So I bought the collectors edition (The one with the sword) And in a video update Warhorse said it was going to be engraved. However, my sword and all others I’ve seen videos of aren’t. What’s up with this? Did they mention something about that but I misseded it?
yeah a lot of people didnt get the engravement
even medeival review on youtube showed that on his review of the sword
I cannot imagine anyone actually expected getting a legitimate sword as a backer perk. If you want a good sword on a budget order one of the Albion Squire Line weapons. You can learn to re wrap the grip yourself (its not very difficult) and have something very special.
Very few replicas have the proper heat treatment, lenticular cross section and distal taper, or independently peened guard* and hot peened pommel to be worthy of the name ‘sword’. Albion is the only production outfit that i trust to deliver the real deal and for around $475-$600 U.S. (+$25 for sharpening) the four squire line swords are the best available, though you will be waiting about a year after ordering to get your sword.
*the hilt furniture on the backer sword is (as far as i know) compression peened. This is common in mid level production swords but is not something you want if you can afford better. Compression built components are known to come loose over time. This type of construction is fine if youre just going to hang the piece up and look at it, but If you intend to treat your sword like a sword and actually cut with it this isnt the way to go. The guard and pommel on albion swords, including the squire line offerings, are independently peened and the grip is put on last, this is by far the better method of construction.
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Yeah, I saw that. I’m just disappointed warhorse didn’t go through with what they said. Do you know of anyone that did get the engraving?
I’m aware of what’s a good quality sword and what’s not, I have 13 ranging from wallhangers to HEMA swords to buhurt swords, all from different makers. The KCD sword isn’t meant to be a functional sword. While it is properly constructed, it’s meant to be a decorational piece while still being a real sword. I’m fine with this consediring it’s in a package and done to support and promote a video game, It’s just that Warhorse said it would be engraved , which it’s not. They’re also not replying about it on twitter despite the fact that they’re frequently active and responding to things. It’s just annoying to not get what I paid for.
Yeah, i inderstand. Warhorse shouldnt have advertised something they couldnt deliver, they should have done a bit more research. My understanding is that the package that came with the sword was around $500 u.s., assuming they spent even just half of that on the game that leaves only 250 for a sword. Thats about what you pay for a cheap bottom of the line piece. Given that kind of budget they likely had to choose between cheap laser etching which would have looked like it was painted on or a cheaper version a “peened” compression construction. Had they not been able to say it was peened they would have gotten much more criticism.
My reply was more or less a bit of advice for any beginner sword collectors. I wish that when i started collecting around 15 years ago somebody would have really explained things to me so i could have avoided countless swordlike pieces of junk. Saving up that little bit extra and enduring the wait for a cheaper albion will lead to far less disappointment, and if for some crazy reason anyone does have a problem Mike the customer service guy is awsome to work with.
I used to have piles of garbage “swords” del tins, cold steel, hanwie, windlass, wulflund ect, but now i only have albions, and they cut extremely well. As a matter if fact i have museum line tritonia, a massive true type XIIIb shield cracker, due to be finished in a couple months. Luckily for me i only live about 45 minutes away from their shop so i can skip the shipping cost and pick up the swords myself.
I question any “sword” with a compression fit hilt or that is simply advertised as “peened”. Many have a softer piece of steel welded to the end of the tang which makes it much easier to hammer a compression fit. its a gimmick used to get away with using the word peened and is meant to trick people into thinking theyre getting something historically correct but any compression fit hilt comes loose just as easy as something built with a nut.
Its nice to meet a fellow collector. Be well, sir.
A copression fit, i.e. peening the pommel to clamp everything else together, is historical, though. Not every single sword was a masterpiece made for a king. And any loseness in the swords handle would be almost certain to very gradually develop. And a sword seeing real use ‘back then’ would see the edge damages, chipped and blunted rather quickly, swiftly requiring maintenance, and repeening the pommel to tighten up the whole thing again sounds like a common practice.
I know, for example. modern shooters often complain about flintlock guns either not sparking that well alltogether, OR sparking very well, but quickly sparking less and less. Modern users very often expect infinite durability. Many things ‘back then’ were not meant to last forever and were well understood to require maintenance. Like the flintlock guns mentioned, which spark best with some sorts of steel and heat treatment, but wear of comparatively quickly. But with a skilled armourer or gunsmith every other village, rehardening the steel was not an issue.
At any rate, I did not know what smith was going to make the KC:D swords, otherwise I would have upped my pledge to sword tier. But I just don’t trust any supplier of anything anymore.
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The sword came from Arma Epona and it’s called Rosenberg or something on those lines for $310 which will have certainly been done on a bulk buy deal. It’s really nothing special and no modifications from the model they sell have been made.
