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Hanwei practical european style screw on pommel swords

by Ryan
(Langley, BC, Canada)

We haven't had one that did not break or become too loose to use. The group im in has owned every european styled sword of Hanwei's practical series, and their screw on pommels are a weak point in their line.

In Hanwei's defence, most of the damage occured by unskilled participants using the wrong techniques for the style of sword and swinging way too hard.

However, all three mortuary hilted swords, the practical side sword, and the practical cup hilted rapier broke where the screw is welded to the tang. Two practical rapiers had their screws srtipped and could no longer hold a pommel (from repeated tightenning). Last but not least, the practical (an old one mind you) basket hilted broad sword broke where the blade meets the tang, right at the guard.

The broad sword was probably just a lemon, but it was discovered that the handles on the mortuary hilted swords did not fit properly and super glue had been used as a space filler.

Hanwei rapiers are fine for rapeir fighting... but
I do not personally recommend useing hanwei rapiers against the heavier peened pommel swords except for light drills.

Comments for
Hanwei practical european style screw on pommel swords

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Jun 15, 2009
 Similar problems
by: Dave MacKenzie

I have had quite a lot of problems with their practical Scottish basket hilts. After only about a minute at most of light sparring, the blade on one snapped at the hilt almost hitting a spectator. The other nearly flew out of the hilt due to the pommel nut stripping.
So, needless to say, I do not use those anymore..
Jul 19, 2008
 My hanwei experiences
by: Nick Thomas (Academy of Historical Fencing)

I know of the troubles you speak and have witnessed them myself, however Hanwei do continually make improvements to their lineup all the time and its made a big difference. Our club buys in bucket loads of hanweis and most of our members use them, every starts out with either the 43" practical rapier for Capo Ferro teachings by me, or the practical hand and a half for instruction is German longsword by our other instructor. Over the last year, we have as a club bought atleast 30 practical hanwei swords and not broken a single one, and we do train hard with a lot of sparring.

I know that some of the heavier blades practical line were more susceptable to these problems, the sidesword being a major problem, but I have been using one of the newest ones for the last few weeks to trial it and its not had any problems.

Another problem we found was with the Hutton Sabres, some of them snapped half way up the blade during sparring and sent the top half flying across the room, we stopped using them for a year but in the last few months have taken them back up, if you compare the current hutton sabres to the one a year or two back, the blade is almost double the thickness, making it much stronger and much nicer to use, as they really were flimsy originally.
Dec 10, 2007
 That's a bit scary...
by: Paul Southren

Hmm, it sounds to be something of a safety issue there. I know that they are now taking feedback like this very seriously, so thanks for sharing - they are trying to evolve the line and info like this is worth its weight in gold, not just to the manufacturers, but to everone else.

Kudos!

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