Review: Arms & Armor Fechterspiel, and Kult of Athena

[Dietrich von Stroheim]

I contacted Craig at Arms & Armor about purchasing one of his high-end federschwert. Craig told me that he had a bit of a backlog in the queue, and it would take a few months before he'd be able to forge me one. However, he told me that it was possible one of his distributors, Kult of Athena, might have one in stock.

Turns out Kult of Athena had exactly one in stock, and not being much for waiting, I snapped it up. Shipping was incredibly fast...within three days of me placing my order, I had a gorgeous sword waiting for me on the doorstep.

(will take a pic later today)

This sword handles like a friggin' lightsaber! It is so well-balanced, responsive, lively and fast. I've fought with it, and the ease of control it affords makes it great for sparring.

After a few weeks of sparring, I noticed the handle was loose. I reached out to Craig again, who not only figured out what was wrong, but asked me to ship it to him, and he'd fix it for free!

How cool and professional is that? I shipped the Fechterspiel to him--and decided to buy one of his custom leather sheathes for it, while I was at it--and Craig did exactly as he said he would, fixing the hilt even though it wasn't even him that sold it to me.

Arms and Armor, and Kult of Athena, both get five stars for excellent customer service, and the sword itself is just goddamn amazing, the nicest sparring weapon I've ever swung. I am looking forward to kicking some ass with it at Fechtschule America next month!

Huzzah!

[Dietrich von Stroheim]

Ok, here are some pictures! If you are thinking about getting a federschwert for unarmored or lightly-armored steel fighting, I highly recommend this one.

Fechterspiel

Sword and Sheathe

Sword in sheathe