LK Chen Persian Shamshir Review

Welcome everybody to Upsheath Sword Reviews. I'm Jon. I'm Dick. And today we are here to talk about the LK Chen 19th century Persian Shamshir. Yes. Worth mentioning that this along with several other swords were generously sent to us by our good friend Andy, also known as, I can't pronounce it, Lautrec Swords. I think that's how you say it. One of these days I'm going to ask him in person, he's going to tell me, but I've not done that yet. Yeah, one of these days we're going to do a collab and he will mention it to us. But these are part of a prisoner exchange. We sent him a few swords also. Some of the swords that we're going to review coming up are from his personal collection. Some were review samples. This one particularly was his personal, his sword. He bought this one. He paid us hard-earned money for it. So we did not. However, we're going to approach it as if we did, as we always do when we get a review sample. A big shout out and thanks to Andy. If you haven't checked out his channel, please go do so. Homeboy is wicked smart. He knows his stuff. In terms of the dynamics of sword handling and how various swords compare to each other and what you can expect from them in terms of their handling dynamics, I don't know that there's a better channel to watch than this. Plus he's smart and a nice guy. Yeah, and the tests that he does are really, really fun. They're really cool. Literally, I learn stuff when I talk to him. If you haven't already done so, please check out his channel. Awesome guy. Thank you so much, Andy. And actually, we'll show you a close-up picture right now, but one of the things he does is he'll mark his swords along where the center of percussion is and where the tip cutting is. You'll see in close-up shots, this is going to have measurement marks on it. He knows what he's about. He's a good guy to be friends with in the sword community, for sure. This is a really fun sword, and this is a sword that I personally have been flirting with buying for a long time. I got to tell you what, spoiler alert, now that I've had it in my hand, it makes it much more likely that I'm going to buy it rather than less likely. Let's talk about the fit and finish, Vic. What do you think about it? Keeping in mind the price points of this, you're looking at $380 US before shipping and taxes and all that. I would still consider this, if you're looking at the overall sword market, at the high end of the budget range, not a whole hell of a lot of money. I think this is a really gorgeous looking sword. This is actually a one-for-one replica of a historical piece, which is really cool. LK Chen does that quite often with a lot of their swords. I think the detailing in this and the hilt specifically is a lot more than I would expect for something in this price range. The guard has some details on it. It's obviously, I believe, cassette and all that. Some of it looks a little muddy, but I appreciate what they're going for. The biggest thing that I definitely enjoy is on the grip in between the two pieces of wood, there's some detailing along the sides there that looks really spectacular. I kind of wish that the fittings on the scabbard matched that a little bit better. However, it still looks really, really good. I definitely like the fit and finish of this a lot. Just the aesthetics of it also, this is a wickedly curved blade. If you don't know, Persian Shamshirs have different types of curves on them. Some of them are more pronounced with the curve. Some of them are less. This one is the most curved sword I've ever seen in person. I have a couple of curved swords. I have a couple of sabers. This is insane to look at. In terms of fit and finish for the price range, I think it's really good. What do you think? Yeah, I want to echo everything Vic just said. I think that it looks significantly better than it needs to for this price point. One of the things Vic talked about that I really enjoy too is this sort of brass backstrap that it has. We'll give you some close-ups of the engraving on that. It looks really, really nice. Spoiler alert, it performs like a monster. If you gave me this sword with a completely plain crossguard, a plain base, and a plain backstrap, and a plain scabbard, I would be like, this is worth $500. At $380, the level of fit and finish that you get with this sword kind of blows my mind. Now, this leaks into performance a little bit, but it has what is a pretty typical LK10 feature, which is a single bevel blade that goes from the back all the way down to the edge. It comes pretty sharp, but you're just a little bit of wedding away from this being just hair-popping, murderously terrifying sharp. Overall, I don't know that I aesthetically and as far as regards fit and finish, I think they get exactly what they're going for and at a much higher level of quality than I would expect at this price point. I'd even go as far as to say, one of our earlier reviews, we did the Cold Steel Indian Talwar, which similar sword, different in a lot of regards, but if you're looking at swords from that area, you got the Chamsheer, you got the Killage, you got the Talwars, you got stuff like that. That is actually