Medieval Review - Windlass Suontaka Viking Sword

I have really been looking forward to the review I'm going to do today. Mostly because I've actually covered this sword in a spotlight feature and now I've gone and I've actually picked it up. And that is the Windless Steelcraft Suwantaka Viking Sword. Unearthed from an 11th century noblewoman's grave, the Suwantaka sword was named after the location where it was found. This replica of the beautiful and artful viking sword has a blade of tempered 1085 high carbon steel. The guard, pommel, and hilt fittings are of metal with an antiqued bronze finish and are richly imbued with viking knotwork and imagery of coiled serpents and beasts. The grip is of a carved wood with inset plates of antiqued bronze finished metal. The tang was peened over the pommel to sturdily fit the sword components to the tang. The sword comes with a scabbard of leather with fittings of metal that match the sword by having the antiqued bronze finish. It has an integrated sword belt of leather with matching metal fittings. This sword, like many viking swords, has a blade that retains considerable width and mass in the spatula tip. While this makes a blade that feels heavier more than tapered forms, it does create a blade that cuts and hacks with great force. Here are the specifications of the Suuntaka Viking Sword. This sword has everything you could want in the aesthetics of a viking sword. The bronze finished hilt components just look really beautiful and they did a very good job recreating this based on the original piece. The handle, I think they got a really good visual design with it. It's important to note the original is missing the aspects of the handle, so no one really knows what it would have looked like on the original sword. The guess has varied and you can see this in some of the ones that I covered in my spotlight review and that some people just cover in leather and some people leave it as bare wood. I believe what they did with this handle fits the overall design really well and I think the grip, the wood of it just looks beautiful. I will note that there's one small gripe that I have with the hilt components and that is actually, I feel that the triangular portions that go out into the grip are not always perfectly aligned with the rest of the hilt component. It's not something you really notice until you get very, very close to it. I can't even say that this would be a consistent problem with every single one of these swords. However, the fact that this got through quality control at Windlass would suggest that they probably make the same mistake pretty regularly. Otherwise visually, it is very much looks like a good standard Viking sword. Got a very wide blade with a very wide and deep fuller. I will note that the spatulated tip is not actually spatulated. As you can actually see here, there's a ridge. What essentially happens is it would appear that Windlass uses a stock rigid or ridged blade, one that maybe has a diagonal cross section and then they beat in the fuller and they widen the blade. Essentially, you lose that ridge and it looks correct until you get to the tip and the tip suddenly, you can see remnants of that ridge. That's not historically accurate. Viking sword wouldn't look like that. It wouldn't have that ridge. I think it's important to note that while it looks really good, it's not perfect, but it's really close. I can't believe how happy I am with this sword. I didn't know if I was going to buy it or not. This is one that I picked up actually in the storefront of Windlass in Atlanta. I wanted to see it. I wanted to see if it looked as good as the pictures. Yes, it did. It looked really good. Aesthetically, I'm also going to speak a little bit about the scabbard because it's got some nice little detailings on it. The buckle pieces all look very nice as well. I think that's actually a positive in this sword, whereas some other Windlass scabbard and belt assemblies haven't always had that kind of a nice look to them. It is still very much a Windlass scabbard. That is to say, the quality of the scabbard isn't the highest, but because it comes with the sword, it's almost a bonus. Honestly, this sword in and of itself, in my opinion, is actually worth the price. Really, the scabbard and all that really is just a bonus with this sword. Yeah, I think they did a fantastic job recreating the Suen Takah sword. I think it's one of the better replicas out there. Very, very high marks as far as aesthetics go. From a functionality standpoint, Windlass actually almost calls themselves out. They're really kind of blaming it more on Viking sword designs. They talk about the weight of this sword. Like you would expect from a Viking sword, it's pretty heavy. It feels very heavy. However, from a functionality standpoint, in terms of actually using it, and when I was doing cut tests, I noticed that, honestly, it didn't feel that bad in motion. It felt light enough, and it felt controllable enough, which is good. You want that in a sword, but especially with a Viking sword, that can be a hard balance to strike because they do tend to be much more blade heavy, and they do tend to be much more focused on cut action. A lot of times with replica swords or recreations of Viking swords, that can kind of get out of balance, and you have a very heavy sword that makes it a lot harder to be functional. I think this one feels really good. I have a little bit of a concern with the wood handle because the wood is actually very smooth. I feel like I might lose a little bit of grip there. Thankfully, of course, by design, the Viking sword has this very large pommel piece that is going to more or less stop your hand from slipping, but overall, again, I'm actually very surprised by how well it performs functionally. Of course, it's windless. Windless steel is not the best, but it's certainly far from the worst, and probably the biggest mark for this is actually the construction. This is probably the most well constructed windless sword I've ever actually had the pleasure of holding. The peen isn't the best peen visually, but it serves its purpose, but I feel like the entire assembly is rock solid, and I have no doubt that it will hold up if I were to use it a good bit. I don't really have plans on using this sword all that much. I really did buy it more for its historical significance in terms of the original piece, and certainly for its aesthetics. I'm not a big user of Viking swords, but I really wanted to have a good one, and I think that this one really fits the bill. I'm absolutely surprised at how much I like this sword from a functionality standpoint. It is really good. In concluding this review, I'm going to speak a little bit more to windless as a company, and not so much about this sword specifically, although I do believe that what I'm about to talk about, this sword embodies it, and it's important as a preface to reviewing this sword and giving it a score. That is that I feel that windless has begun to do something that they really needed to do, and that is to make a higher quality sword. A lot of their swords, as we've seen in past reviews of mine, they're good basic entry-level swords, but they aren't the best thing ever. They've begun to move into the mid-range sword market, and not just being entry-level. We've seen them attempt that with swords like the Accolade sword that I've already reviewed on this channel, but they've missed the mark there. However, that hasn't dissuaded them, and as you've seen in my review of the Christus Emperor Rapier, they actually did do a really good job of building a very nice premium sword. This one here, the Suunto Ka Viking sword, they've done it again. It is a good sword, it's a great sword, and they've done a really good job in the design, the aesthetics, and the construction of it. I'm extremely happy with that. As windless moves more into that, I think that we're going to actually see more of these really good swords from them, at least that's my hope. This sword specifically, I think really embodies that. It really has shown that honestly, windless has actually upped their game a bit. They have made a slightly better sword, and I hope we see more things like that. But as far as this sword is concerned, I'm extremely happy with it. I think they did a fantastic job. It is probably one of the best swords that windless has in their offerings today, and I think if you're looking for a good Viking sword, or if you're looking for a good replica of the Suunto Ka Viking sword, you really can't go wrong with this one. I think it's really good. So here it is, it is the Windless Steelcraft's Suunto Ka Viking sword. I give it a 4 out of 5.