This is the very first real, carbon steel, battle ready sword I bought:

This is a Viking sword made by Deepeeka (and bought online through Kult of Athena). I was still learning about real sword specifications when I picked out this blade. I wanted something real and battle ready, but also as inexpensive as I could get. Since buying this, I’ve heard/read that Deepeeka is considered generally low quality stuff, but this (and other pieces) seems fine to me. I’ve found nothing quality-wise to complain about with this or other Deepeeka swords and gear I’ve bought. I’m satisfied that they are as described, with no construction issues.

This sword is almost 37″ long, and weighs a bit over 3 pounds. As a broad-bladed Viking sword, it’s made for hacking and slashing. The wide pommel (common among Viking and Norman swords) takes getting used to (it tends to interfere at the wrist). I had KoA sharpen the blade, and I’ve done some water bottle test cutting with it. It cuts well, but at 3 pounds weight, it’s heavy for a one-handed sword. If you aren’t already strong in the arms, using this a lot will definitely get you there. I’ve learned (through experience) that I prefer a sword that weighs under 3 pounds (whether one-handed, or two-handed).

But even if I don’t use it for cutting, I do like having at least one Viking style sword in my collection.

The Old Adventurer

This sword was given to me by my mom:

My mom gave me this sword several years ago. I think she bought it during a trip to Italy. Like my oldest sword, this is apparently also a [smaller] reproduction of Tizona, one of the swords carried by Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, El Cid (circa 1470). Like the older sword, it is a stainless steel decorative item, with no sharp edge. But, as it’s smaller than the other, instead of being mounted above my desk, it has always sat in the window sill behind me so it’s easy at hand when I want to hold a sword (which has been fairly often).

It is 29.5 inches long, and weights 1.4 pounds. I’ve never cut anything with it, but I like just holding it while sitting at my desk while watching videos or waiting for a game to load.

The Old Adventurer

This is one of the walls in my home office (it’s really a nerd-man’s play room):

The swords on the table are old wall hangers I’ve had for several years (on the left) and a few decades (on the right). The other weapons, mounted on the wall, are new and real, battle ready and sharp. I’ve collected the new items over the past year (2020), but just recently decided how I wanted to display them. I want to be able to see and show them, and I want to be able to pick them up and hold them (“play” with them). The map in the middle of the display is a fantasy style map of the U.S. The round, blue shield on the floor is something I made and painted myself.

I’m happy with this display, and I plan to expand on it. (I call it “My Wall of Awesome”.) I want to have at least one of each type of medieval weapon (not just swords), and I’d like to have a suit of plate armor, as well.

A note on the history of swords:
Swords have been in use for a very long time — multiple thousands of years — with a wide variety in forms depending on the technology of the times. My main interest in historical melee arms is the medieval period, or Middle Ages. But the Middle Ages is a very broad range: from around 500 CE to 1500 CE — 1,000 years/10 centuries. [Between the fall of the Western Roman Empire and the beginning of the European Renaissance.] So, in real historical settings, some of these swords would never have been used against one another, or even be seen at the same time. For instance, the sword on the left bottom (a “Viking” sword) and the sword on the right top (a cutlass) are separated by hundreds of years with no overlap in time of use.

Plus, not only did swords (and other melee weapons) change with technological improvements (in material and design), but they changed depending on their intended use. For instance, the sword on the left top (a longsword/bastard sword) was mostly a war weapon used on a battlefield against armored soldiers, and the sword on the far right (a rapier) was mostly a personal weapon used on city streets against unarmored civilians — yet these two swords were in use during the same time period, and could even have been used/owned by the same person.

The Old Adventurer