Darksword Armory

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...

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.

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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.

As far as hilt assemblies go, they use one of two methods. The older method, which is used less frequently now sees a threaded, adjustable hilt shown below.

In this case, 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.

The other more recent method, which they are now using on the vast majority of their swords, is traditional peening - which basically consists of the tang being hammered flat on the pommel, resulting in a very sturdy (and traditional) sword overall.

In all cases, the hilt components themselves are made from cast fittings, wood and high quality leather – with no synthetic products used whatsoever. Indeed, these 'hand forged in Canada' swords are actually some of the most traditionally made production blades on the market, despite their relatively low price.

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) .”

With regards to issues with the swords themselves, the most frequent complaints were that the scabbards were horrible, the blades sometimes a little too 'utilitarian' in their polish (i.e. it was often a bit rough), the fittings not 100% straight (though historical hand made swords show the same tendencies!) and that with their older method threaded tang assemblies, sometimes repeated blows would loosen them (this is easy to remedy as the pommel can be unscrewed and the nut tightened manually as required).

Recently though, DSA have addressed almost all of these issues - with their swords now having better scabbards (and a custom style scabbard upgrade option), a much higher level of polish (though some people do not like it, preffering a more satin appearance) and peened pommels as mentioned earlier.

As such, the only real issues remaining is that they do sometimes have minor cosmetic defects or non perfectly aligned fittings, some of their swords are regarded as being overly heavy for the type - and despite being well balanced, can be tiring to weild for lengthy periods - and that their swords are not truly copies of historical originals but rather more interpretitive pieces.

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: 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. Guardian Sword Click on the image for the full review. Ranger (LoTR) Click on the image for the full review. Anduril (LoTR) Click on the image for the full review. Norman Sword Click on the image for the full review. Two Handed Medieval Sword 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 ...

sword sharpening service  I have the 15th Century gothic sword and I find it an exceptional sword for the price.

I paid $35 for the sharpening service which delayed shipment ...

I purchased DSA Elven Fantasy Sword   My first real sword....
The blade, crossguard and pummel rock! I had the grip replaced recently (DSA sent me a new one, no charge) as it had deteriorated ...

Broken Guard  I own the medieval knight sword portrayed in your site (the one illustrating the 'How they are made' part) and had just one single issue: the guard is ...

I bought a sword from Darksword Armory.  I got excellent service from them. The delivery service lost the first one they sent me, but they quickly sent me out another and when it arrived i was ...

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 ...