a very similar price. That was in the $300 price range. While we did enjoy that sword, we thought the blade was good and all that, this is two tiers above what that sword was in every regard. I do think there's not a whole lot of those types of swords in the reproduction market readily available. Holy crap. I'm so happy that this exists, you know what I mean? For people who are into that kind of stuff, because you like those kinds of swords a lot more than I do. This is a great example. You said before that if I don't buy this, you're going to end up buying this. Literally. John and I have had the conversation when this first came out. We both drooled over it. This is very much more of a John type of sword. I was like, okay, well, he's going to get it and then I'm going to get to play with it. It's going to be great. We just haven't got there yet. When Andy was mentioning what sword, we were negotiating the terms of our exchange. I was like, hey, so what's up with that Chamsheer? I was like, can that be included? Can that be, yes, seriously. Please. He's like, well, which ones are you interested in? I was like, Chamsheer. Chamsheer. Please, Chamsheer. Aesthetics looks really, really good. Do you want to touch on the scabbard before we go into the handling? Oh, yeah. Through the magic of editing, we'll make that appear right here in just a second. All right. As you can see, this is the scabbard that the piece comes in. Wood core, very nice. It's got a really, really nice, elegant, if simplistic shape, but it's nice looking. It's simple. It matches the aesthetic very well of the handle, which I really appreciate. The fittings on the guards, I'll do that also. They look very much like they're of one piece, which is fantastic. Looks good in the scabbard. Looks really good in the scabbard. One of the coolest things about it, it's a pain to take it off the magnets. We'll show it close up. Because of the extreme curve, you couldn't just draw this cleanly out of the scabbard. You have to have a cutout in the back so that you can get an angle to pull the sword out. It's not like anything else we have. It's really neat. Just putting it in and drawing it out of the scabbard is its own little fun thing to do. Put it in and pull it out. I'm glad something in this house pulls out. This is really good. I think for the price, again, it is more ornate than it needs to be for the price and the functionality of it is pretty good. And ornate and not- Not gaudy. In a gaudy or an ostentatious way. It looks like a high-end quality of swords or at least high mid-range. Obviously, fit and finish, we love it, right? Yeah, we do. Okay. Let's talk about the handling, shall we? Okay. This thing weighs one pound, 10 ounces is what we measured. One pound, 12 ounces is what they list, but within the same tolerances. If you can look on the wall, you see I collect mostly European medieval swords, right? And I have what a lot of people would consider very, very agile single-handed swords, right? I have an Atrium 13B.10, which is insanely agile. It's right at two pounds. Yeah. And that 18B long sword that you have right here is the fastest thing that he makes, period. It's insane. I have an amazing Valiant Armory arming sword that's super agile. This feels like nothing in your hand. This thing feels weightless. Not just when you pick it up and are holding it down, but when you actually flip the blade around, because it has an insane amount of distal taper, right? If you look at the spine of the blade, again, Elkay Chin is fantastic with this, getting the taper right to handle the way it should be. When you go to cut with it, you swing and you feel like you missed, and then you see the bottle just cut in half. It is insane. And a lot of that has to do with, like Jon said, the edge geometry, with the decent level of sharpness that came out of the box. It should be noted that Andy mentioned it was quite a bit sharper when he first got it. He's put it through a good amount of paces, but it still has a very... If it just came like this, I would still be happy with the edge. It's very serviceable. This is fast. This is agile. You feel like you can get power on it when you want it to have. The tip control, even with the super pronounced curve, is really, really good. This is mind-blowing. And if you primarily collect European swords, I promise you, this is like nothing that you've experienced. This is crazy. Yeah. So let's talk about that distal taper. It starts out, it's 5.6 millimeters at the base of the blade, down to about three, halfway up, and then 1.9 millimeters at the tip. Okay. So, I mean, agile, and with the point of balance at about five inches, it's like 4.96 inches out. Even with as light as it is, it has the authority. You could take limbs off easily. For example, I'm rocking the Wu-Tang today, so there's a lyric that corresponds to this from Liquid Swords by GZA. The line is, I'd be the body dropper, the heartbeat stopper, a child educator plus head amputator. Oh, this would do it. This is the sword that if it was a movie, you'd be like... And then the guy would get a surprise look on his face, and then his head would fall off. For real. It has that kind of quickness