Museum Replicas Limited vs. Del Tin Armi Antiche
MRL Gothic Bastard Sword vs. DT Gothic Hand-and-a-Half

by Atrim, SFMO Senior Staff Writer

The Del Tin Gothic Hand-and-a-Half that I received is another example of Fulvio Del Tin's excellent workmanship. Beautiful, interesting.

Couldn't resist taking some initial measurements:

On the left: The Gothic Bastard Sword (GBS) by Museum Replicas Limited (MRL). This was the sword used on Highlander: The Series. It was initially "reproduced" from a sword on display in the Tower of London. However, the MRL GBS is an inaccurate copy, being much smaller than the original with a hilt that loosely resembles the original. It is constructed with a Windlass Steelcrafts (of India) blade with a 5/16 inch bolt welded onto the end of the tang, and a round nut that "screws" onto the end holding the pommel, which holds the rest of the assembly in place. The bolt constitutes half of the tang. It is my belief that what MRL was trying to do was give the impression of a light weight, fast "Renaissance" bastard sword. The sword in dry handling (in martial arts forms practice) gave that impression.

And on the right: The Del Tin Gothic Hand-and-a-Half (DT GHH). After being approached by Highlander fans to recreate the historic Gothic Bastard Sword more qualitatively than the MRL version, Fulvio Del Tin contacted the Royal Armouries in Leeds for the dimensions of the original. The result was that the historic GBS held in the Museum was much larger than Museum Replicas Limited's rendition. Del Tin decided to pattern the hilt to the proper dimensions. Del Tin was originally the supplier of the blade to MRL's Gothic Bastard Sword. Fulvio Del Tin decided that the Del Tin's rendition could use the remaining stock of MRL GBS blades originally intended for MRL until MRL switched to blades made by its parent company, Windlass Steelcrafts of India. The DT version is assembled with a bar welded onto the end of the tang, and the end of the bar is "peened over", holding the pommel in place. The blade is made from 50CrV4 - a vanadium spring steel, an improvement over Del Tin's earlier blades made from CK55 Krupp Steel.

Historic Gothic Bastard Sword

These are the measurements of the Gothic Bastard Sword held at the Royal Armouries in Leeds:

Thickness of pommel: 29.6 mm
Thickness of edge of pommel: 12 mm
Blade length: 108 cm
Blade width at hilt: 5.1 cm
Width at point before curve of point: 18 mm
Thickness at top of blade 5.7 mm

MRL's Gothic Bastard Sword

I initially acquired this sword for my Tai Chi practice, and for this purpose the sword met my expectations. This sword is light and balanced close to the guard (2.7 inches) making it an absolute delight to the form in slow motion. It is also easy to do the wrist movements and is easy on the wrist. Kicking the speed up, in form as well as separate procedures ("katas"), the sword seemed to "float" into position. It actually seemed a little sluggish to me. Initially I attributed the "sluggishness" to the length of the sword. Part of any handling test should include how the hand and grip mesh because obviously this is the connection between man (or woman) and sword. My hand is large, and this grip is comfortable for me and works well while handling. A female friend contributing to the evaluation - whose hands are substantially smaller than mine, also liked the way this sword handled and felt.

Del Tin's Gothic Hand-and-a-Half

I initially made the "push" about having this sword offered because I wished to have a "combat serviceable" sword that still had the reach and Tai Chi potential of the MRL GBS. (Editor's Note: That was you? I thought it was me!) This sword weighs the same as the MRL GBS but the balance was a 1/2 inch farther down the blade from the guard (3.2 inches) giving me some concerns about the handling. The handling differences are subtle but definite. This sword is an absolute delight to slow forms practice, and wrist movements are also easy. Speeding things up, in forms practice and in separate procedures ("katas") the sword "snaps" into position. The only sword I have handled to date that is as quick and "fast" as this one is the Arms and Armor Duke of Urbino Sword which is 7 ounces lighter. Fulvio really excelled on this one. The grip of this sword is thicker than on the MRL GBS, giving me some initial concerns about handling. The grip is comfortable and sure, and handling is an absolute dream. My female counterpart concurred and we both felt the GHH grip was best for comfort and handling.

Appearance

When the Del Tin Gothic Hand-and-a-Half came to market, it was praised by its new owners, most of whom male. I sought the perspective of two women in this part of the evaluation.

My eldest daughter thought that the DT GHH looked more realistic; the darker color of the "furniture" gave it an "aged" appearance. She liked the finish of the leather better. Another female friend thought the DT GHH was more symmetrical and liked the slight S-curve to the crossguard. She related that the darker color of the furniture "fit" the sword better than the "shiny" finish of the GBS, and felt the furniture of the GHH would resist corrosion better and would be easier to keep up.

CK55 Krupp vs. 50CrV4 Steel Performance

Since the MRL sword we are evaluating is earlier model featuring a Del Tin CK55 Krupp Steel blade, and the Del Tin sword features the new vanadium steel Fulvio now uses, I wanted to do a couple of static tests to see if there was a difference in rigidity between the CK55 and the 50CrV4 blades before trying any thrusting or cutting tests. (Keep in mind that MRL now uses blades made in India by Windlass Steelcrafts). On a couple of my other swords I had made a couple of observations that might indicate this.

To star this I used my scale to mark certain spots on the blade to use as "controls" (6 inches from the guard, 12 inches from the guard, etc.) Then I checked thickness, width and included angle of the blades in these spots. The geometry of these blades is extremely close!

