.

So I am sure that people have used bad Aluminium swords as much as there are plenty of bad steel swords out there too, that are too heavy and get saw edged very quickly etc.. There are good ones and bad as with wasters, etc.

However we should be careful about discarding something out of hand just because poor examples have been encountered.

Best