The cross guard on albion swords is independantly peened to the blade. The grip itself is two pieces of wood (ash, i think), wrapped in leather. You can strip the wrap and pop off the wooden scales for replacement or repair and the pommel and cross do not come loose. This rock solid construction method is way more durable than any compression build and is also historically accurate (as far as i know they are the only production maker that goes the extra mile to use this method of construction, and the only production maker that uses historically accurate taper and cross section), though the grip pieces are affixed with a strong apoxy instead of hide glue, but i forgive this because even though they are the top tier of production swords and individually hand built they are still production swords, and i like that the epoxy is alot stronger and not water soluble.
Well, Albion certainly have a reputation, but they are pricey, for twhat they are: CNC machined stock removal swords.
As per production, well possibly they are the best off-the-rack production swords. But I believe the Backer swords were a collaboration with a single sword smith and WH, not a production company?
There are numerous smiths at various price points out there, and decent distal taper etc. are found in several makers swords.
Overall, there are more ways to make a sword than one, and several historically correct ones. My forté is the 1770s, and undoubtedly a golden tapered touchhole liner and gold inlaid raised lip semi-waterproof flash pan, rifled barrels and set triggers make for the best flintlock gun. But still most were straight drilled unlined touchholes, simple pans and triggers. 
Now that you mention the 1700s, i am remembering that i do still have a cheap cold steel 1796 light cav saber somewhere, i wish someone would make an accurate version of those (and the heavy cav pattern too for that matter). I have been contemplating buying an original.
While albion blades are cnc machined from machine forged blanks they have a great heat treatment and the hardness of the steel is period accurate, this is a pro or a con depending on perspective. The time and cost saved on using a cnc machine instead of hand hammering to achive the initial proportions of their blades allows for their swords to be individually tempered by hand, ground to the final shape by hand, polished by hand and for all of the hilt components to be hand fitted. If the blades were hand hammered youd wait way more than a year and pay many more thousands, and its worth mentioning that hand forged steel has a much higher likelihood of having imperfections than modern machine forged steel.
Honestly no one really cares to spend upwards of 600 dollars capping at around 4000 on a sword
If you want a halfway decent reproduction, so in medival terms not a nobles weapon then you cant go too wrong with windlass, kingston arms etc hell even wulflund isnt too bad
Wulflund is the company that was commissioned to make these backer swords
Anyways from their specs the backer sword dosent sound too bad
And lastly the albion squire grips arent that bad at least the 15th century longsword
https://www.albion-swords.com/swords-functional.htm
https://www.albion-swords.com/swords-recreated.htm
The first link above describes in detail the the different methods of modern sword construction. The second link describes the research albion puts into their swords. Every collector should know what theyre buying.
Plenty of people want a proper sword and are willing to pay for them. For most people something that simply looks like pictures of swords theyve seen on tv is good enough, they get some joy out of it and usually do not care or have no idea how inaccurate their “sword” is. However some of us move on to more refined tastes.
The point of my original reply was to let beginers or those without the budget for the more expensive models know that albion makes a few affordable swords with the same blades and proper construction method* (the squire line viking pommel is accurate to later medieval standards but viking age original pommels were made in 2 pieces. The lower piece was hot peened to the blade tang and the cap piece was hot peened to the first piece. Albions more expensive viking swords use the accurate 2 piece pommel) as their much more expensive offerings. They can do this by skipping some of the the hand grinding and polishing as well as by using a much simpler grip wrap. You can easily learn to re wrap the grip yourself to look every bit as good as any of albions other swords and have something very nice that you helped make for the price of a lower mid level sword. Thats something i wish i would have known many years ago.
Below is a link to a page that teaches how to wrap a leather sword grip. I recommend practicing a few times by wrapping a hammer handle or some such before working on the actual sword. I dont suggest removing the wrap of any compression fit “sword” because the leather often wraps around the butt of the grip core and is also under compression so removing it will loosen the hilt.
http://www.yeoldegaffers.com/project_grip_2.asp
The way albion assembles their swords is the way it was done with real weapons in the middle ages and they have a lifetime warranty against any defect, this includes anything becoming loose, as this should never happen with one of their swords. After owning their first albion, many collectors will settle for nothing less.
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Ah in that case i totally agree
But while albion does indeed make their swords in the way high end medieval swords were
There must have been other ways that chaper swords would have been constructed
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indeed. Many diffrent techniques existed in parallel.
I kinda would want to see WH’s next game be 1600ish around my town, a wealthy small port in northern germany…but I don’t think matchlock muskets are good ideas for backer rewards 
I had the honour of disassembling and analyzing a few of the original town guards matchlock muskets. and they were functional still after 400 years. But the level of finish especially in areas normally unseen, would drive backers up the wall, if they were reproduced faithfully… 