I'd been watching the The Knight Shop for about 3 years go in and out of stock of Windlass' Sword of Ibelin. Which I thought was odd since its long since been discontinued and the licensing expired. After emailing them and verifying (according to them) that it was an actual Windlass product I decided to take the gamble on one since the 2 I own were second hand items and not new.
I'm going to gloss over how poorly packaged it was, and jump straight to the fact that I immediately noticed that it is not marked as a Windlass product nor a Marto product. I could understand the lack of the Kingdom of Heaven COA and box art, however, it made no sense to me that this is probably the first Windlass sword that I have ever seen unmarked by the company.
I reached out to Museum Replicas Limited/ Windlass and after a handful of emails back and forth, they landed on if it is not marked on the blade then it is not made by windlass.
On the other hand, The Knight Shop has responded that Marto is their supplier and that the item is not marked as a Windlass product because the Kingdom of Heaven licensing has expired... Other than attempting to dodge royalties and licensing, that makes no sense to me, it would simply lack the Kingdom of Heaven content for that.
Aside from the wood dye being too dark and the leather too clean, I'd say it's almost spot on. However, the blade does not strike me as a Windass blade either as it is considerably wavy in proper light and to the touch. More so it has considerable "droop" when held horizontally. On the off chance this is a Windlass. It is by far one of the sloppiest offerings I've ever seen on their part.
So as it stands, I'm trying to figure out if this item has been produced by Windlass and lacks the proper markings to avoid copyright infringement/ trademark. Or is it the nicest counterfeit I've seen to date for this sword.
TheKnighShop - Sword of Ibelin Knock Off or Legit Windlass
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