Miscellaneous > The Sallyport

John Clements is making sword video's for Windlass. You must see.

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Thorsteinn:
Ah! The famed issue that JC caused has been brought back to life on the AA.


--- Quote ---http://www.swordforum.com/forums/showthread.php?102978-A-challenge-issued-by-John-Clements-ARMA-Director-%96-our-statement

If anyone has way too much time to kill, this will pretty much seal the deal for anyone on the fence regarding John Clements' status as an asshat.

TLDR version:

One of the ARMA (JC's group) heads in Poland resigned because JC was holding them back and being a dick. ARMA is notoriously insular and inbred. JC responds by being an even bigger dick and challenges Eastern Europeans to a public duel while beating his chest and essentially smacktalking about how he's going to put them all in their place and how much of an "expert" he is, etc. etc. Eastern Europeans line up for said duel at the agreed upon time and place. JC never shows.

Mass eye rolling ensues. Whatever reputation JC had left was pretty much broken by this event. I havn't seen him taken seriously by anyone in the community outside ARMA since.

_________________
-Erik
Winter Tree Crafts LLC
--- End quote ---

Sir William:

--- Quote from: Jon Blair on 2016-04-06, 20:32:52 ---From what I have seen in these videos, I'm finding it hard to be impressed with the Battlecry lineup. Granted, I have not held one in hand, but given Windlass Steelcrafts' track record, I'm not hopeful. Part of the problem is the Rolling Stones' ideal for the appearance of these weapons (I see a Windlass Sword, I want to paint it black). They look straight out of a fantasy series on ABC Family. Sorry, I mean Freeform. Some of these are nicer looking than others; out of all of them the Bosworth is the "prettiest" of a sorry lot, while others are just plain ugly, like the Maldons and the Hattin. It's not the type of weapon that makes it ugly either. I've seen some beautifully made falchions and Viking swords and seaxs, but not in the Battlecry lineup. The Hattin looks more like a machete than a falchion. Of all of them, the Soldier's Buckler looks the most promising, yet they do not have a video of the buckler. In fact, the Hattin video shows Mr. Clements with the Hattin and a buckler, but not the Battlecry Soldier's Buckler. Unfortunately, there only seems to be two rivets securing the boss of the buckler to the rim, leaving me wonder how well it would hold up.

It's not like these are drastically different than their other offerings; in fact, the Acre is their Classic Medieval Sword with a black "paint" job and a decorative (read as poorly executed) wire wrap on the grip. Yet, the Acre is significantly more expensive than the CMS, even with the sharpened blade taken into account. Why? Compared to other swords that they sell, how are these improved? We see John Clements beating the living daylights out of things with them, but how do we know those examples are common across all of their Battlecry products? By that, I mean are his swords "special" for the videos, or is the quality of any particular sword in that line the same? Yes, they talk about how they are inspected based off of an "Industry Standard", but what is that standard? If you compare the custom made swords out of swordsmiths like Peter Johnnson, Lukas Mastle Goer, and Miecze Sredniowieczne, to production swords from Albion, A & A, or Castle Keep, to the wares of Cold Steel, Hanwei, and Windlass, what is the Industry Standard they claim to exceed? How far do they exceed it? How did they make the blades black? I'm guessing chemical bluing of some kind, but depending on the kind leads to how sturdy is the bluing and how easy is it to remove?

--- End quote ---

I'm not surprised, if anything, Windlass is late to that particular game- Cold Steel and United Cutlery have been doing the 'darkened' weapons line for some years now.  I'm not the fan I once was of Windlass products, but I've noted that some of their offerings have improved over the years (and in a lot of cases, their best stuff gets discontinued- crazy); the CMS is a barebones type X but is surprisingly sturdy and not a 'dead' length of unbalanced crapola steel.  The Ulfberht I hear is one of their best, and their Type XIV is a stabby little beastie.  Most of their other stuff is meh so far as I know.  I went ahead and got one of their longer swords just because the reviews stated it wasn't whippy like their usual offerings (Roven?  Can't recall offhand)- they were right in this case, if only because the thick ricasso somewhat stiffens the blade overall.  As for pricing...they're at an 'introductory' level; I guess that means the price will go up if there's significant interest in this latest spate of offerings.  At $245 for the Acre, it isn't a huge jump in price as the CMS retails normally at $225 so a $20 difference isn't a huge deal and can probably be attributed to the labor and materials for the darkening process.  I don't know of any sword at this price point that would have a well executed wire wrap direct from the forge. 

Jon Blair:

--- Quote from: Sir William on 2016-04-07, 15:35:02 ---I'm not surprised, if anything, Windlass is late to that particular game- Cold Steel and United Cutlery have been doing the 'darkened' weapons line for some years now.  I'm not the fan I once was of Windlass products, but I've noted that some of their offerings have improved over the years (and in a lot of cases, their best stuff gets discontinued- crazy); the CMS is a barebones type X but is surprisingly sturdy and not a 'dead' length of unbalanced crapola steel.  The Ulfberht I hear is one of their best, and their Type XIV is a stabby little beastie.  Most of their other stuff is meh so far as I know.  I went ahead and got one of their longer swords just because the reviews stated it wasn't whippy like their usual offerings (Roven?  Can't recall offhand)- they were right in this case, if only because the thick ricasso somewhat stiffens the blade overall.  As for pricing...they're at an 'introductory' level; I guess that means the price will go up if there's significant interest in this latest spate of offerings.  At $245 for the Acre, it isn't a huge jump in price as the CMS retails normally at $225 so a $20 difference isn't a huge deal and can probably be attributed to the labor and materials for the darkening process.  I don't know of any sword at this price point that would have a well executed wire wrap direct from the forge.
--- End quote ---
Unfortunately, after their introductory period ends, that $245 Acre sword jumps to $325. Those longer term prices are what I am looking at. Sure, $20 more for a blackened and sharpened CMS is reasonable, but in three months or so, when it's $100 more for a blackened and sharpened CMS, reasonable has gone right out the window.

Sir William:
Unless of course, they don't sell as well as they think it would/should.  Time'll tell...my interest isn't caught enough to warrant buying one even at the introductory price.

SirNathanQ:
So-so swords aside, this is what happens when you lose a deathmatch with dignity itself. The awkward tunics, the pseudo-historic claims about swords, and above all the cheesy editing and music really make these videos something special in my book. I certainly wouldn't want to fight Clements, but this should be a lesson that even in as small a martial arts community as we are, you can't get by on (admittedly rather considerable) skill alone.

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