SZCO Supplies 40.5” Hand Forged Carbon Steel Rustic Broad Sword with Leather Wrapped Handle, Black/Brown (901132)

In my quest for a training longsword, I happened upon this sword. For HEMA practitioners, and students learning the European Martial Arms Arts, particularly the Western European Longsword: consider this humble, inexpensive, high-carbon, full-tang longsword. If you are seeking a decent practical practice-longsword and are discouraged by the high costs of wooden, polypropylene, and high carbon steel federshwert practice swords; then check this rustic broadsword out. Under $40.00 (less than most poly-pro, or wooden practice swords), and certainly less than expensive HEMA -qualified federschwerts (at usually over $225.00), this baby rocks! It is durable: actual high carbon steel, basically unsharpened upon arrival (you can further blunt or hone it if need be), and heavy at around 4 pounds. You'll locate the POB (point of balance) about 6-inches north of the cross guard. Yes, it is a bit blade-heavy, and yes, it is heavy in general for a longsword: however, this is all perfect for training! The extra weight will help you greatly in stamina and strength, as, after training with this sword an actual longsword (around 3-pounds+) feels like a feather! The high carbon steel blade is 32-inches long. From pommel to cross guard is a tad under 8-inches. The pommel and cross guard are steel (not a wooden pommel, as one reviewer commented): and the wooden over-steel handle is wrapped in strip-leather, which is actual bovine-leather (not faux-leather, as another reviewer commented). In many of the historical MS. (manuscripts) left to posterity by the likes of Fiore dei Liberi, Hans Tolhoffer, Johannes Liechtenauer, and others; there is advocacy for training with real swords. Some even advocate training with actual sharpened swords. I can see the wisdom in that; as you're not likely to make the same mistakes twice (perchance because you've lost a finger or an eye). Since I don't actually want to kill my training partner, I won't train with sharpened swords, but actual swords, yes! There is a vast selection of real steel training swords, dulled, and combat ready. However, you will find these swords cost every bit as much as their actual real sword counterparts, if not more! This rugged broadsword is my solution, and I believe I chose well. Even though I take the advice of many old school fight book master's as per training with actual swords: I also strongly advocate all the safety-equipment needed. HEMA gloves: or padded, thick leather gauntlets; as well as a fencing helmet, chest, and arm protection, too. Motto: Real Training-Real Safety! For those who would say to NEVER train with actual swords for safety fears; I suggest enrolling in Badminton, or Crocheting, rather than fencing. This is a martial art form, and in my opinion, this sword is a perfect trainer. Buyers: please note that this is a high carbon sword, and as such it requires maintenance like all good real swords. This entails keeping the sword dry and moisture free. When not in use a light coating of oil should be applied. Even motor oil will work, but there are many oil products made especially for swords, knives, and plate armor. For the more experienced swordsman and swordswoman; this inexpensive sword has a high potential for customization! If you want a sword to customize, and are terrified of destroying a $250.00 mid-line sword: this baby has a lot of potential in that area! So fence on, warriors! Get the feel of real steel!

Great sword . Heavy , beautiful, sharp and dangerous. When I say heavy it’s very heavy some will have trouble swinging it with one hand until you get use to the weight. That said the weight is well balanced with a heavy pummel. It’s a full steel sword from tip to pummel. Very strong and well made. Ready to slay the invaders or destroy dragons out of the box . Handle grip is wrapped with crap leather …but it’s an easy enough task to wrap it in better leather. Not an issue for me. It’s a damn good sword . For this price I expected junk but this is a real deal battle sword that would chop a tree down if you wanted to and would easily cleave a head from the body of a villain or dragon . I’m Looking for a scabbard for the sword because it’s a very sharp sword and dangerous when carrying in a simple “frog” holster over your shoulder, on your back or at your side. Trip over this thing and you’ll lose a toe or two. Blunder into a friend with this thing dangling from your belt with the blade exposed is almost certainly gonna result in a trip to the hospital for stitches . It comes packed in stinking dirty smelly gross packing grease … be careful not to ruin your clothing, carpet , sofa or your wife’s favorite table cloth . Open it outside and wipe it off with paper towels. Grease wipes right of and smell is gone in an instant once the grimy grease is cleaned off. This is a real sword not a toy. It’s deadly out of the box .

For the price its more quality than I expected. The edges were ground quickly and need to be cleaned up, not a problem, same with the handle, needed some clean up work. But the whole thing is solid and looks overall good for the price im happy. The only thing that im not so happy about is how it was advertised as an American product and on the box it says "made in Pakistan " so.... there's that.

I just spent about 2 hours putting this through a beating chopping on logs and its still good a slight bend in the blade but a have equipment to get it out. Incredible for the price and im pretty confident taking it to spar

I love love LOVE this. Had no idea nor interest in any swords. One day Amazon suggested this. At first I balked, then saw a cheap, steel sword for forty bucks delivered. Heck why not? Might have some fun with it. Let me practice some things with out worries. Out of the box, it's OK but really dull (which might be a good thing) and the handle is really thick & clunky. A few minutes with the belt sander - sand a little, swing it around, sand a little more, swing it around- and I have a handle that's perfect for me. So I'm glad it's bulky, it leaves enough meat so you can take it down to your personal preference. The wrap was also not very good. I bought a spool of leather lace & wrapped it just like a bowstring (called whipping) and I'm very happy, looks good with great grip. And lastly, I decided to put a sharp edge on it. It is now wicked sharp. I don't know if it will stay that way, I don't care, I'm not intending to get into any sword fights. I like it for 2 reasons, it is cool to look at, especially after making a display for it, and 2) it's next to my bed, so if anything goes bump in the night, or I have any uninvited visitors, they'll be greeted with the sharp end. All in all, the amount of grins I've gotten out of this make it a very good deal in my book. Highly recommend. Thanks.

