The Old Models = Not so Good...

by Curtis Strickland
(Grants Pass, Or, U.S)

I brought the Valiant Armoury Mercenary Sword sometime around the spring of 2005 from an undisclosed dealer for the Price of 187.00 U.S. dollars. At the time I had done very little reseach on battle ready swords and didn't really know what to expect for my price range, about the only bit of information I had to work with was the knowledge that true swords were made from flexible carbon steel and not of the shatter prone stainless variety.

So armed with this small inkling of what a blade should be, I choose the weapon that was most aesthetic to my eye. Just by eyeballing pictures on web I was able to discern that the Mercenary was goning to be a very large and heavy sword, but when I actually got the beast home I couldn't believe it's weight. Now I'm not a small man, and I'm no stranger to the weight room, but this sword was truly unwieldly. After going through some dry handling, which I'm by no means an expert at, I then decided to do some light cutting, The Mercenary ate through some one liter plasitc bottles easy enough, with little to no resistance. Then I decided to up the game to a water filled milk jugs. I Struck the first jug antcipating that the sword would respond with ease, but to my surprise a jarring wave shot up through my arm. Shaking off the haze I looked for my beaten foe, there on the ground, cap blown off from pressure, but by no means cut lay the jug and then I discovered a nice long crack running down about 2.5 inches from the hilt of The Mercenary.