Overview
Our sharpening service will provide a good serviceable edge on the blade. The result is typically “very sharp” with a small secondary bevel and a bit of an “apple seed” profile. The resulting edge is somewhat dependent on the particular blade. Some blades will take and hold sharper edges than others and the thickness of the blade will determine how wide the bevel will need to be. We adjust the angle of the edge to suit the specific blade and attempt to get as close to a bevel-less edge as possible without marring the surface of the blade.
The Sharpening Process
The sharpening service is done with a belt sander. The process involves many passes with sanding belts of various grits. The blades are rested between passes to prevent them from becoming hot and damaging their temper. By default we will sharpen as much of the blade as possible including any false edges if appropriate. If you have a different preference, feel free to make that request in the special instructions at check out. We can sharpen only the last half or third of an edge, for example. Our sword sharpening expert has personally sharpened several thousand swords at this point, so will provide you with a professional service.
What the Service is Not
The resulting edge will be “sword sharp” not razor sharp. Our goal is to provide you with a usable edge for cutting practice that will hold up to some use and not require constant re-sharpening. In other words, we intend to provide you with a serviceable weapon, not a personal grooming implement. The service will not provide a completely bevel-less edge. To create that type of edge will necessarily scratch up the blade surface and we lack the machinery and time to provide a full re-polishing of a blade’s surface. A service of that nature would be significantly more expensive as a great deal more time would be required. We do not offer this type of service at this time.
Disclaimer
We make no guarantee that the resulting edge will meet with your expectations. Every blade is different and some will take and hold a sharper edge than others, due to the blade material, heat treatment or geometry. Some customers can also have incorrect assumptions about sword sharpness and improper expectations as a result. All we can say for sure is that the resulting edge will be sharper than the default edge, in most cases, significantly so. We can not provide any refunds for the service once it has been completed, so consider it to be provided “as is”. That being said, if you are unhappy with the product for any reason, we do still allow you to return the item for a full refund, including the sharpening costs under our normal return policy. This does not apply to special sharpening requests, for example if we sharpen something specially for you that does not normally list that option on our site. The vast majority of our customers are happy with the results of the service, so as long as you keep the above mentioned in mind, we are confident you will be pleased with the results as well.
charles.p.noble –
I can’t really address this sword without first covering the customer service experience. It is almost unprecedented. The backstory: I signed up for the April 2022 Icebreaker tournament in December 2021. Plenty of time to notice that the rules of the Novice Division expressly forbid steel longswords (I have an Albion.) Sadly, I did not..until 5 days before the tournament. Like an idiot, I assumed (incorrectly) that there would be no way that Kult of Athena could get this sword to me in time, so I tried (successfully) to find a similar version on Amazon. Amazon also promised two day delivery. They did in fact get me something in two days. The issue? Their warehouse decided to mail me a longsword length box filled with weather stripping instead. When I called Amazon Customer Service, they told me that while they were “Very sorry” they had sent me weather stripping rather than the sword I had actually purchased, but they didn’t feel too badly about it because (and this is a direct quote from Amazon Customer Service,) “To our credit, our Warehouse did actually get the shipping label right, we were just a little off on the contents.” I informed them that this is like a Fire Department telling a homeowner that they got the address right, but accidentally filled the fire trucks with gasoline rather than water.” Amazon’s Customer Service genius was not amused by this. Instead, he blankly told me that he was “Still very sorry,” but the earliest he could get me an actual sword like the one I ordered would be after I was supposed to leave for the Icebreaker Tournament, even with the fastest shipping. Enter Kult of Athena, who I really should have contacted to begin with. Seeing my desperate email, they called me and told me that they had a store that was more or less on my route to the tournament, and they had a sword that met the requirements of the Icebreaker Tournament, and they could have it ready for me by opening time on the beginning of my travel day to the tournament. When I got to the store, they actually had gone a step further, finding three different options (which they reduced to the same overall price so that I could be sure that it was a sword I was comfortable competing with,) and they even gave me a tour of the warehouse while I was there. It didn’t appear to have had a lot of regular foot traffic, other than by the employees themselves, but it was truly a sight to behold. The inventory was absolutely massive, and nothing looked different than it did on the website, from what I could see. More importantly, the staff was super friendly, and they all were super hospitable and had a great sense of humor about the whole thing when I thanked them for keeping me from having to compete in my first tournament with Amazon’s Weather Stripping. When you order from Kult of Athena, you aren’t ordering from some corporate juggernaut. This is a tight knit group of maybe 5 staffers that are closer than family and genuinely care about what they’re doing and the customers that order from them. If you order from them and they do make a mistake (they are humans, so I’m sure it happens,) they’re going to move heaven and earth to make it right and take care of you. They aren’t going to mail you the wrong thing and say “Sucks to be you.” They’ll move heaven and earth to make sure you’re happy with the end result. I think they may well have overnighted that sword to my hotel in Minnesota if it came to that. They really care, and for that reason, if I’m choosing between Kult of Athena and any other site on an item of similar quality, all things being even close to even, I will go with Kult of Athena, because they care more, and I know I can count on them to deliver. Sword quality was pretty good as well, but the truly memorable part was that the company that sold it came through at the last minute when another had failed me.