Cheap swords are cheap...

Hello sword lovers, I want to share my story and bring some truth about some products.

I am not experienced with swords. Swords, daggers and combat knives was my interest for years, but I didn't hold a lot of them in my hands. I am more into daggers and combat knives than into swords, but some time ago (not really that long) I decided to buy a few swords.

Oh and yes, I usually spend a lot of time in Youtube watching videos about swords - popular YT channels like Skallagrim, Lindybeige, ScholaGladiatoria etc, I'm sure you know some of them too. Now I'm mentioning them for a reason, not just to give them advertisement! There is a youtube channel called ThegnThrand. You maybe heard about them. They becoming more and more popular across youtube and don't get me wrong, I like their channel. I like their stuff, I like their tests and I was fascinated by some of their swords (which they got for free from Medieval Shoppe Australia). I really liked their swords, which was 13th century sword and late viking sword from "Medieval Shoppe". Those swords looked good and performed well in tests. And they were affordable - Late viking sword costed $241 AUD and 13th century sword costed $225 AUD. That's quite cheap for a functional sword which performed well during tests. So I ordered them both. I ESPECIALLY liked that 13th century medieval sword.. which later turned out to be a disaster.

And to make story short, finally swords arrived.. Medieval Shoppe didn't bother to send all the documents needed along with swords so they got stuck in custom house, but it's okay, I got all the licenses and spent some time and nerves to deal with customs, paid all taxes and everything ended up just fine (not fast, but fine. I guess they didn't have to do all this stuff for me, even though Kult of Athena did). I'm not complaining about that, I dealt with customs myself and it's fine.

And so finally I got those swords after 4 weeks of shipping and dealing with customs... And they are nicely wrapped and oiled.. like "to protect them from rust" right? Riiiight... The only problem is that its too late! The 13th century medieval sword has a few very small yet VERY DEEP rust points. Oh yes, the brand new (?) sword has a small, but really deep rust points. And by deep I mean deep, because when I tried to polish it by hand it was hopeless, so I tried to use electric tools and pretty much removed too much material and ruined the blade. I also scratched it a lot by trying to remove those rust points. Another "Late viking sword" had no rust and was in good condition, no complaints about that one.

So after I finally removed those rust points along with some layers of steel from so called 13th century sword and heavily damaged it that way, I decided that "oh well, I bought these swords as cheap functional swords (beaters) anyway, so as long as they are functional aesthetics doesn't really matter"... And after that I tried to cut goddamn water bottles with that so called 13th century sword, and after just a few hits to the water bottles it's crossguard twisted and started to make sounds... Crossguard became loose after only a few hits. And it's not even surprising because the gap between crossguard and the blade is HUGE, not just simply huge, but rather colossal gap full of dirt, oil, dust and other stuff... so in the end it's not even functional sword.

Yes it has a full tang and it is made from EN45 steel, no mention about heat treating and tempering, and I guess it can be considered a functional sword, but I really feel like I wasted those damn $225AUD. But I guess I got what I paid for and maybe it's my own fault for expecting too much from a cheap $225 AUD blade, which is low end sword at best... but still, a rust?? on a new blade? wow... It is a really low quality I'd say.

Another sword seems to be fine, even its gap between blade and crossguard is smaller, but it's the same manufacturer which I don't trust anymore, so I doubt that second blade is any better if we talk about its durability (even though ThegnThrand described it as a strong and durable blade that went through harsh tests and "it's still razor sharp"... right.. those weren't even razor sharp from the beginning, they were simply sharp, which is fine imo).

Now I want it to be known that "Medieval Shoppe Australia" manufacturers/sellers products are low quality. Expect rust, gaps and crossguards to become lose. Blade's structure isn't strong. Not worth those 220-240 AUD that they costs imo.

And youtuber ThegnThrand only advertises their supplier "Medieval Shoppe", they are NOT objective with their tests/reviews. May it be known so nobody else will spend their money on low quality junk from Medieval Shoppe. And don't trust ThegnThrand's testing videos, they don't tell a lot of things about those products. Don't fall into the same trap as I did.

Here you can find their tests on those "excellent" products that I bought.

Oh and no, I can't send them back. Not after I paid 88 AUD for shipping and 100 Euros custom taxes, exchange (if Medieval Shoppe would even agreed send me one) would cost me even more taxes and more shipping costs...

So now I feel like those swords are not even worth to be hanged on my wall. And it is not a good idea to hang them on the wall in a first place, because they both are totally loose in their scabbards. Scabbards doesn't hold them at all, so even hanged horizontally on a wall they have a great chance to slip and fall out of their scabbards.

And sorry for my broken English.