MRL Deal of the day

[Dailir]

That last deal is very tempting. Spend $369 on the sword get another sword free. If only I had the cash...

[Peter Remling]

There are several companies running Hanwei/Tinks, check this one out :

http://forum.sword-buyers-guide.com/vie ... f=3&t=2588

[Duathen]

KoA is running great deals on their Hanwei/Tinkers too: http://www.kultofathena.com/sale.asp

I really should get another training blunt, but it's hard to resist the call of the norman sharp.

Though with all these Hanwei/Tinker deals across the board I have to wonder if their new versions are about to hit shelves.

[Peter Remling]

KoA is running great deals on their Hanwei/Tinkers too: http://www.kultofathena.com/sale.asp

I really should get another training blunt, but it's hard to resist the call of the norman sharp.

Though with all these Hanwei/Tinker deals across the board I have to wonder if their new versions are about to hit shelves.

By the comments from the vendors these are new shipments. Looks like Hanwei decided to increase volume and offer a great deal to the vendors, who are across the board, offering their customers a great deal.

I too, like the Norman sharp. I had a EMSH but didn't do anything for me so I sold it a year ago.

[Mirimaran]

Very interested in this as well, and will probably get the blunt, but how sharp is the sharp?

[Eric C]

If ONLY I had teh extra money at the moment. I'd love to pick up the Norman or the Viking sword.

[Duathen]

Very interested in this as well, and will probably get the blunt, but how sharp is the sharp?

Unfortunately I've only handled the blunt - which is a nice piece. Unlinke most of the other Hanwei Tinker stuff the norman and the viking are peened, so you don't have to worry about the nut coming loose. A few minutes taking the square edges off the blunt and rounding off the tip with a dremel and the blunt is safe for practice.

According to this review, the edge of the sharp is fairly dull: http://sbgswordforum.proboards.com/inde ... read=11826

[Peter Remling]

Very interested in this as well, and will probably get the blunt, but how sharp is the sharp?

There have been several comments on the sharpness of the Hanwei/Tinkers. When you some them all up the results show some good, some poor and most fair. There appears to be little QC on the edge sharpness, all other aspects of the QC are said to be good. They are said to be very easily touched up to a fine sharpness.

Mine didn't require any sharpening.

[Mirimaran]

My concern is carrying it at Faire, always very wary about carrying around a sharp.

[Greg]

My concern is carrying it at Faire, always very wary about carrying around a sharp.

I zip-tie mine into the scabbard before I even arrive. Most Faires I've been to supplied them anyway, but I don't take chances like that. I just secure everything in advance. At the LA Faire, brandishing ANY kind of weapon is grounds for expulsion for everyone except the hired demonstrators, so even if you buy something at the Faire, you can't pull it out once you leave the booth.

[Mirimaran]

We do that as well, Greg, but sometimes you can't really control what a drunk will do, as one tried to pull a claymore off my wife's back once, and another time a guy walked right up to her and pulled a sword from her scabbard before we knew what was going on. That is my biggest fear at Faire, and why we are so against Faire selling alcohol. Drunks and sharp pointy objects do not mix. Our local Faire is 25 acres and that's alot of ground for a couple of cops to patrol.

[Greg]

We do that as well, Greg, but sometimes you can't really control what a drunk will do, as one tried to pull a claymore off my wife's back once, and another time a guy walked right up to her and pulled a sword from her scabbard before we knew what was going on. That is my biggest fear at Faire, and why we are so against Faire selling alcohol. Drunks and sharp pointy objects do not mix. Our local Faire is 25 acres and that's alot of ground for a couple of cops to patrol.

Yeah there are some crazy people out there. At the Halloween Event I went to this last year, I had my sharps zip-tied in and one kid ran up and tried to pull it and it wouldn't come out. By that time I'd grabbed his shoulder (I knew him personally) and, in character, gave him a nice Aragorn in the Prancing Pony-esque lecture. It was funny...but the sword never came out.

Actually, it was David's little brother, to make a connection.

[Eric C]

A couple of years back at a halloween event at our church, a very unruly kid kept asking me to let him hold my blunt MRL Gladuis. I don't trust the kid even though his father allows him to carry guns into the woods. So I kept telling him no. Next thing I knew, he came up behind me and drew the sword and brandished it in my face, threatening me with it. I very forcefully told him to put it back. He continued to threaten and I continued to order him to put it back. Finally he got the message and gave it back to me. Later his mother told me she saw the whole thing and appreciated the way I handled it, "Forceful but respectful." Actually I had no intention of being respectful. I intended to be intimidating.

[Dailir]

Quite the stories here. Note to self, don't have a sword unsecured/not ziptied in public.

[E.MacKermak]

Most of the conventions I attend require a "peace bond". I do it at all events (cons, fairs, SCA events) out of habit now. I have heard too many stories like the ones posted above.

As for the sharpness of the blades, the sites I looked at said they were a basic sharp, but could easily be brought to a razor's edge.