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Foudre - Sword of the Black Knight of the Order of the Marshal

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Sir William:
Greetings, Brethren.  In the following topic will be reviewing the Albion Next Generation Crecy; I have always loved this particular model but had never gotten around to buying one (cost being the primary factor) and probably would not have were it not for the fact that Albion sent out a little memo stating that they would be raising prices on all of their beautiful swords in an effort to stay with the current tanked economy.  Can’t say I blamed them, but with that said- I felt a very strong urge to get this sword.

The following caveats apply here: I am not the most formidable of swordsmen, I claim no expertise in such matters- I am merely a student.  Please keep this in mind as you read on…these are the impressions of an amateur and student of the sword.  I’m not going to do the whole ‘out of the box’ routine, it came securely packaged as are all Albions that are shipped, I am not under the endorsement or payroll of Albion, these are my own words, placed here free of charge for your reading pleasure.

The Name.  I don’t have a habit of naming my swords, despite the fact that a few of mine are in fact named- only the ones that resonate with something in me- a nameless, faceless ‘urge’ if you will, but something that recognizes another of its kind, a kindred spirit, a desire, whatever you wish to call it, it resides in me and every once in a while, it can be roused enough to take note of a particular something.  Whatever that something may be…in this case, it is the sword it awoke for.  I ‘heard’ the name before I knew what it was…like a whisper as I drew this sword from the custom scabbard rig built for it by Brian Kunz of DBK Custom Swords.  You might be asking why I didn’t hear it when I first opened the box.  Well…I didn’t actually open the box until after my birthday and the scabbard was already waiting for it so I took it out of the box and immediately placed it into the scabbard, after which I proceeded to stare at it…just stare…some small part of me wondered if the news cameras would pop out of nowhere, laugh at my audacity for thinking such a specimen of martial excellence could actually be mine.  Well…it is, and that’s that.  Moving on…the name.  As I said, I heard it- but I didn’t know what it meant.  “Foudre,” is what I heard and I thought perhaps I hadn’t heard anything.  I heard it again and thought that perhaps tinnitus had finally set in and I was sort of losing it when all of a sudden there was a bright flash followed by the crack of thunder…a message?  No, just a storm that had been brewing, but I figured what the hell, let’s fire up the wife’s laptop and see if I can’t figure out what the hell I’d heard in my own damn head.  After searching for longer than I’d care to admit to, I finally found it: “foudre”, according to the online translator, is a French word.  It means, literally, “lightning”.  How appropriate…it’ll make sense as I go on. 

Here she is.


Then I heard something along the lines of ‘take me outside’ and so here we are.


But I digress.  So here I have this sword, this incredibly well made and beautiful sword, that seems to have come with its own name, or suggested it to my subconscious, whatever.  “Foudre”, which means “Lightning”, is much like calling a hurricane a hurricane.  It is ‘lightning in a scabbard’.  We’ll talk about that scabbard in a moment; let us continue on with the sword.  What else, what else- it’s a Crecy, anyone who knows Albion knows the Crecy, right?  Sure…they do, at least, the ones who own one do.  Just reading about it does it no amount of justice, allow me to elaborate.  Here are the specs:

Overall length: 44 ¾”
Blade length: 35 2/3”
Blade width: 2”
Center of Balance: 4”
Center of Percussion: 21 ½”
Weight: 3 lbs. 1 oz.

You read all that and you go: so what?  I totally get that, so what, indeed?  I’ll tell you ‘so what’- first, let’s look at the blade; 35 2/3” inches of wickedly beautiful high-carbon content steel, so subtly formed and shaped as to be nigh-indiscernible to the naked eye at first glance.  You’ll look at it and see the obvious- a fairly long blade, a crisp fuller that runs a touch more than halfway down the blade, which tapers to a sharp point.  That’s what the eye can see.  What it may not see:  the effective combination of linear and distal taper used to craft this blade- so that it is not only aesthetically pleasing to the eye, but even more suited to its intended purpose; this long, tapering blade does come to a very sharp but also reinforced point.  The diamond cross section below the fuller adds strength to the lower half of the blade which translates to very effective thrusts.  Very effective, I must add.  This is one sword that requires no testing to ascertain suitability- you can feel it once you have this sword in hand.  Just from this shot here, you can see how slender the point is- it could almost mislead someone into thinking that it might fold under pressure.  It will not; there is no other way to put it.



The cross, pommel and grip are up to the usual Albion standard, I won’t spend a lot of time talking about bits that no one’s really interested in but me (finding swords that fit my smallish hands have always been problematic for me as this grip or that texture didn’t suit, so not a problem here) -suffice it to say that the overall package is superb.  The cross isn’t just a slim bar thrown in for good measure; it has subtle shaping to it- no sharp edges or burrs or casting pits- with one exception that I’ll try to show in a moment.  But swells at the ecusson, tapers, then swells again toward the ends, the faceting/chamfering done on the arms just adds to the pleasing lines of this sword.  It catches the eye without meaning to.  The pommel’s fairly standard, well executed with a flush peen that you have to really inspect to see clearly- not that a sword such as this could ever be mistaken for having a screw-on pommel or any other such cost-cutting pseudo-historical measure.  The grip is similarly elegant- three cord risers over top of a linen under wrap, leather bound over it all- and custom-colored in blue (which looks Giants blue to my eyes, how about that for coincidences, eh), the seam is almost invisible and the grip comfort is such that you don’t need gloves.  Overall, the hilt components are simple, yet gorgeous.  You see?



