What this sword lacks in function it makes up for in looks. The attention to artistic detail in the design is really impressive. The double fullers have a faux engraved foliated design, as does the guard, the grip and the girdle of the pommel. Compared to this the Cold Steel one handed wasters look like shaved down 2x4's. I've noticed having these around for a few days that the appearance inspires me to pick it up and do solo drills with it, much more so than the 2' iron bar I usually use indoors.

They are 34" long. The blade is 24.75", the hilt 9.25" and the grip is 7.25". It weighs 1.21 pounds, around 19 oz. The guard is small but functional. The grip is long, I can wield it two handed which makes it good for doing longsword drills in low ceiling areas. That's just a bonus though. When holding it one handed I find it better to hold it down by the pommel. If you hold it up near the guard the pommel bangs into your wrist area when doing overhanded thrusts.

The balance is not great. It is 15" from the pommel end. That leaves 19" to the blade tip, so it is near the middle and thus balanced more like a stick or club than a lively sword. It is light enough though that it is still fairly fast. In fact the just over a pound weight seems to be good for a one handed sparring weapon. Its fast and not overly fatiguing but still challenges the arm muscles. So they're more fun than the CS one hander, which is so heavy it quickly tires the arm and is unwieldy to swing. It also provides enough of a blow to prevent your opponent from just rushing through it unlike a lighter padded stick. The blade is flat like the Rawlings nylon wasters, so it is more flexible for thrusting than the CS wasters. Its a little pointy but we sparred with it as is last night, though I'll probably shave it down some.

For full contact sparring HEMA protective gear or SCA armor is needed. One of my fellow HEMA students sparred a round with me last night with these and Cold Steel bucklers. I started off with AF HEMA gauntlets but couldn't get a good grip with them (the fault of the gauntlets not the sword), so took my chances with lacrosse gloves. I never received a hard hit to the hand but I suspect for the most part you could get by with lacrosse gloves, since the one handers don't have the force of the two handers. An unlucky hit could still probably seriously crunch or break a finger though. In addition to hand protection you need a fencing mask, jacket and throat, groin, elbow and knee protection, or SCA equivalent. The CS bucklers leave tiny nicks on the edges of the sword. Steel bucklers probably wouldn't leave any marks.

Really fun short swords for practicing close in fencing and doing drills. Playing with these toys from time to time keeps me from taking the whole HEMA thing too seriously, since its just an excuse for vigorous play anyways.

It is very good to practice sword fighting if you do not own a steel weapon that cuts and it's very safe to use.

I was looking for a prop sword for a RenFair costume that was size appropriate for my frame (I'm 5'9"). This ended up being the ideal length but I had a slight concern about it being all black, as I needed it to look like a real sword. I figured I might be able to paint it and make it look more legit, and the price was low enough I decided to take a chance. So glad I did!!

This prop is solid polypropylene, so has quite a bit of heft to it. The blade edge is rounded so there is nothing even remotely sharp, though if you really wanted to you could file the edges to create the appearance of sharpness (again the entire thing is one solid piece of injection molded plastic). I left the edges as is, but it will still cause serious damage if you hit someone with it simply due to the weight.

To paint it, I used simple rattle can primer over the entire thing (just make sure you use something that will bond to plastic), sanded, and repeated three times to get a nice base. For the blade I used a "steel" spray paint, again doing three separate coats and letting it fully dry between each coat. The pommel and guard I used an airbrush with a brass acrylic paint...also three coats...followed up with a black wash and then some additional highlights. The whole thing was then covered up with three coats of satin varnish. The picture shows what the end result looks like. I will wrap the handle with some dark maroon leather to give it a bit of flair.

If you are looking for a nice LARP or RenFair sword, and you have the patience and means to paint, I can't recommend this item enough.

Very durable and about as dangerous as a stick. Much better than nerf or other play swords.

The whole product is built very sturdily and should last for a very long time. Can take a beating quite well and the weight and length seem very balanced.