Kingston Arms Renaissance Side Sword Review

My regular subscribers might or might not have noticed that I didn't put out a video last weekend. It's because I had a bit of a technical disaster. I lost my d-drive in all of my video projects that I've been working on. So while I was out buying myself a backup drive, which I should have done a long time ago, I also got myself a new microphone, which will hopefully eliminate that fuzzing problem that you've all been putting up with in my previous videos. Also allows me to get a lot further back away from the camera and move around and take advantage of, well, it's limited space, but it's space. So if I have to show you anything bigger than what I've been showing you or give you a better look at it from a distance, I can do that now. And that's going to come in handy today because we're going to look at something that's a little bit longer blade-wise than a katana and a little bit unusual compared to what I've reviewed in the past outside of my wheelhouse. But before we get into the sword itself, it's time for another one of those deep dives into my long and storied history, but a little bit different, different chapter, kind of a prequel. I've talked about my history in Japanese and Chinese martial arts, Japanese and Chinese swordsmanship. But before that, I've always been a fan of science fiction and fantasy. And we're talking about the classics. We're talking about Tolkien and Howard and Edgar Rice Burroughs and Michael Moorcock. And that has influenced my writing and my artwork. You can certainly see samples on the wall behind me. But I was also interested specifically in the weapons featured and not just wanting to look at them and draw them, but wanting to learn how to use them. But at the time, for me in Phoenix, Arizona in the 70s, there wasn't such a thing as HEMA like there is today. There were a couple of random pockets of reenactors, SCA, Society for Creative Anachronism. And at that point, it was just a bunch of guys in the park who were wearing homemade armor that was all carpet and sheet metal and duct tape and whacking on each other with sticks, trying desperately to revive dead arts. And I really did feel those arts were long and permanently gone. So I am really happy to see what's happening in HEMA today. If HEMA was available to me, I probably might have taken a different path or maybe a parallel path in my martial arts career. May still. Who knows? It's not over yet. I also had a little bit of experience going down to the local university and studying Olympic fencing, but it never really appealed. I learned some useful things, but the same kind of thing that I've got in terms of my relationship with kendo. It's just not... it's good sport. It has some good theory, but it's not swordsmanship, really, to me in the way that I grasp swordsmanship, understand and appreciate swordsmanship. Not dissing people who practice fencing or kendo. More power to you. It's really, really hard sport. But yeah, well, it wasn't quite my taste. However, I did have available to me in the stores a variety of European-style, shall we say, sword-shaped objects. And at the time, I really didn't know any better to tell what was quality and what wasn't. And I've discussed these in previous videos. The swords that I got that were made in Toledo, Spain by Corto Marto. I also picked up a couple of even worse examples of things that were made in India. But it gave me some early exposure to things like side swords, broad swords, sabers, yeah, one of which I've shown you before. We've talked about this in previous videos, the interesting qualities of Toledo blades. I've shown you the blade and I've shown you the handle separately, but let's review the blade. The blade on this thing was originally from a Toledo-made Charles III Bilbo sword. No, not that kind of Bilbo. Different kind of Bilbo. A Bilbo, it's not really a transitional cut-and-thrust sword because it came after the rapier. It's kind of an 18th, 19th century sword that was a cut-and-thrust sword that had aspects of both the side sword and the rapier. So it had an elaborate, complex hilt. It also had a partial bell guard. It had a blade that was suitable for cutting and thrusting. It was very popular, unfortunately, with the conquistadors in the Americas, and that's where a lot of its reputation came from. Yeah, but good sword, and I really enjoyed it even though it was terribly made and terribly balanced and very quickly snapped clean off at the die-cast zamak hilt. But as you can see, I've kept the blade and it is now mounted in what was the handle of that handmade semi-wakizashi, semi-ninja toe that I wasn't terribly happy with, and this combination right now I'm actually quite, quite fond of. It's very, very handy. But I have been recently inspired, because of the blossoming of Hima and the availability of weapons of those nations and eras, to do a little shopping outside of my wheelhouse and maybe re-explore those old paths not taken. And my first step on that was I couldn't find a bilbo, again, not that kind of bilbo, the other kind of bilbo. Windlass Steelcrafts made one years ago and they discontinued it. Damn. But browsing Swordbuyer's Guide under Kingston Arms, I found what they called their Renaissance Sidesword, which is a combination cut and thrust weapon that seemed to suit and tick all those boxes that I appreciate. Let's take a look at what I got. And I'm actually really impressed with this. Now, if you don't know anything about Kingston, their swords are made in Dalian, China, which is where Hanwei swords are made. So they're part of CAS Iberia, CAS Iberia. So, you know, that might be good or bad for you. Obviously, if you go to the CAS Iberia website, they're pretty pricey. But if you go to Cult of Athena or Swordbuyer's Guide, you can get some pretty good deals on this. And I paid about $270 for it. So keep that in mind as we go forward. Not, not very expensive. Certainly not what I usually pay for a semi-cheap katana. So let's, let's consider what I got for my money. This is, like I said, cut and thrust weapon. 