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.
pirate ;. –
Very good sword! Very good small sword. Well balanced and polished blade. Exelent for trust. For this prize must have it !
Adrian –
Strong Sword This is a rather interesting smallsword. The hilt isn’t really meant for the proper smallsword grip, where the fingers pinch the quillon block instead of being inserted into the finger rings. Instead the blade is quite heavy (for a smallsword) and the finger rings are a necessity to maintain good control. The grip itself is rather long and a big narrow with a taper to the heel of the hand, leading to some discomfort without thicker gloves to help give support.
Functionality wise the blade is incredibly strong and stiff. I have no qualms that it would thrust through just about anything you put in front of it.
If anything this sword is more like an extremely late period, short, edgeless rapier than a smallsword.
Steve (verified owner) –
The sword is nice. My review is only a “good” however because the sheath which came with the sword is of low quality. The leather is cheap and is damaged quite easily, and the inside of the sheath looks to be made of cheap material as well. I’m not particularly upset about this, but I would have preferred to have a high quality sheath; if one was offered as an accessory I would have bought it
robertdare_2002 (verified owner) –
I do like the Cold Steel Smallsword decoration,steel construction, grip wrap and scabbard.
However it can use some improvements.
#1- The blade profile could be slightly thinner overall.
#2- Slightly larger guard. I do wish it was just a fully rounded guard. This would offer more protection.
#3- Tip needs to be tapered more so it’s gets far thinner towards the end. This would help with penetration.
#4- Cold Steel should offer a leather frog as an accessory. They don’t do this with any of their Rapiers , Smallswords or Daggers. Even if it’s a third party frog.
They do a good job overall.
My Indian brass made 1767 Officer Reproduction Smallsword has a better blade profile but uses brass for the handle, pommel and guard. Cold Steel should adopt that type of blade profile with a steel handle, pommel and guard.
Still for under $400 it’s a good buy.
Hopefully in the future they can offer a second triangular Smallsword blade. A MK 2 model.
Michael (verified owner) –
The very first detail of the Cold steel small sword that caught my eye was the copper colored wire over the top of the silver wire wrapped wire that covers the handle. I personally thought it cheapened the overall look and it was not included in Kult of Athena’s advertising description. I’d seen it before in the same sword advertised on amazon as cold steel seconds. The detail of the guard in general was OK with the exception of excess slag from the casting process between the rings and the Quilon and excess glue seeping out between the wire grip and the ricacso. (I suspect the handle is full of glue).The blade looked fine but maybe a tad tip heavy. I have no intention of using it for anything but displaying with my other Renascence era rapiers but I still enjoy quality. In all honesty if I had paid $125.00 less I would maybe felt I got my money’s worth. A little cosmetic adjustments and it will work for my intended purposes but in the future I will avoid Cold steel swords.
Michael (verified owner) –
This is an update of my review of February 25, 2023 I’ve decided to give Cold steel a four star rating because they deserve it. Simply for designing and manufacturing a pretty decent small sword. The market isn’t exactly flooded with them and the few that are out there are either super cheaply made, way heavier than the Cold steel version or out of the ballpark price wise .If it were not for the two tone wire wrap on the handle I would rate it a 5 star. Kudos to Cold steel for offering a small sword for a pretty fair price.
Trae –
I don’t know precisely what has happened at Cold Steel, but, the quality of their products has gone down significantly in materials and really suffers with the terrible assembly work done at the factories.
Personally I have admired the products they used to put out, like in the 90’s. I have a Tanto I bought with allowance money Around 1982-83’ish. It took me about a year to save up to by the Tanto I’d wanted forever, my allowance money was pitiful to say the least, but that’s a whole other story ha.
Anyway I have purchased Katanas over the 90’s time frame and they were awesome. The last thing I bought was the Persian type Sabre. It SUCKS! The blade is got an edge grind done by someone who’s legally blind I assume. The finish is terrible as well, the handle is uncomfortable to the point of making the sword useless. The leather sheath, of any sheath I have seen in 53 years, that is the worst one ever. There is so much friction that it takes a Herculean effort to clear leather. That one gets an “F” in ever category.
I’m saddened by the change I’ve witnessed in Cold Steel over the years. Did the Owner get tired of it all and contracted an Asian company to take over? That’s darn sure what it looks like. The funny thing is the quality took a huge dump and the prices went up significantly.
To those that don’t know, Cold Steel sold recently to GSM a sporting goods company. They should by rights call it the Sporting Garbage Company.
Lynn Thompson shame on you too, the quality began sinking like the Titanic starting in the 2000’s. I wish the name Cold Steel could be a trusted name where you could buy any knife by just knowing the name of it, never have seen a picture of it, order the knife and when you open the package you are blown away by the over the top quality.
The Tanto in bought back in the early 80’s is still sharp as hell, scary sharp, plucky sharp, the kraton Handle is still great and doesn’t leave black marks on your hands when using it. The leather sheath is THICK and SUPPLE it is still perfect like it should be.
So BUYER BEWARE, you may very well be super disappointed when you opened the boxes as I have been. Don’t do like I did and keep buying hoping the last ones were just flukes and slipped through QC.
That’s all I gave to say about Cold Steel. It’s just depressing.
Caerolle Claudel –
Wow, I was really excited until I saw the weight. This seems quite heavy for a small sword, by a good 5 oz? Otherwise I am excited to even find a modern version, esp on that seems to be sharp.