Royal Armouries Collection (Matt Easton/Windlass) English Longsword & Wakefield Hanger Review

UPDATE: part 2 of this review with extensive cutting is out:    • Royal Armouries Collection Cutting an...   with some corrections regarding the originals' measurements.

The Royal Armouries Collection is a new line of historical swords made by Windlass and designed by Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria, who closely studied and measured 6 iconic late medieval swords in English history now housed at Royal Armouries National Museums of Arms & Armour in Leeds, England.

In this review we will look at two models at launch--the early 15th century English longsword (Oakeshott Type XVII), and the late 15th century falchion commonly referred to as the "Wakefield English Hanger".

I found both of these swords incredibly pleasant to handle, and they come closer than any other replication of these specific models currently on the market. However, the tolerance is still too high to make them 1:1 replicas, and there are some minor flaws in the fit and finish that occasionally even impact the handling.

The weight of these both deviate from the originals and the official specifications--not surprising for handmade objects, but the type XVII longsword weighs at least 200g lighter than the original, while the Wakefield Hanger weighs 50g lighter. I carefully took measurements of the length, width, thickness and their tapering and found them to be slightly thinner overall than the specifications on the sellers' websites. You will see detailed explanations in the video.

Other details such as the shaping of the hexagonal cross section on the longsword and the fuller width on the Wakefield Hanger also deviate from the original in some apparent ways.

I consulted Chris Fields of Sterling Armoury (   / sterlingarmory  , a swordmaker and space engineer by trade, on the handling and stats of the longsword as he also studied the sword in person at Royal Armouries this year, and have some interesting findings on the mass distribution of the product compared to the original.

It's uncontroversial to conclude that the Windlass model is both lighter and livelier than the original, which is fantastic if you are looking for a generic type XVII longsword inspired by surviving examples, but slightly problematic if a true 1:1 replica of a specific piece is desired.

I closely examined every detail of the fit and finish and build quality and found many endearing qualities of both swords, but also some issues that need to be ironed out. You will see all of these in 4K resolution close-up footage.

Matt Easton as a designer of these products clearly have done a valiant job helping pushing Windlass for coming this far, as these are absolutely light years ahead of the qualities of Windlass' usual offerings. Yet, given the price point (especially in the UK, which is quite hefty), I think Windlass can still do better at faithfully implementing Matt Easton's designs and address some of the fit and finish errors, aspects that deviate from the originals, and their quality control. In the video I have shown some more issues discovered on the RA Collection swords owned by my friends--one of whom was going to send his two-handed sword to me for a review until he had to return it to Museum Replica when a crack was discovered on the blade by sword friend Matthew Cross.

All in all, it was quite a successful launch. Some models are already sold out at the museum and major distributors within a month. It is most definitely a welcomed direction that Windlass should keep going in.

Many thanks to Chris Fields for generously providing his insights on the museum piece. You can visit Sterling Armoury here   / sterlingarmory  

Matt Easton of Schola Gladiatoria's YouTube Channel
   / scholagladiatoria  

Royal Armouries Collection at Royal Armouries British National Museums of Arms & Armour:
https://shop.royalarmouries.org/colle...

North American Distribution of the Royal Armouries Collection swords at Museum Replicas:
https://www.museumreplicas.com/royal-...

Many thanks to Kyle Smith (alientude    / alientude  , Brother Nathaniel (   / @thelevinlance6566  ) and Matthew Cross (   / @matthewcross2  ) for generously sharing the pictorial evidence of the issues on the new swords.

Background Music:
Peaceful Lute Music Vol.1
   • Peaceful Lute Music Vol.1