Darksword Armory

DARKSWORD ARMORY SWORDS AT A GLANCE Official Website: Darksword Armory.com Manufactured in: Canada Steels Used: 1060 Carbon Steel Edge/Sharpness: Unsharpened 1.4mm edge (designed for re-enactment/stage purposes) Price Range: US$225 to $300 Best deals: Click here for special pricing info

DSA Owner Eyal Azerad

Darksword Armory (DSA) was founded in 1996 by Eyal Azerad, who has been studying Medieval and Renaissance sword making his entire life. Using a specialized team of 6 smiths and 4 apprentices, they craft swords based on museum relics, swords in private collections and also based on medieval art. Their swords have a reputation for being nearly indestructible, suitable for stage combat, re-enactment, or cutting if they have been sharpened and the blades are easily among the toughest on the market.

Their warranty is a guarantee for one year under normal (re-enactment) use, although this warranty is voided if the blade is sharpened after market. Torture tests to their swords like in the following video by one of the Darksword smiths show that the likelihood of ever having to need to use the warranty is remote...

VIDEO: Extreme Durability Demonstration One of the DSA smiths letting of some steam in an extreme durability torture test.

Darksword Armory is also unique in that it is one of the only producers of functional Lord of the Rings swords, having a Ranger and an Elven (Glamdring) model available. They also produce LARP (Live-Action Role-Playing) swords constructed from special foam, which are used in sparring and other kinds of recreational swordplay.

Their prices are very reasonable – especially considering they are produced by hand in North America, and go from $225 to $300 for their production swords – although their Ranger sword is available with a Damascus Blade for $800. Their LARP swords go from $125-$150. They also can be contracted for custom work on a case-by-case basis.

DARKSWORD ARMORY - NEWSFEED May 31, 2008 Two more swords from the new production run - including the Fantasy 'Guardian' sword and the 'Black Knight' Click Here for The Latest News

MAIN PRODUCT LINES

DARK AGE AND MEDIEVAL SWORDS: Darksword Armory has 3 galleries of swords covering a wide variety of culture and history. From the Roman spatha and dark ages swords to 15th century 2-handers and everything in between, these swords have tight, well-crafted fittings and are incredibly sturdy. They very have some unique products – including the Elven sword, which is a 2-handed leaf blade. As stated before, these prices are typically from $225 to $300. Click here to see their first sword gallery

LARP The practice of Live-Action Role-Playing has been around for almost 30 years in one form or another, but has become more popular only recently. Darksword Armory are one of the few legitimate sword makers that also chooses to produce these LARP swords, making foam weapons by a proprietary method with the same view to toughness as their real sword lines. They have both historical and fantasy types available, all constructed from the same layered foam substance and available between $125 and $150. With these swords, it is possible to spar at full speed with minimal damage (though from the authors experience with these swords, a helmet to protect the head and a box to protection the groin is highly recommended - as blows from these swords hurt enough to make you wary, but not enough to cause any serious injury - which is the perfect combination...) Click here for their range of LARP Swords

HOW THEY ARE MADE

Darksword Armoury swords are all made from virgin 1060 carbon steel. The steel is hand forged and oil hardened and tempered to HRC (Rockwell Hardness ‘C’ scale) of 53 – perfect for a medieval style blade.

One interesting method Darksword Armory uses is noted in their assembly of the hilt.

The hilt assembly is secured first with a pommel nut before they heat the tang and pommel until both are white hot, and then firmly screw the pommel down onto the threaded tang. The end result is a kind of hybrid technique between hot peening and a threaded pommel assembly – resulting in a pommel that resists loosening much longer than most other threaded pommel designs.

All hilt components themselves are all cast fittings, wood and high quality leather – with no synthetic products used whatsoever. Indeed, these hand forged in Canada swords are some of the most traditionally made production blades on the market.

