The ATRIM AT1516

While we were at Blade Show Atlanta looking at some of Gus' swords my wife took a liking to the AT1516. Since Gus said he was thinking about sending us a few more swords to evaluate, I asked if the AT1516 could be one of them. Gus was very gracious and let me keep it for several months so we really got to know this one well.

Gus called this one a "light" bastard sword and if that was what he was going for he did a darn fine job. I find for a larger person especially, this could easily be a "little bit of everything" sword. I am 5'10" and 250 lb. and for me, this really falls into a category of one handed swords that can be comfortably used two handed. And it is point lively enough that I was able to easily able to work C&T / Meyer rapier along with long sword techniques with it.

My personal taste is for battle weapons and on first inspection I found this almost too... dainty I suppose, for me. Handling it is almost like holding a large knife and the blade and edges are delicate to the eye. The fit and finish is what I have seen and have come to expect from all of Gus' work. It is very well done, functional, but not very very polished. Again, this is a preference of mine and fits in with what I want from a sword. These are meant to be used, being a display piece seems to be an after thought. Still, this one with it's blackened furniture and the handle of black leather wrapped over cord is an attractive sword. I don't want anyone to mistake what I am saying and take it to mean Gus' work doesn't look good, just that first and foremost they strike me as being meant to be used.

At least, that is how this particular sword was made. I want to take a moment here to make a comment about Gus that he doesn't really mention much on his site. He actually makes "semi custom" swords. If you call and talk to him he will want to know what you want your sword for, what you do, etc... Then, he will offer suggestions to you, maybe to give the sword a more robust edge, maybe to change pommels to let you feel more blade, maybe a different sword altogether, or whatever else he thinks you might need as an option. While I suppose you just buy "off the shelf" from him, I believe that his effort to match sword and user is a very valuable service, and a facet of his business he should work harder to let the buying public know about. This is truly an advantage of buying from a mid sized manufacturer... he is big enough to insure a quality product and still small enough to be personally involved matching his customers with the right product.

First a word about our test cutting medium. I have been discussing test cutting modeling with researchers from the Forensic Anthropology Center at The University of Tennessee Knoxville. This is the place that has Dr. Bass's famed "body farm". Every bit of evidence they have shows that using pigs is as close as we can get to doing our test cutting on actual cadavers. We are lucky enough to live close to a sausage factory and have an almost unlimited supply of "pig parts". We are using the arms with the shoulder blade attached. The factory is butchering them for us and trimming them to the size of a human arm or leg depending on the size of the arm. We cut the while they are hanging to avoid an "anvil effect".

Gus told me he thought this should stand up to anything it might see in civilian, unarmoured combat, just keep it off of armour and metal bucklers and that we could push it as far as we wanted to.

Gus had also said this was really a sword somewhere between his normal pieces and his newer heavier battlefield stuff and should stand up to more than I thought it would, but I was still a little worried about the AT1516, the edges were so fine. It was easily able to cut off slices of scapula. And even on a hanging target to was able to thrust clean through and come out the other side. Stepping it up a little, slashing around one handed was able to cut deep into the bone, and at times break it in two. Used two handed no parts of the arm was able to stand up to it and a good cut on the swinging target could cut it cleanly in two, starting at the bottom and working up the arm.

This sword is suprising in the amount of damage it is able to deal out and how well it stands up. The sword itself is as fast as can be. It is agile in any technique, the point tracks in an excellent manner, and when some muscle is put behind it is more than a match for any flesh and blood target. There is a nice amount of feedback in the hilt during a cut, but there is very little torque or recoil at the hilt.

All in all, four of us cut three of the pig arms with no ill effect to the sword. By the time I sent it back, we had also used it to cut bunches of rolled newspapers, countless bottles, and wooden dowels. We used it as a test cutting piece training several other people. In addition, we also did some controlled but forceful blade on blade drills. Except for cleaning and oiling we didn't do any maintenance to it at all, and sent it back to Gus just barely dulled in a few spots. He will be able to evaluate it in the "as used" condition to see how his sword will stand up to use once it leaves his shop.

Everyone that used this sword was impressed with it. While it wasn't always everyone's favorite, there wasn't anyone that didn't like it. Personally, if I had Gus make one with a hilt just long enough for one of my hands and the pommel in the other I could live perfectly happily with this. For women and smaller men this might be just what they are looking for. I say that if you had to have a sword to use for real, one of Gus' would be an option and the AT1516 would be one to consider.

I will post some pictures of our cutting at a later date.

David Welch

David,

Looking forward to the photos.

David;

Thanks, this kind of detailed and extensive performance review is very interesting and welcome. I have a AT 1435 on order with Christian Fletcher which should be on the much heavier side of the weight spectrum, mostly for collecting, but I am always interested in performance even if it's more theoretical for me.

The design of the AT 1516 may be lighter than the AT 1435 but the quality of the heat treat and damage resistance of the edges should be comparable or even better as the AT 1435 is closer to the warswords in the current AT line and made for battlefield conditions were shield and armour would be hit even if one tried to avoid it by aiming for the soft parts not protected by the hard shell of armour. ;)

Yeah... the 1435 is right up my alley LOL. If that doesn't make you happy for a while I don't know what would. :)

I am glad you liked it. We also have ones for the AT1421, the 1592, and the LPM1508 in the works... :cool:

Hmmm... you are right about the 1591. But I thought this was mine:

http://forums.swordforum.com/showthread.php?s...post789923

About the pictures... we had a catastrophe. The film didn't develope and the digital camera went tits up on us, although I think I will be able to recover some of them. Fortunately I have stills from our video and the video itself. We never meant to post the video but in the absence of more pictures I am going to try and piece together enough of it to post too. I am just learning the video stuff though, so I hope you bear with me.

Hope you like it.

LOL... I think you just have a lot of different models!

I personally loved the way the sword cut. It had great balance, and I am over all pretty pleased with all the sword that I have handled that Gus makes.

I agree with Dave though with my size it was a one handed sword that I could use with two, and it still cut very well.