This piece is a collaboration between Mike Jia from “The Printed Armoury” and myself. He supplied the fittings, I did the rest. The fittings are inspired by those often (not exclusively) seen on swords from 15th/16th century Switzerland.

Stats:
Overall length: 120cm
Blade length: 95cm
Handle length: 19cm
Blade width (at base): 5.5cm
Blade width 1“ from tip: 1.2cm
COG: 12cm
COP: 67cm
Weight: 1640g

This is an imposing sword, with a wide blade and eye-catching fittings. The type XVIIIa blade combines excellent cutting ability with a deadly point. It is a sword that performs best against unarmored opponents, with a blade that retains sufficient width to allow for efficient cutting all the way to the point. While not quite rigid and narrow enough to readily deal with armor, the blade is plenty stiff and the point has no trouble penetrating deeply into soft targets.

The edges are of convex shape, most sturdy in the lower half and more acutely honed in the foible. This gives a more resilient base for parries and bind work without sacrificing the offensive capabilities.

Overall, the goal of this design was to produce a quick, powerful cutter with good point control. The result is a sword with noticeable blade presence yet agile and attractive handling characteristics.
I have only cut light targets with the sword so I can‘t say for sure but I believe it may be one of, if not the best cutting longsword I‘ve made to date. The little bit extra width and blade presence compared to my last XVIIIa is noticeable in its performance.

Mike Jia‘s fittings really are quite nice. They aren‘t completely flawless, with a few pits here and there and other slight casting marks. I do appreciate that, too perfect a finish would have looked out of place on an otherwise entirely hand-made piece. So I can certainly recommend „The Printed Armoury“ and am looking forward to future collaborations.