This The Irish Ring Leaf Blade Long Sword by Valiant Armoury is a highly functional Irish ring sword from their premium Craftsman Series line of swords. Lively, responsive and capable of deep and decisive cutting despite its large size, the sharpened blade of this sword has appleseed geometry edges which not only give the sword a fine edge, but a durable and damage-resistant one as well. The blade is 6150 high carbon steel which was well-tempered a 52 HRc hardness. The steel was normalized twice over before tempering to evenly distribute its carbon content to improve grain structure and optimize the blade for even and consistent results during heat treatment to ensure that the blade is evenly tempered well throughout.
The crossguard and pommel are crafted from steel and the blade is sturdily mounted into the hilt with a hot peen over the pommel for an altogether robust construction. The expertly-contoured grip is made from hardwood and then firmly bound with top quality green-dyed leather – the grip is quite long and serves to give the bearer excellent leverage to best bring the large blade to bear on the target. Included with the sword is a premium quality Valiant Armoury scabbard which is crafted from wood and expertly bound in form-fitting matching green leather. To knotted anchoring points of black leather with metal buckles fasten the scabbard to the included sword belt and allow for the belt hangers to adjust the height and angle by which the sword is slung from the belt. The belt itself is crafted from thick, durable and high quality leather and is completed with an antiqued metal buckle. The tongues of all buckles are crafted from steel for improved durability.
Russell Timmerman –
This sword is balanced, responsive and has prefect blade harmonics. The upper point of percussion is exactly at the swell of the blade just where you want it to be. The Irish lass holds point beautifully. Excellent balance between cut and thrust. Just the right balance of authority in the cut vs responsiveness of the blade IMO.
The fit and finish of Zach’s leather work on the grip and scabbard is first rate. Really there should be an entire review done on his scabbard work. You can’t get a better scabbard included in the price of a production sword anywhere else in the world.
The pommel takes getting used to. Mine was sharp around the corners of the peen block and the inner circle of the ring. I took a bit of time with 800 -2000 grit papers and sorted it.
Getting perfect balance and blade harmonics means the pommel has to be of a certain weight and with a ring pommel being hollow it means in this case that it has to be large. Therefore even after softening the edges I find the pommel not great for handling both because of its size and the nature of the peen block used. But the Irish pommel with elevated peen block looks so good it’s hard to fault it. Luckily the grip is very long so there is tons of room to hold the sword without needing to grip the pommel.
4.5/out of 5 for the sharp corners on the peen block and inner ring of the pommel. 5 out 5 for literally everything else.
alientude –
Fantastic sword that is just about the only way to get a long leaf blade without hoping to luck into one of Angus Trim’s or going full custom. It’s visually one of the most striking swords in my collection. I really only have one complaint about it – the tip was overheated slightly during sharpening, causing some blackening. A little more care here, or simply leaving the tip unsharpened would be a good idea. But this is a pretty minor detail as it can be fixed with a file very quickly.
It handles extremely well, making full use of the 36″ blade, feeling even longer than that. Vibration nodes are perfectly placed, it’s balanced at just past 3″, and overall feels good. All that said, it’s still not quite right handling for me – the sword has a lot of heft to it in all areas, but especially out towards the swell of the blade, and at the crossguard. It makes the sword feel just a bit different, a bit unique.
I did a full review on YouTube: https://youtu.be/eRYJ4LRDn8s