Testing out the second Alvin-made DS. The first one came dull and with a twisted blade. The first one also suffered microchip after test cutting on wet newspapers. So after some communication with the smith, it was sent back to him. He made me a new, better one.
The second one features a sharp blade out of the box, straight and good. It's made very accurately to the spec., except the guard being several mm shallower. It's definitely the most accurate DS I've received so far, and the lightest among the three-some.
However, the hardness isn't very high compare to the Tinker-made and John Lundemo-made one, spotting low at 40 HRC to high at below 55HRC. Edge got dulled after test cutting on newspapers. No microchip this time. It's acceptable to me, at the given price and shipping time. I don't expect a super sword at that cost.
One interesting note is that the blade has a hole in it that was filled with a harder steel. Strange huh? I don't think it will affect functionality, and I think it's from the leaf-spring application of the steel. Just the first time I saw something like this though.