Weight is optimized for hewing, the staple of swords of this type. The overall length relative to grip length define it as hand-and-a-half. The weight as-is, combined with the grips, mean this will be impossible to safely swing without modifications to the grip geometry - remove them entirely and affix your own(properly). I used paracord until I get around to shaping my own in the future. At $30 I didn't care if I would end up hanging it on a wall. After taking it out of the box I immediately realized that it was hefty and made of good metal. I was doubtful I would be getting good carbon steel, but after attempts to bend and some light taps on the blade, the harmonics leave no doubt - high-carbon spring steel, and a good template to work with. If you have the knowledge and/or tools to cut two fullers into the blade terminated at mid-length, this would feel more proper in the hands. The grip I should note is the first thing I removed - clearly it's designed for decoration, but what a waste of a good sword... I scuffed at and sanded down the paint on the center of blade, made little progress, and called it for the night. Power tools would make short work of it and with some patience and YT videos I am certain you can buff out a shine that will astound you. I will also add that I believe the paint is added as a protectant to the raw piece of metal this sword is clearly forged from. You can see various imperfections from the process embedded underneath the paint; the paint isn't just arbitrarily thicker in some spots it is actually the true features of the steel. That said, again with the right stuff you could concave grind the center of the blade for lightening and to rid it of the remaining imperfections. Now should you swing this at another person, even just playing around or in a professional setting? Maybe after you've modified it and vetted it as safe to use as a sword. As-is, you will not get a proper swing-worthy grip - ever - unless you're willing to do some work on this, and as for the blade... it's a piece of steel with labor hours worth of cost tacked onto it. So you're paying for cheap labor and almost scrap metal that is a fully-functional but not battle-ready sword.

This thing is AMAZING. For only $37 when I bought it I thought it would be cheap and worthless. Maybe cool to look at but that's it. Let me tell you, I LOVE this sword. It's heavy, sturdy, well crafted, and looks great. It's not sharp for obvious reasons. But, you can sharpen it it you want.

Great product, especially good for the price

Lots of character for a low price. Seems pretty solid, and the blade is clearly hand forged and has a lovely natural and bonafide patina. Comes semi-sharp, but it's quite easy to put a better edge on it, if needed. The wooden knob at the end of the handle is flat sided on both sides, so it's easy to add a pin or crest or whatever. I've got a couple of old tarnished coins that I'll epoxy on, and I think it will look great. It's a nose-heavy sword and would be tiring to swing around all day, but its heft means it isn't a toy. It comes wrapped in a plastic bag inside a cheap cardboard box, without any styrofoam to keep it from banging around, so if this is a gift, you'll want to package it better. Anyway, lots of fun and I'm very happy with it.

Ordered this for a costume party for my husband and didn’t read the materials.. it’s actually a heavy metal sword! It’s really nicely made and even a bit sharp, he absolutely loved it. It would be nice if it came with a scabbard but for the price it’s a great buy.

I ordered this sword as part of a costume for a renaissance fair. Initially I was skeptical that it would be of any quality, but was rather surprised when it arrived. The sword actually looks really good! I found the handle was a little chunky, so I removed the nails holding the leather wrap on, and used an angle grinder with flap discs to sand down the handle. The sword is a full tang handle and the cross guard and pommel and both welded on, but not in a way that can be seen with the handle on. the two wooden scales under the leather wrap are some sort of hard wood, and the flap disc didnt bite in like it would to a soft wood. After thinning the handle I opted to use contact cement to remount the leather, getting rid of the look of the nails, which I like more. The blade comes unsharpened, and I have no idea what sort of heat treat it has had, but a file did skate more than bite in when I was reprofiling the tip. Speaking of, while the balde isnt sharpened, the spear point tip is still sharp enough to skewer someone accidentally, so I rounded that ever so slightly as to not injure people at the RenFair. Overall, if you are looking for a cosplay/renfair piece, or just something to hang on your wall, I think you'll be very happy with this sword, just keep in mind it is carbon steel and must be oiled to avoid tarnishing.

Not bad. Not bad at all. Having bought the great medieval sword a little while ago and being disappointed, I thought I'd give this one a try. I am rather please with it, particularly when it comes to solo, drill practice. There is a good weight to it and the blade doesn't flex and wobble if you do a windmill strike with it. From the bottom of the guard to the pommel is only 8inches in length, only about 1 inch shorter than Cold Steel's Hand-and-a-half training sword. If it had been the same, this sword would be a bit more comfortable to use. But it's okay and for the price, it's great. The overall look of the sword is fine, rustic and worn. Some of the other reviews have been a bit to hard on this sword for bad workmanship. Yes, the sword is a bit rough and things may not line up and the blade my not be perfectly straight, but it is also a $40 sword that is meant to look worn and used and battle weary. That is exactly what it looks like, old and rustic. The handle is wrapped in faux leather but I don't think it's going to hold up to continual use, pretty light fabric to say the least. As a wall hanger it's fine, but if you're planning on actually using the sword then you'll need to figure something else out when the time comes. Overall, I'm happy with it and it will be a great addition to the workout.

perfect quality for $60, exactly what I expected from a "rustic medieval steel sword". only problem was the tip of the blade was poking out of the packaging a little bit, so maybe a better tip-guard in packaging would prevent that. otherwise excellent!