I did mention a single flaw that I found, and it is where the inlet of the guard meets the blade.  There’s just the slightest bit of material missing, almost as if it might’ve been struck off during the finishing process- I must admit to not caring very much as the only way you might see it is if you’ve been pierced through the chest with it and just happened to see it in one of those rare lucid moments you hear about the dying being subject to where everything appears in stunning clarity…beyond that, it won’t be seen, but here you see it because I noticed it and wanted to share.  For some odd reason I want to call it a ‘grumble’, not sure why.  Would you just look at the finish on that blade though?



Here’s a shot of the peen…you almost can’t see it.


Then I heard ‘lay me down’ and wondered…will my wife have a problem with this?  Only if I lay down with her, which I did not.


Ok, let’s get to the rig, that gorgeous rig; but a little background first.  When I first placed my order for this sword, I knew it would need something similarly fantastic to house it in so I turned to the one man I knew who could make something that would do this sword justice, Brian Kunz of DBK Custom Swords.  One of the reasons why I went with Brian is that he already has a Crecy and as everyone knows, Albion makes their swords to exacting standards so that he can craft a scabbard using his and I wouldn’t have to send him mine- I would have had it been necessary but it wasn’t, which was just as good since I’d been quoted a 12 week wait time for the sword.  As it happened, Brian had an opening in his queue for a Crecy so I was able to get it without the customary months-long wait time that is usually associated with his work queue.  In fact, the scabbard was completed two months before I was due to receive the sword, so Brian, being the upstanding guy that he is, offered to hold onto the scabbard until the sword shipped.  These scabbards, especially in the beginning, need the sword placed in it so that the materials don’t shrink to the point of being too small for the sword.  As with all scabbards, what sets them apart besides workmanship is the overall design.  They will all follow some general principles but beyond that, it is up to the creator and the benefactor (buyer) to decide what the end product will come with.  For me, since this will be the heirloom sword of my family, it needed to have a level of personalization that would suit such a treasure.  So we bandied about some ideas- I knew I wanted the scabbard to reflect my heraldry in some form, so the obvious choice was in the colors- deep blue for the scabbard to match the grip, black for the belts and suspension, brass buckles and strap ends to round out the package for further visual pop.  Speaking of heraldry, my beast of choice is the dragon, but he didn’t have any stamps that didn’t look somewhat facetious with a sword of this calibre so he mocked up a shield design with the letter ‘D’ (that being the first initial of my surname) that looked good on paper, but really caught the eye in realization.  Of course, with the new high definition camera, I caught not only the fine details, but apparently the dust that had settled onto the scabbard as well (I’m new to this camera, I’m learning as I go and I suck at taking pictures, can you not tell) but there you have it, warts and all.



You can see the scoring he did around the patch to give the shield an appearance of weight- that was totally unexpected and as such, extra pleasing to behold.  I’m thinking of having that particularly styled ‘D’ engraved/etched into the pommel of the sword, just the outward facing side.  I am not sure how he was able to make it black and blue like he did…the guy is at the top of his game, I am sure you would agree.

All of the stitching, tooling and overall presentation are up to the usual DBK standard- there isn’t a single bit that is out of place or visually unappealing, as the following pictures bear out. 
Full shot here:


Close-up of the buckles and tooling:


Strap ends:


The chape:


Close-up of the chape, you can see the light filing he’s done on the throat of the chape, and corresponding incised line on the scabbard:



Once I’ve had a chance to gear up, I’ll take some shots w/me wearing it as that’s usually the telling image.  I hope you’ve enjoyed this rather awkward review- unlike the usual, I felt compelled to take pictures…the new camera probably had something to do with that I’m sure.
Sir William, Black Knight of the Order of the Marshal

Sir James A:
Wow.

This thread is officially my favorite review thread. Ever.

Congratulations on the fantastic new acquisition!

Ian:
Stunning scabbard for an equally exquisite blade Sir William!  Congrats!

Joshua Santana:
Ah!  The Albion Crecy, man do I love that type of sword, congratulations and quite stunning indeed.   ;D

Sir William:
Thank you for the kind words, my brethren!  It is a fine sword...and while I am not a real fan of the bastard or two-hand swords like I used to be, I have to say this little lovely is the fastest one I've ever handled...the point tracks like a laser and when thrusting, well- it takes no guesswork but the sword seems to feel intent rather well.  Rings like a tuning fork when the blade is struck just so.

It is not, however, my favorite.  I'll review my favorite ere long...

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