KNOWN ISSUES

Some years ago Darksword Armory was embroiled in a controversy on the Sword Forum International. Complaints were brought up by a few individuals, words were exchanged, and DSA and Eyal left the table with an injured reputation that lasted for a few years. Recently with their partnership with SBG more light has been shone on this situation – here is a statement from DSA about the incidents:

“We started getting bad reviews from SFI forum by two members, one of them who purchased a 35$ apprentice made dagger, and from another user who had never purchased a sword from our company. Their comments resulted in a “snowball” effect on the SFI, resulting in about 20 different posts. We obviously took the reviews very seriously and took appropriate steps to find the source of the reviews, the reason behind them, and to correct the problem. After several days of research we found that the second author was actually a competitor of ours, also located in Montreal. The review was written after we received our first order from ARMA, who had initially ordered their swords from our competitor, but after an ARMA member purchased one of our swords, the group decided to switch over. His reviews were specifically intended to curb our activities (but failed) .”

Their wooden core, leather wrapped scabbards are widely regarded as poor, ill fitting, often slightly corroded by rust and generically unattractive – but DSA has been working on new scabbards that will be released in the coming months.

The final issue with Darksword Armory is that while the blades are virtually indestructible, shockwaves from repeated impacts may eventually loosen the nut inside the handle. However, this is easy to remedy as the pommel can be unscrewed and the nut tightened manually as required.

INTERVIEWS WITH DARKSWORD ARMORY

Interview with Eyal Azerad, Jan 2008

REVIEWS

Sword Buyers Guide.com Reviews Reviews of Darksword Armory Swords by our sister site: Norman Sword Click on the image for the full review. The Squire Click on the image for the full review. Two Handed Medieval Sword Click on the image for the full review. Oslo Viking Click on the image for the full review. Saxon Sword Click on the image for the full review. Two Handed Gothic Click on the image for the full review. Click on the image above to be taken to the results of some destructive testing of a Darksword Armory sword.

WHERE TO BUY

By Special arrangement with Darksword Armory, their blades are available to be shipped direct from DSA right here at the SBG Sword Store - with free and partially absorbed shipping to the USA and Canada, resulting in savings of at least $30+ on some of their tried and tested models.

OTHER DARKSWORD ARMORY STOCKISTS

While Darksword Armory swords are not widely available due to the relatively low number of swords forged there, they are also available in North America at Arms of Valor.com and of course, direct from Eyal via the official DSA site.

Do you own one of the swords made by this company? Or know any good stories or information not covered here? Share it!

Click below to see contributions from other visitors to this page...

Thoughts on DSA  So far my experience with DSA is that in only buying a replica sword. But, my interests lie in the real deal.

Therefore, since my buying experience ...

Dark sword armory: Viking sword  This blade has performed nothing but well, and I am incredibly happy with it.

You see all these terrible blades on the market today, it is just horrible....

Darksword Armory  I had been looking at The Dark-Sword Armory Blades for quite some time when I came across the destruction tests by SBG. I wanted to buy one of thier blades,...

1340 Medival two hander  The blade which I bought was the 1340 Two Handed Medieval Sword. It came with very heavy packaging, wrapped in plastic, newspaper, etc. It had a very think ...

Oslo Viking is perfect  I recently received the Oslo Viking as well as the Norman dagger blades. I'm very pleased with both as they are well-made, sturdy and look like they could ...

DSA Medieval Knight Sword ..... a little disappointed.   Recently received the DSA Medieval Knight sword directly from DSA and I must say I was a little disappointed.

DSA swords obviously have a great reputation ...

medival knight  I just recieved my knight sword a few days ago and while it took longer then expected to ship it was well worth the wait!! The blade is excellent and handles ...

1340 Two Handed Medieval Sword  The blade which I bought was the 1340 Two Handed Medieval Sword. It came with very heavy packaging, wrapped in plastic, newspaper, etc. It had a very think ...

Ranger sword  Although Darksword Armory's Ranger sword looks at first glance like United Cutlery Lord of the Rings sword, it is a different beast.

Darksword's sword ...

Finding Darksword-Armory!!!  It started back when I was doing Sleepy hollow designs for Factory X. We were making The Hessian`s sword. Only in a wall hanger. I wanted a Full battle ...