Condor Tool & Knife Condor Grosse Messer Sword | 1075 High Carbon Steel Blade Messer Sword with Hickory and Walnut Handle for Martial Arts Practice | 31.9in Blade | 5mm Thick | 74.8 oz

the blade is excellent, as all condor blades are. reason it does not get a 5+ is the sheathe in useless as in not even functional. condor has a problem with whoever designs their sheathes. for instance Sinbad has no belt loop and the shape of the blade rules out any frog etc. problem with this sheathe is it is the exact same shape as the blade, wider at the tip end than the hilt. even if you where to get the blade all the way in the sheathe I doubt you would ever remove it. condor REALLY needs to design sheathes better.

The sword itself is what I expected at this price point. It is an incredibly robust and sturdy blade that handles like a sharpened club. It is not entirely historically accurate but I also didn't think it would be. The first 1/3 of the blade is reasonably sharp but not enough to cut paper. After that point it gets disappointingly dull. I should be able to fix it with a large arkansas stone so I'm not overly concerned. There is no distal taper to speak of and the blade is the same thickness from hilt to a handwidth from the point. Fit and finish is mediocre but acceptable, except the wood handle comes completely unsealed. Overall, the sword is reasonable quality at this price point and a good hacker and chopper if not balanced well enough for cutting and thrusting. At this point of the review I'd give it 3-4 stars.There was no sheath! I actually wouldn't care except both the description and picture include the sheath. On top of that the Amazon product support link refers you to a company that doesn't sell the product and can provide no support! Rating dropped to two stars.

This sword is amazing. I was a little nervous as I had read a few reviews about crooked fullers or bent blades but mine is perfect.I'm blown away by the quality for the price. I haven't put it through it's full paces yet, but I cut into a hardwood chopping block for a bit and the edge was none the worse for wear.I will agree that this thing is pretty damn heavy, but it's perfectly fine when held two handed (which there's more than enough room for).Fit and finish is excellent. Pins are evenly spaced, pommel is well shaped, fuller is straight and the hilt has zero play or gaps.Extremely worth it.

This sword was exactly what I expected. That said I didn’t expect much. It’s passable as a tool but not really a sword, it’s just too heavy. It lacks a distal taper making the blade just a little too on the unwieldy side, it’s something you can work around but i chose to just use this to chopWood in my backyard instead.

This is a modern interpretation of a grosse messer. If you’re looking for a sword that’s historically correct and light you might want to look elsewhere but you’re going to pay a lot more money, and you won’t get steel as good as this sword has. Everything I’ve bought from condor has great steel that’s also correctly heat treated. Mine came pretty sharp and after sharpening it with my work sharp knife and tool sharpener its razor sharp, will slice paper with no problem. Although it’s toward the higher end of the spectrum of weight for historic messers, If you’re strong you will have no problem wielding it after a little practice. Grosse messers historically varied quite a bit in weight. The sheath is beautiful and very well built also. The sword is extremely well constructed and durable so if you want a great sword for the price that you can use to have fun in the backyard cutting big things in half you Should be happy with this one.

I’ve ordered two of these swords because I thought the first was a one-off issue. The first sword came packaged very well but the actual sword had a very crooked fuller on one side. It also had a very off center pin for the handle scales. The scabbard had damage and could not fit the sword. Also, completely blunt.The second sword was very poorly packaged, despite that it had a beautiful fuller, the scales were pinned correctly but the wood was frayed and full of glue filler. The blade itself has a very bad bend from improper tempering. The tip was bent as well, possibly from poor packaging. The scabbard was of good quality though. The sword was also moderately sharp. Both these swords came with a disappointing secondary bevel. I’m quite unhappy with the quality which is a first from a condor product. I own several items from their catalog.I am considering ordering one more to see if 3rd times a charm. I’m also wondering if the swords amazon is selling are factory seconds.

10/10 on sharpness! Would recommend to a friend! Careful not to have fingers in the way or you'll end up with 7-8 stitches, i found out the hard way while putting oil on the sword to make it shine and protect it from rusting. Still though, what a magnificent blade! Amazing quality!

Not a historically correct design, made by folks who do not understand sword making. Heavy, clumsy in the hand, not very sharp, scabbard fell apart starting immediately. Just skip it!