Then I set the sword up on two parallels and set a dial test indicator underneath the blade halfway between the parallels. Using a 6 oz. Weight, I measured the distance the blade sagged on both blades (one at a time of course). I did this several times to make sure I was getting a good reading. The results: the blade on the MRL sagged 0.005 inches, while the blade in the DT sagged 0.003 inches.

The next test is a vibration test. Holding the MRL sword on the grip right up against the guard, loosely, and struck the side of the pommel, measuring the time it takes for the blade to cease vibrating. I did this several times. The MRL sword averaged 5 seconds. Doing the same test with the DT sword, it averaged a little under 4 seconds.

The reason for this test will come clear during the thrusting and cutting tests.

Cutting and Thrusting Performance

Since the pommel turned on me in some "cutting" practice with the MRL GBS in the past, I decided to take the sword down and reassemble it before commencing thrusting tests. I torqued the "nut" a little extra, turning it about an extra quarter turn.

Before discussing the tests, I should mention that both blades were as delivered, still blunt.

The first test was conducted on a harmless haystack, with a cardboard surface to give a little initial resistance. No noticeable difference.

The second test was one of my favorites: the flying pizza box. My timing is a little off with these swords, because I usually use my Arms and Armor sword or Del Tin 5151. Both sword performed well.

The third test was a little more challenging. For this I used some of my industrial cardboard tube. The first thrust with the MRL GBS, the sword rebounded back at me, flexing widly. The first thrust with the DT GHH punctured the tube. Doing this several times, the DT GHH did fairly well, considering the blunt point. The MRL GBS stuck in the cardboard a couple of times but never really penetrated through. Excessive vibration was noticeable more than once.

The fourth test was probably redundant. I attacked a piece of 1/4 inch plywood, a remnant of one of my "cutting" targets. Striking five times with the GHH the plywood suffered 5 penetrations. However, the plywood defeated the MRL sword 2 out of 5 times. Vibration was once again the culprit (the reason the GBS failed to penetrate).

An interesting note is that the GBS has a more acute point. The GHH is 1/8" shorter in the blade, because it has a more spatulate point. Even with that advantage, the GHH performs better. This is just my opinion, but I attribute this to superior blade rigidity and resistance to flexing.

Cutting and Chopping Tests

Both of these swords are really "finesse" swords - more for slashing and drawcutting as far as cutting action goes, rather than chopping. However, the blades are in their as-delivered condition and are blunt, so there is no point in testing for slashing or drawcutting. Unfortunately, I don't have any "soft" cutting targets available for chopping so I had to resort to the heavier targets I usually reserve for my heavier medieval "cutting" swords. The first target was a chunk of my cardboard tube. As these blades are fairly long and I haven't used them before for this, I marked the blades for "Center of Percussion" (COP) to help me strike as true as possible. The MRL GBS was first. Three strikes on the tube "marked" the tube but did not penetrate through the wall. Vibration again was quite noticeable. The DT GHH was next. Three strikes later and the tube was "marked" but not penetrated. Vibration was less than the GBS but still there. After close inspection I could not tell the difference between the swords as far as depth of cut. Well that meant setting up what was left of the 1/4 plywood. My Del Tin Scottish Sword 5151 was used for reference - it sliced into the plywood 7-1/2 inches. Time for the GBS. It sliced 3-1/4 inches. Two more strikes and the deepest went 3-1/2 inches. Vibration was noticeable. Now the Del Tin GHH. First strike went 4-1/2 inches into the target. Second strike went 4-1/2. No noticeable vibration. This test made me a little uncomfortable, as neither of these is a real chopping sword. Because the blades are so light the performance may improve a little if they were sharpened. But I would not spend a lot of time "chopping" with one of these if it was me.

I gave both swords an inspection for damage or "looseness" and both came out fine. A note here, the GBS hilt turned in an earlier test that was not as hard as this one. If it had not been disassembled and reassembled with a little extra tightening, it is possible that it would have turned again, maybe damaging the wood this time.

Conclusion

I have to admit to a little surprise that the Del Tin GHH "won" in every category. Appearance, I felt that at least one of the women I asked to evaluate the sword's appearance would chose the GBS. But the "more realistic" appearance seemed to win out with both men and women. Handling and balance are a personal thing, and I am the only one to evaluate on this. But in my opinion the Del Tin GHH is clearly superior.

The construction of the hilt gives the GHH a much longer life span for a hard "service" sword. A pommel that turns on wooden targets will eventually fracture the wood of the hilt - and then you don't have a grip. The thing about over-tightening the hilt as I did on the GBS is you put more strain on the weld, potentially break it down the road.

In my opinion, Del Tin blades are superior to blades supplied by Windlass Steelcrafts of India because of the heat treating (50HRC vs. 42HRC), superior workmanship, and superior steel. Also, in my opinion, this isn't even close.

The new vanadium steel that Del Tin uses to make their current blades is superior to the earlier CK55 Krupp Steel. However the earlier blades still made fine swords. The newer just make better swords.

The GHH is a versatile sword. Some of us who own one think of it as a long single hand sword. One potential buyer thinks of it as a conventional "German longsword" and one owner sees it as a two-hander. The GBS fits some of this too, but in my opinion just not as good.

Both swords go for approximately US$275+. For that money, you get a scabbard from MRL. But Art Elwell (A Work of Art) and Christian Fletcher (Christian Fletcher Medieval Military) can make nice scabbards for extra cost. So a person interested in something like this has a clear cut decision: price or quality.

Atrim alias Graham Angus (Gus) Trim works in his small machine shop in a concrete cave facing a beautiful asphault field in North Kent, Washington. When not working he can be seen banging, testing, and/or sharpening a sword in his cave, or defending said field and cave from various targets, of which the most dangerous are flying pizza boxes.

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