I wouldn’t use these swords to practice actual sword play… they have structural weak points. I would describe these as decorative. £329… yeah that’s not terrible for what you have
A very basic non sharp practice sword, like the one below, will set you back £210. If you factor in they are raising funds and there are extra details.
Maybe the arming swords are 100% functional, the hand and a half swords emperor tiers got? The state they look I’d be more concerned it’d snap in half if I actually hit something even semi solid. Fact is they look horrible, some seem quite rusted and on the verge of poorly made.
I can imagine that some swords were laying in warehouse for quite a long time - and as is well known, unless it is perfectly preserved swords tend to get rusty 
I would swet it too much and would look on some tutorial how to preserve sword, I guess some grinding off the rust, polishing and oiling the blade would help tremendeously.
@hunter: is yours in a bad shape comparable to mine? There have been some in this forum which look quite good. However, these are mostly the Collectors Edition swords I saw. The ones for the backers lack in quality imho.
No, it is not only rust. The black parts feel like something split off. It is not evenly shaped as the rest of the blade but has a little ditch. And so are all the black parts.
Have to say these pics look terrible, I came so close to backing a sword tier as well, phew 
Yikes. I haven’t received my sword yet, but I’m a little concerned. I wonder if this was by design to make it look “battle worn,” but I don’t know
Very unlikely.
I’d say mine looks fractionally better though these weird oily kinda marks are driving me mad.
And for some reason mine is numbered LXXXVI 
yet at the time there were only 50 emperor tiers available yet I’ve got number 86 so a little pissed off because mine should be below number 50 tbh.
Luckily mine only has one small spot of pitting, but I do have those oil marks too. I’m not sure how to remove them, as wiping it with a cloth doesn’t seem to have had much effect.
Here is my sword, and the black pit is clearly defined. I have no idea what this might do to the sword in the long term. Could make it more vulnerable to future corrosion perhaps?
Regardless - I am definitely disappointed in this sword.
Have you contacted them directly to complain?
Yep. All I got was “we’re sorry” basically.
Seriously? No explanation, offer of refund or replacement?
That is metal corrosion, it is not harmful to blade unless it evolves to a brown or red colouration.
It may not be aesthetically pleasing but you have nothing to worry if you give proper maintenance to the blade.
That’s a Thing many Just dont want to Hear: a sword is Work. Even If you’re Not actively using it, it needs oiling from time to time. Especially when touching the Blade.
Yes seriously, this is their reply
"We are very sorry about the black spot.
Best regards
(name)"
It must have been completely neglected in storage for a long time, with little maintenance. Otherwise, not sure why the blacksmith would be happy with this result.
these black spots do not look line pitting from rusting to me. Pitting takes TIME. They pool like forging toolmarks. The black surface that is created by forging.
Swordsa and knives after forging are filed and ground to final shape. If there is a small sput, that is deeper than the rest of the blade, the only way to remove it entirely, would be to completely grind down the whole surface to the depth level. Which is a very time consuming thing to do and thus very costly.
Pretty much all hand forged tools have these karks to varying degrees. Many hand forged swords as well. It stands to reason, that utilitarian swords ‘back then’, the plain and affordable ones for soldiers etc., also were not ground and polished to perfection.
Someone noted the guard and pommel being obviously hand forged, buy the look of them. But the person thought so, because they had a rough surface. In reality, that is an artificially aged surface done with acid.
In total, when backing the game with, say, 300 euros, it should be clear that one would not receive a 300 euro value sword. The package would be the 60 euro game, other trinkets at certain costs, and of what money is left, some is the actual pledge to help develop this game.
There are several sword smiths in czech republic, and many do a good job. for the price point these were likely to be, you’d expect a sword that looks okay, as these seem to do, but you CANNOT expect a top notch presentation piece. some visual flaws, kinks etc. are to be expected.
Now as per real or not…the swords seem to have a decidedly blunt edge. one that wouldn’t be easily removed without regrinding the whole blade.
As this is an international thing, I am certain, that it is done so as to pass most countries’ laws, to be able to deliver the majority of swords to their owners legally. Or ‘maybe’ VERY ‘MAYBE’, they were at some point conceived as stage or reenactment fencing weapons. One would need to ask. Don’t do anything stupid.
As per the oily finish…garious greasy dirty hands in manufacturing handling the blade are likely to leave a bit of an interesting surface. Its nice if it’s taken care of by the maker, but again, price point. A very very fine steel wool treatment would get rid of it easily. Of the light surface rust as well. In super hard cases, very very fine grit wet sand paper can help.
a period way is to put some very fine mineral powder (brickdust, stone meal, pumice stone, jewellers rough…) on a leather strap with some oil, and polish it off.
The rust seems to be from storage. I recall the swords being in production for quiiite some time as per WH videos. It is entirely possibly, that the swordswere put into their presentation boxes a while afterwards by some people doing a cheaply paid packing job, wiping off dust off the swords, putting them in the boxes thus handling them, and not knowing or caring enough to carefully grease them up again. and then, during further storage and transport, rust develops.
That’s sad and unneccessary. But shouldn’t be irreversible. As faar as I am concerned, sword ownership is a synonym por a special kind of masochism, cleaning polishing and oiling the same thing over and over for the rest of your life.
You should be lucky, though, you’re not into Musketry. The gunpowder residues on those are actively attracting moisture, converting to acid on their own, and fuck up every metal. And after 3 days in damp weather, blasting through pounds of powder and heavy handling, the real life heir to some 18th C. Landgrave is about to visit a parade, so have fun polishing all metal to mirror bright with period methods only derp
Hashtag #my life sucks 
erm edit for the rust likely from handling whilst boxing…: at that point someone should’ve been put there to finally inspect each piece again before going into a box, applying a HEAVY layer of very hard and strong grease to each sword, ideally wrapping it in oil paper, before putting it into the box. That’s how machine parts are reserved, as shipping often involves humidity, temperatur and pressure changes, very likely to cause moisture from condensing on the goods.
Sure would take away some of the beauty from how the sword is presented in the box, but utilitarian.
