by Atrim, SFMO Staff Writer

Made by Iberia of the Philippines, the blade of this sword is made of "high carbon steel", and, according to CAS Iberia, it is suitable for "reenactment purposes". Some vendors go a little further and use the phrase "battle ready".

In comparison with the light CAS Iberia Scottish Single-Handed Sword that I had already owned, it was 7 ounces heavier. The brass "furniture" was attractive and efficient, and the wire-wrap on the handle was tight and felt good in the hand.

The blade is slender, with a flattened diamond cross-section (actually gently hollowed out). There is no distal taper to the blade until the last 8 inches (20 cm) where it tapers gently to the tip. In other words, rather than being like a long triangle, the blade was rectangular up until the last 8 inches where either side eventually met together to form the tip.

Under close inspection, I found that the edge was rough in certain areas and thus was not consistently sharp. However, the sword gained an edge with little effort with a hand-held belt sander (air powered).

Testing this sword I was immediately struck by what an excellent "cutting sword" it was (the term probably should be chopping, but the terminology most used is cutting). In fact it cut so smoothly that it was possible to perform a "draw cut" - which is a term use to indicate when the sword strikes its target. (Many swords that I had evalutated to "cut" with have required work to create a cutting action on hard contact. The War Sword did this naturally.)

The sword proved to be an excellent "soft target" thrusting sword. But I bent it, however, when thrusting it at a "medium hard" thrusting target. It - like the Iberia Scottish Single-Handed Sword, proved to be easy to straighten. It wouldn't hold an edge, but it was easy to resharpen.

The balance and handling characteristics made this sword "feel" lighter than the Scottish Single-Handed Ssword. The group of guys I worked out with at the time (Tai-Chi sword etc.) liked it so much that we acquired two more. The appearance, fit and finish (furniture and blade) was excellent. Handling characteristics and "feel" of the three swords was so different that the term "noteworthy" is an understatement.

In summary, this is a good, inexpensive training sword. The blade does bend easy, but it also straightens easy. The sword is in the right general size range for a medieval or renaissance cut and thrust sword but may be slightly on the heavy side. Includes leather scabbard.

Overall 41" - Blade 32" - Weight 3 lb. 6 oz.

Other dimensions:

Width at base: 1.55"
Width before curving to point: 1.25"
Thickness at base of blade: .215"
Balance point from guard: 3.7"
Center of percussion from guard: 22"

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