Szymon Chlebowski federschwert review

[Mike Edelson]

This is my review of Szymon Chlebowski's excellent federschwerts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7u1AUSHBU

[Joeli Takala]

Awesome stuff. Those look a lot like the comfort fencing feders. The blunt non feder longsword by szymon with rolled tip is one of the nicest training swords I have handled. It is great that szymon also fenfes with these swords quite a lot. He is one of the most accomplished longsword fencers in Poland. From what I have heard his prices are damn good, too.

How long are his waiting times?

[Mike Edelson]

I don't know the typical times. For me it was two months, which by American standards is pretty awesome.

[StephenKime]

We had 2 of them for last PNW in Seattle. Decent swords but they didnt survive the tournament. In my opinion an Ensifer feder would eat them up in no time. Loved the balance and weight but they just didnt have the durabability that i would have liked.

Now the ones i used were prototypes as i was told. i dont know if Szymon has made any changes. Havent Watched the review yet so i dont know if this was a prototype or an improved one.

[keith cotter-reilly]

Stephen - Mine is used regularly against a Mac, some Regenyeis, and a Krsticic. All have different handling and hardness characteristics. It has done fine against them with no problems. I fought with it against Peach's Ensifer at CombatCon and it more than held it's own. So that may have been an issue with tweaking them.

The ones you got may have had a softer hardness, but he can adjust this as needed, and seems to have done so.

[Jake Norwood]

Yeah, his earlier generation stuff was a lot softer. Also, you may have had a training sword and not a feder. The training swords are not suited for tournament play.

[StephenKime]

it was Definately a Feder.

But as i said. it was the prototype and i was told that the feedback from the tournament would help improve the product so who knows. Maybe this one is the improved model. but the ones we had were pretty fargone at the end of the tournament.

[Mike Edelson]

We had 2 of them for last PNW in Seattle. Decent swords but they didnt survive the tournament. In my opinion an Ensifer feder would eat them up in no time. Loved the balance and weight but they just didnt have the durabability that i would have liked.

Now the ones i used were prototypes as i was told. i dont know if Szymon has made any changes. Havent Watched the review yet so i dont know if this was a prototype or an improved one.

It's not fair to evaluate anyone's work based on a prototype. Most protypes suck, which is why they are prototypes.

Whatever changes he made to his hardening process did the trick, it seems. I have one of his training swords, which as Jake says are not suited to tournament play, but we put it in one anyway (that's just how we roll), and it survived despite some horrific abuse ("Teeth!!!"). These non-prototype feders are really tough. Maybe too tough. Our limited experience using them in practice thus far is that they are very hard on other feders, but on the bright side, they will pound your other feders' gouged edges smooth, so you'll have less filing to do.

In my opinion an Ensifer feder would eat them up in no time

Ensifers are good swords, but I seriously doubt that. Ensifers, like most feders, like to bend in the thrust. I bent Jake's Ensifer long heavy (sorry! ), and all I did was thrust a guy who happened to step forward at the same time. The only feders that I personally have not seen bend in the thrust are Albion Meyers, and I don't know if that's Albion's heat treatment or just my luck. These Chlebowskis should be quite resistant to bending from thrusts, from what I can tell with what I've done with them so far (in the past I've bent feders doing thrusting pell work in just a few minutes, and I've used the Chlebowski on that pell for hours). Another way a feder can "eat up" another is edge damage, and trust me...that's not going to happen. Those edges...wow.

[StephenKime]

It's not fair to evaluate anyone's work based on a prototype. Most protypes suck, which is why they are prototypes.

just my experience with the specific product i held. Like I said i do not know what changes were made. although that being said I wouldn't mind handling one of the new ones to see what the differences were.

The ones i used were quite soft. and on an aggressive thrust between 2 aggressive combatants, the blade did bend, but at the crossguard and not at the tip as the ensifers have and the A&A have in past experiences.From watching the video you posted mike i would say this is unlikely to happen in a newer model but i cannot draw any conclusions without trying it myself.

If anyone is bringing one to PNW this year im am curious to have a second look at the finished product. As it stands the ensifers are still the only ones Ive used extensively that can withstand the abuse we subject our training swords to. Being a bit of a sword fanatic im always wanting to try new products.

[Mike Edelson]

If softness is your concern, you can put aside. These things are hard. From three hours of banging into other feders, the only "damage" to the edges of mine are light scratches. And as I said, hours of use on my thrusting pell.