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Stay away from anyone and anything who can't, won't or doesn't answer "No" to "Does this sword have a welded tang?" Welded tangs are common in mass-produced swods (ie formed, not hammered) because of regulations. A welded tang means that the part of the blade that runs through the handle has been welded on (made to break under stress) to prevent idiots from killing each other with them. You want a full tang, not a welded tang. That should be your VERY first question about a sword because it's the first indication of something being a REAL blade.

Note about the SCA: They might be a good information source, but take things they say/do with a grain of salt. They've been having arguments for the last twenty years about whether or not potatos are "period food" And you'll run into "authenticity nazis" who will poo-poo anything that's been machine sewn. And, of course, they do get some facts wrong too, just like anyone else. And hopefully the group around where you live won't be complete and total gits, like the ones around here. I'm sure this area of the country is where all the SCA horror stories come from.

-V

I saw that guy earlier on; It was simply too good a quote to pass up on. Hence the sig.

I'll have you know that at one time I owned every piece of flame clothing available. I'm even wearing the shirt right now.

Eh? However, the SCA doesn't sell armaments, it's just an organization. However, many of the members thereof are great sword crafters, and at, say, the SCA War that comes by here once a year, NO MASS PRODUCED SWORDS ARE SOLD. Nada. None. At least not retail. You may find some slap d**k who offers to order things from a catalogue, but they just get laughed at. For sucking. Just. Plain. Sucking. And not sucking in a good way, either.

I'm not entirely sure there's a law against carrying a sword where I am. They never had that problem and I want to wear one around just because I can.

Me and a friend used to have fights with fake swords and got pretty good at it, so that we could go 20 minutes without anyone landing a hit.

As for what kinf of sword I'd like, "The sword that is not a sword" from a book I read sounds pretty cool. It's like a sword but made of cystal and really sharp. Plus, if you're magical it makes you more magical.

Or a Heron mark blade from the same books. Never dulls, never tarnishes and will never break.

The bad guys carry sword that look like katanas made of non-reflective black steel. They wear out in about a year but kill most things instantly.

I was merely speaking to the point about the SCA as an information source. I do know it's better in other parts of the country, but around where I live I wouldn't trust anything they said. I'm sure I'll make no friends by saying it, but from what I've seen personally, the SCA around here are social rejects who tend to discourage new membership as a way of 'striking back at' all the people who didn't really like them in the first place. A friend of mine actually had the 'head of recruitment' of the chapter (over in Iowa, I think) tell him, "Yeah, well. We don't really want any new members because we don't want to have to train them." After he quite sincerely said, "I want to join the SCA. I want to learn all kinds of stuff about that time-period."

It's not much better here in Eastern Nebraska. We had plenty of infighting with them at the local renaissance fair (which is to say, they tried to sabotage us a couple times years back but weren't diabolically competent so it came off like a couple children trying to backstab us. And I personally had one come up to me and utter that horrid line, "Oh, things must have been so much better back then. Don't you think it would've been better to live during the Renaissance?"

Not to mention that the professional-jousters (one of whom was with the SCA out in California before he became a jouster) was outright laughing at the 'combat' that the local SCA chapter did for a show at the local renfair before they stopped coming at all.

Like I said, I was speaking about the quality of the SCA as an information source, especially around where I live. :p

-V

*cough* It's great to have discussions about swords. Really, it is. Now, back to the topic...