Museum Replicas Limited Towton

Museum Replicas Limited

Towton

Performance Review:
I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised by this effort from MRL in all categories including performance. As is par for the course I did not do any cutting with this sword, but in dry handling it was really quite nice. It tracks well and is very lively. I have been told that despite its appearance that this sword handles quite well in the cut but is not as much of a thruster as one might expect, that is the
blade is a bit too flexible. That’s a bit odd for a type XVIa sword, but there you have it. I did no thrusting tests with the sword myself so I can not authoritatively make a judgement one way or another. I can say that the sword provides excellent tip control so the user should be able to easily put the sword no target with a thrust at the very least!

Appearance:
Again I will have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. The blade on this particular piece was very nicely done with no noticeable asymmetries or wobbles, the only thing that detracted from the blade was the ubiquitous “made in India” stamp with which MRL insisted (I think they have since gone to using stickers) on decorating their Windlass products. The pommel and cross on this piece were also nicely done, as is usual with MRL pieces they were perhaps a bit to polished, but that actually seemed to work pretty well for this sword. The grip stitching was the standard MRL thin leather over corded risers and hardwood. I replaced the leather outer and I think it really made the piece pop.

Conclusion:
I had heard good things about the Towton and I have to agree with those that think that for the money the MRL Towton is really quite a nice sword. It’s really head and shoulders above some of the other MRL pieces I’ve handled so kudos to MRL for doing a nice job with this one and may they continue to head in that direction.