8-inch handle, 33-inch blade. On my scale, 2 pounds, 11 ounces. So slightly heavier than the average katana that I like, but not bad because the point of balance is only about an inch and a half forward of the forward rings of the elaborate hilt. So not, not bad at all in terms of balance and feel. Let's zoom in a little bit and give you a look at the hilt because there's a lot going on here. The blade is 5160 spring steel. We'll get back to that in a second, but the hilt is steel. I think it's more of a medium to mild steel and it's pretty well done. There are no obvious glaring welds or seams or anything. It's a good solid piece. You've got some pretty heavy elaborate rings on one side. You've got a partial cage on the other side. You've got these S-shaped quillings. You've got rings to protect your fingers if you go forward of the, of the guard. You've got a pretty good solid pommel. Now it's not peened according to the description. It's a, it's a threaded one and you may or may not like that, hate that. Certainly a peened pommel might give you a sword that's sturdier. I am used to threaded pommels because most of my gens that I've worked with, and of course those Toledo swords were all threaded. The nice thing about a threaded pommel is it does let you take the sword apart and work on it, repair it, upgrade it, put new fittings on it. You know, you don't have to break down any, any peens or welds or anything like that to get the sword apart. So I kind of like it and everything on this is nice and tight. So I don't have any problem with that. The hilt is covered in leather and they've done it in a pretty seamless way. It's glued on, but it hasn't come loose yet. Some people complain on some of these swords about really heavy stitching seams that dig into your hands. It doesn't have that. It's very smooth yet very grippy. There's also a layer of leather over the ricasso. So for putting your finger over the top of, that's a, that's a nice touch. And I've used it either way. It feels good in a, in a full-handed grip. It feels good in a handshake grip. It feels good in more of the handshake grip with the finger over the top of it. Yeah, it's just very comfortable and handy sword. Now the blade is double edged. It's nicely beveled. All the planes are nice and even. It's got a partial fuller flexibility. It's got some, but it's not floppy. So that's good. I don't like floppy swords. It's one of the reasons why I'm not a fan of a lot of rapiers, at least the reproductions and, and practice versions, the, that kind of floppy blade. I also prefer a blade that's got cutting potential, even though it's more primarily designed for thrusting. Again, I've spent a lot of time with a Gen and this is, this is very similar. Now taking this thing out and using it has revived what little I know about the use of European swords like this, but I can also use it effectively as a Gen. So that's nice. It fits and inspires me to learn more about these. What's not good about it? Well, one of the things that has been said about Hanwei Dalian reproductions of European swords, the edges kind of suck. This one, what I, what I would consider the primary cutting surface came blunted. Odd parts of the rest of the sword were kitchen knife sharp, but yeah, what I would normally consider cutting with was not so, but it took just a little bit of stoning and a little bit of honing. And now that's pretty well, I've taken it out and done the water bottles, the milk jugs, the cardboard, it cuts and thrusts pretty effectively. Kind of like the average Gen that I like again. So it's, it's right up there with that. Another thing though, that I didn't like about it had some initial problems and kind of still, I am the scabbard. The scabbard is, it's pretty plain. It's not terrible. There's no fixtures for hanging. So it's just a blank basic scabbard. So you've got the, you know, the metal collar and the metal tip, and then it's covered in leather and there is a stitching pattern. Pretty well done. Supposedly the, the body of it is fiberglass, but it also has these kind of dense foam inserts to pad the blade, but not for the full length of the scabbard. And this is where the problem comes in because I feel about maybe six inches from the scabbard mouth and then another section towards the tip. So what happens, well, nothing really bad happens when I draw it, but when I go to resheath it, let's have some fun here. First few inches, very soft, but then of course you immediately hear the blade hitting bare, whatever that's made out of, fiberglass or whatever. It doesn't seem to blunt the blade, but yes, kind of unpleasant in all the ways that Toledo sword scabbards were unpleasant. However, you get in about here and it hits that other piece of foam and snags somewhere, somewhere about there. And if you can get it to go in right, it'll sheath smoothly, but about two out of three times, it's catching on that for me. So putting this sort of way, trying to hit a target in there that I can't see is not graceful. Now it has improved with use. So I assume that over time it'll just sort of adjust itself and that problem will go away for me. But overall for 270 bucks, like I said, I don't really know a lot about these swords in general. This is my first modern reproduction of a European sword. So this is basically all I've got to go on. But based on this sample, I really like it. It inspires me to explore those arts, that path I didn't take years ago. So we'll see where I go from there. And like I said, just when I think I got it going in right, it doesn't go in. Like I said, I had a lot of sword shaped objects that when I was young, I played around with and I was fond of, and it makes me interested enough to go out there on the market today and see what the modern equivalents of those side swords and sabers are. Yes, you may see a little bit more of this and you may see me struggling to learn some new forms of swordsmanship as we go forward. But for now, if you know more about these and you've had any experience, please add to the comments discussion because I'm just going by what I like in terms of a sword and I like this one. So I hope you found this interesting, informative, useful information in terms of recommendations and hope to see you for some more different stuff as we move on.