Medieval Review - Windlass Christus Imperat Rapier

You may have noticed something about any time I have reviewed a sword by Windlass Steelcraft, and that is that almost every single time, in fact I believe every single time, I have essentially only given the score of about three out of five for every one of their swords that I've reviewed thus far. And I think the main reason behind that is 3.5 in my scoring system is not a bad score, it suggests that you're getting exactly what you're paying for, which isn't a bad thing if it's a good sword. That said, I always kind of desire a little bit more out of a Windlass product and I never quite seem to get it. That is until now. I've gotten lucky, I've gotten two swords, one of which I'll be reviewing in just a moment, that are actually going to have finally a higher score and I feel like the value is actually there above the price point. But the one that I'm going to review today is in juxtaposition to the Brandenburg Rapier review I did, where it was a very nice sword but I just had too many complaints about it and it wasn't really quite what I wanted out of a sword. But that has changed, because what I have here is probably one of my favorite rapiers to have actually come from Windlass Steelcrafts, and that is the Christus Imperate Rapier. This rapier is heavily inspired by an original kept within the Royal Armories. It has a blade of well-tempered high carbon steel. Christus Imperate, which means Christ commands, is etched into the fuller on both sides. The complex and vibrantly spiraled guard of this rapier is made of metal with an antique steel finish. The pommel is likewise crafted in metal with an antique finish, and the grip is elaborately wrapped in a steel wire and surmounted by turks head knots of twisted steel braid. The scabbard is of a black leather and its shape and throat fittings are of metal with an antique steel finish. Here are the specifications of the Christus Imperate Rapier. The main thing to note is the length of the blade. This is one beautiful rapier. I absolutely love the design of this sword. I'd really love to see the original that's in the Royal Armories, because I'm really just curious how closely they've managed to match this. But the Windlass version is really, really pretty. The elegant blade, the long, thin, elegant blade just fits perfectly within this rapier. But I will say probably my favorite part of this sword is actually right here at the hilt. You have this kind of peacock etched design, and it's subtle enough that you don't really notice exactly what it is until you take a closer look. But likewise, the rings around the swept hilt are, they're really, really nice. It's a very interesting pattern that's kind of repeated down. If I were to hold it up, you can see it almost looks like branches of like a fir tree coming down. But I think they did a really good job kind of capturing the look of this sword. And the antiquing that they did really fits it very nice. It looks like it has a nice patina on it. Now, the wire wrapping is also something that I think is actually really, really eye-catching. You know, wire wrapping is something that it can be hit or miss on a sword, but I think that they did a good job, and it's very even, and it feels very comfortable in the hand as well. So it's a good wrapping job. But overall, I really think that visually this sword is actually rather striking. And I think it's exactly what you would want in a rapier. As I said in my Brandenburg review, a rapier is something that needs to also speak to social status. And look how pretty my sword is. That was a huge portion of owning a rapier. And I think this one does exactly that. It says, look how nice my rapier is. And so I think they did a great job. You know, there's not a lot of details outside the hilt. You have the faux etching in the fuller. But really, it's both simple in its design and implementation, but it's got a lot of kind of visual flares that really catches the eye. And I'm extremely fond of it. By far, I think this one is one of my favorite rapier designs I've ever seen. Of course, even though a large part of a rapier is its visual flare, it's got to be functional. And I'm extremely happy with this sword from a functional standpoint. I really didn't know if I could expect it to be extremely good or not until I managed to go do some thrust and cut tests. And the point control is fantastic. I think that has a lot to do with the weight being primarily here at the handle, at the hilt, because with the finger guards, with parts of it being very solid metal, and with the wire wrapped handle and all that, you begin to actually feel a lot of weight in that handle. But that also means it's very easy to control the relatively light blade. And normally in a thrust test, I might actually miss my target because I'm relatively uncoordinated, but I was able to hit it perfectly. And I was extremely happy with that. I was like, wow, I couldn't believe how good that felt. And another real key component, and I'm going to make yet again a reference to my review of the Brandenburg rapier, is the length of the blade. I think that's extremely vital to the functionality of a rapier, not just because you want that little bit of extra length so you can get that hit in when your opponent can't. But there's just an aspect of a rapier having the properly lengthened blade that you're going to be able to feel like it's extremely functional. Whereas if you just take off a few inches, such as what happened in the Brandenburg rapier, you begin to feel, honestly, a little bit short change. You don't feel like you have the ability to use it quite as well. And this blade is sufficiently long. It is the exact length that I would want it to be at. And I feel like I have good control of it. I feel like the whole sword acts very naturally as a rapier. So overall, as a functional sword, as a functional rapier, I don't think you're going to get better from windlass. I would even argue that I think there are even so much more expensive rapiers out there that may have a hard time actually matching the functionality of this sword. I really do think they nailed it. They did such a good job. And I'm honestly a little bit surprised because I didn't know what to expect with this rapier in terms of functionality until I got a chance to actually hold it and use it. And immediately I was in awe of it. I could not believe that, honestly, windlass had done such a good job. And that's not really a knock against windlass because I think they do a really good job in design. But again, very often the functionality of these swords is something that I think suffers with windlass's designs. And it just hasn't happened here. I'm really, really happy with this sword. I don't have all that much more to say about this sword. I've used the phrase before, but I think it really speaks for itself. Aesthetically, it looks great. Functionally, it's great. I will say that in true windlass fashion, they have a roughly mediocre scabbard. This one's okay. The metal fittings on it with the antiques fit the rapier as a whole, but it does kind of feel like the general kind of cheap windlass scabbard. And it isn't where the value of the sword lies. It's certainly in the design and the functionality of it. But as a whole, I feel like when I first bought the Brandenburg rapier, as I said in the review, I was going for something that would work at a renaissance festival, but I also wanted something functional. And while I got the visual appeal out of that one, I completely feel like I lost out on the functionality and I wanted a good functional rapier. And I wasn't sure if this was really going to do it, but it did. And I'm extremely happy with it. It's not perfect. There are certain aspects of it I would certainly like to see a little bit better, things like the faux etching and all of that. But overall for the price point, I would absolutely buy this again in a heartbeat. It is a great buy and I'm extremely happy with it. So here it is, the Windlass Steelcrafts Christus Imperit rapier. I give it a four out of five.