and authority in it. There's no doubt in my mind that you could take limbs off with this easily. And that's the thing that's crazy about it. So when you pick it up and you start moving around, immediately, like, okay, fast, agile. But then when you actually start hitting things with it, when you realize the authority, it also somehow has. And then all of a sudden, you realize this would have been a weapon that was used on horseback. That's why it would have the super pronounced. And you really wouldn't even have to swing. You just hold it out, and you'd be mowing people down. Exactly. That curve is going to naturally cut through longer. It's going to have a deeper, longer cutting track. Yeah, no, it's a nasty, nasty, nasty sword. It's so fun. And you could watch when we were cutting with it, there's some, like, the first cut my girlfriend did, that Deb did. The look on her face, she almost didn't believe it. And then her eyes just got wide, and she's like, more, more. Well, because she's like, this is weird. I don't know what to do with this. This is weird. And then she does it, and she's just. Yeah, it was pretty amazing. And like, we were just waiting for it because we had the very same experience. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah, this thing is insane. Yeah. So, I mean, handling wise, I don't know that there's, I mean, it's a very specific kind of motion you have to do to cut with it. Vaguely reminiscent of the Talwar cuts that we had to do. A little bit different. You have a lot more wrist motion now, so that's good. But it is kind of a full back motion cut, which takes some getting used to. But in terms of handling, I don't know that I've handled a better handling sword than that. Like, significantly better. Like, in terms, we talk about on this channel a lot, like, when a sword has an intended purpose, and it communicates to you, even if you're a novice, and you have no actual kind of training in that kind of swordsmanship, this sword tells you what to do, and you're immediately like, oh, okay. I get it. You know, I've mentioned that before. I don't care what the price point of the sword is. If that sword tells me how to use it, then that's a good sword. Holy crap, then that's a win. That's a win. So, yeah, at this point, I feel like I'm just gushing. This is a great f***ing sword. I completely agree. So, handling, obviously, we're impressed. Fit and finish, we're obviously very impressed with the aesthetics. Also, overall value at $380. Not worth it. Don't buy one. Don't buy it. It's terrible. Whatever you do. If this were a $600 sword, I'd say buy it. I really think, like, even, like, $750, it's like, okay, now it's probably priced appropriately for the value that you're getting. Okay, John, don't listen to us. Yeah, don't do that. That's why I buy it. Thank you. You know, if it were a $600 sword, then I feel like you could be a little bit more nitpicky about some of the fit and finish things. For sure. At $380, I don't care. Like, it's better looking than it needs to be, and holy crap, it's so good. Absolutely. A thousand percent agree. Like, buy this. Like, buy it right now. So, yeah, if you're thinking about getting a cheaper low-end sword that's, you know, maybe $2250, I would definitely recommend that this would be a thing to hold out for, and maybe save up a little longer and get, because there aren't a lot of other reproductions of champshires out there, and the ones that there are are, generally speaking, nowhere near as accurate as this. They're usually much heavier. They have much less distal taper. So, just completely different experience than what it actually should be. This is, yeah, I can't say enough good things about it. Yeah, if you're thinking about buying the windlass which is a little bit cheaper than this, don't do that. Save the money. Save the little, I promise you, save a little bit longer, and please buy this one, because this one is fantastic. Again, I have a lot of swords, mostly European stuff. Like, if this were in my collection, this pops. Like, literally, like, this would just draw people to it, because it's so different, right? I was just going to say that. If you, like, even on the wall that we have in here, which is a nice sword wall, if you put this up here, I bet you the first thing somebody would talk about is, like, whoa, what's that? What is that? Exactly. Yeah. Like, I mean, literally, when there's, you know, freaking $1,500, $1,600 swords on the wall behind us. Yeah, so, like, in terms of, like, what might be a talking point and or centerpiece of your collection, holy crap, like, that checks that box, too. So, buy the damn sword, man. I'm getting bored of myself talking about it now, but yeah, it's gorgeous. It's definitely worth it. Anything else, Jon? No, I don't think I have anything else about this sword, except that you should buy it, as mentioned previously. So, stay tuned on the channel. We have some more stuff coming up from the prisoner exchange that we did with Andy, a lot more LK Chen stuff. We have a Hanwei Viking sword coming up also. So, lots of content is going to be coming your way. Be sure to like, subscribe, and hit the bell for notifications. Peace!