I appreciate that!

I think you figured out one of my mysteries: My KA sidesword and katzbalger have very keen, no-secondary-bevel edges, and the sidesword looks very much like the older Hanwei model, while the katzbalger was sold under Dragon King. So the Hanwei hand-me-down theory makes a lot of sense. My version of this XIV has a much beefier blade and came with awful blunt secondary bevels--definitely seems like a product made by someone else entirely, and fit-and-finish seem to be all over the place.

@@michaelrizzo5523 I think Kingston Arms/Dragon King is a subsidiary or side branch of Hanwei. They seem to be in good relationship. Why did they need to create two new labels for some of their swords? Nobody seems to know. Maybe somebody's son needs to be in charge of something on his own, but wouldn't mind the daddy gives him a hand.

True that it wasn't uncommon at the time but our standards are much different today than back in the day. We have much more sophisticated machinery it's not hard to make a tight fitting guard. Getting a small gap between the blade and guard is still hard and i don't expect that under 1k$ but hammering the guard on the tang is not hard. Just make the hole slightly smaller and hammer it on and it wont ever come loose.

@@Ren-lx8wv but some companies are making replicas of originals, and it would be inaccurate to make a more tighter fitting guard. So who is more correct, the current market demand, or the historical examples? As a maker myself and studier of historical blades, I often ask what the purpose and intent of modern blades are.

@@chrisfields8077 expensive swords back in historical times were most often fitted correctly as they were made to fit together. Although most swords were effectively mass produced one person just made hundreds of blades then another made hundreds of guards etc. And the would all just be slapped together. Some would fit perfectly some would rattle like crazy but that was normal at the time. But that doesn't change the fact that that's not ideal. They were just easier to make that way back then. Although custom order quality swords even back then were put together well. With technological advancements its not unfair to expect every modern sword to be made to replicate the best swords of the time. Especially since our steel quality and tempering is much better and more consistent. Why shouldn't fit and finish be expected to follow the same trend.

@@Ren-lx8wv actually that's not true. Some of the most expensive swords we know of, attributed to kings and princes' often have pretty badly fit guards from our modern perspective. The reality is, that wasn't a concern for them. Because it doesn't really matter if the piece can be repeened and tightened up.

@@chrisfields8077 still if we have better steel why not strive for better fit when its very easy for is compared to back in the day. Better fit results in a safer and more structurally sound piece. Plus aside from a very few pieces like albions museum line. most swords are not reproductions of any specific Pieces. Many items made back in the day were honestly horrendous bad fit crooked pommels uneven grinds. would you be willing to pay 1500$ for that just because its "historically accurate". I doubt it you expect the best quality possible while following the same constriction as the originals.

Part of it is the timeline for it getting loose. From what I understand, this sword has not seen a lot of use. I know I didn't do a lot of cutting with it, and I'm pretty sure over at Unsheathed Sword Reviews, they did some testing but not extensive use. It seems entirely too quick for fittings to be coming loose, especially because from what I can tell, the sword doesn't sit all the way into the crossguard. I went back to the USR review and in a couple of their shots I could make out the shoulder of the blade above the guard (although it was considerably more subtle), so it seems like it started coming loose very quickly. I personally don't find that acceptable.

It is. Had to be trimmed back recently, so it's not looking quite as lush right now. :)

@@alientude I recently did the same thing because I couldn't reach the figs. Next year you won't even notice.

I would definitely recommend it if you could be sure the blade sat in the crossguard properly. It's on sale in a few places for $299 right now too.

Lol, no. In fact, you'd be hard pressed to find a less-musically inclined, rhythm-free individual than me. I include a link to the source for the music in the description of every video. Most of them are from MusOpen: www.musopen.org.

@@alientude awesome!! ya rhythm is a very hard thing to master, it's part of the process of memorization. You don't just instantly understand rhythm and part of it is to cease the overthinking we have as habits. I'm a musician and growing up rhythm has also been hard for me and part of it is feeling anxious about getting it right. Once you forget about getting it right and simply divide the time, the basic 2/2 4/4 beats are easy and then you can go from there and memorize