Well Done Sir, this was a great opportunity and you nailed it, was looking forward to this...we forget how big of a business KOA is with the sword market....cool that you had a camera man 😊
That is only half true. I am honest about what I dislike about things but on the grand scale, I would be happy to own anything there. A thing can have problems and still be a treasure.
Definitely interesting, I do wonder if those "quality inspections" always happen though. I have received a couple that were a bit wonky & paid full price. Luckily this time they were cheap enough & I just needed them as reference pieces really, so it didn't matter as much but still it the principle. Riveted handle scales ought not move side to side when one swings it. 😂😂😂
My Balaur Arms Alexandria was not seated right, or somethin' went wrong with the fitting process, the blade is not aligned with the crossguard and handle, sitting angled into the corner of the cross. Everything else about it has been great, shame that it messes with the cutting so much.
I personally really enjoyed this video. Not only do I get to see how Donna Earth and nice the people working at KOA are let's see how much they care about their respective jobs makes me very happy as a weapon enthusiast and as a consumer. Awesome surprise that Mr Jensen did not break out into song singing these are a few of my favorite things... Definitely kid in a candy store moment for sure. I also think it'll be really cool to see some things made by the sharpening expert there I feel that would be really cool.
The scary part is that I literally just received a kindjal from them and am awaiting a Dragon King katana any day. They have a 30% off sale on some stuff right now. It’d be awesome if you could tour the country’s sword manufacturers warehouses, call it the “Critiques Roadshow,” and you could give different offerings from each manufacturer little mini-reviews before you decided whether you wanted to give them a full review @home or not.
Oh, my lord! They let Matthew handle some swords. Guys, don't you know, he'll start hitting them against trees and all sorts of things until they break?!
Wondering, does KoA make custom orders from Albion? or are the swords perhaps rejects or non-payments from Albion customers that are then bought by KoA to resell?
If I order a sword from an online store Kult Of Athena is my first choice,however I tend to avoid them for most other items or "small order" stuff since the shipping kills it i.e. an $11 arming cap after shipping is $31 so,yeah nope. Other than that I've been nothing but happy buying from them.
Curious if they would put the blowout/garage sale stuff on the site for diyers like myself Always love to get broken stuff because there is always something that is useable.
They may need to review the descriptions of some of their items a little bit better. I don't know how widespread it is, but I noticed on one Shin Gunto from India for about $200 the description of the item says it's made out of HIGH carbon steel. But when you look at the specifications it says the steel us EN9 which is a MEDIUM carbon steel with the carbon content in the 0.50's range. So roughly equivalent to 1055. Though some people debate if 1060 it's not technically a medium carbon steel, but at least with that there's room for the benefit of the doubt, but not when something is clearly in the 0.50 range.
Most of my items that I have bought from Kult of Athena have had a lot of quality control issues where some blades arrived warped, rusty, and some scabbards did not fit the blades at all and even though paying full price for these items it always seemed like they did not care for the quality of certain things especially if I paid extra for very sharp blades and get dull blades.
@@Matthew_Jensen There were a few Swords, the ones that were warped were Devil's Edge Celtic Sword, Deepeeka English Half-Basket Hangar and Devil's Edge Single Edge Qama. The blades that came rusted and unsharpened even with paying more for the sharpening services were Devil's Edge High Roller (Rusted) and Kult of Athena Viking Bone-Handled folding utility knife which came with the blade cracked and end of the blade missing. Now I know some of these blade were in the price range between $20-$145 dollars but they stated in the video that they are strict about quality and they would not allow any issues to be shipped out but they did.
Right off the bad the quality control from Kult of Athena is sketchy at best. I have purchased a few swords from them at the “standard” level (meaning what they call their highest quality) and received a sword with the blade twisted 30 degrees to the left. Their sharpening service is not great and they put a bad secondary bevel on the blade.
I wonder if they sold a higher end sharpening service if people would pay for it. I think the service is often $30 or something like that. If the service was $300, but gave you a really clean bevel would that be better?
@@Matthew_Jensen Really depends. I had a local guy I used to take my knives and swords to for sharpening before he retired (and I learned to do it myself) and he put an excellent edge on them all and it was never *that* expensive. He did my longswords for like $90-100 depending on length. Katana and shorter swords for about $60. That is to say I wouldn't pay $300 for a sharpening job. Simply put you could buy a $15 accusharp and put a servicable edge on your swords in 20 minutes time that would only need some stropping to clean up the burrs and it'll do for most use-cases. Beyond that a decent whetstone set would also be cheaper, and UA-cam tutorials are free.
If you know a guy it is hard to compete with that. There are some people who just like sharpening things and will do it well for a song. I would imagine it is hard to offer this service as a business. Sharpening offered for $30 does not give a lot of time to do a good job. When I try to sharpen it takes me hours to get an edge that will cut noodles well. That is on a sword that comes with a decent profile. I know I am slow but you get the idea.
@@Matthew_Jensen I hear you. Noodles are deceptively hard targets to cut even with a sharp edge because they're so light and floppy. Probably why I prefer water bottles.
4:55 Ah... There it is... The legendary everlasting fountain of brown paper... yes, this is indeed Cult of Athena, confirmed.
Fascinating video! Kult of Athena should bring back mystery boxes!
That would have been a better title.
That would have been a better title.
Your reviews are top notch.
Thanks!
Well Done Sir, this was a great opportunity and you nailed it, was looking forward to this...we forget how big of a business KOA is with the sword market....cool that you had a camera man 😊
It was nice of them to host you, even when you disliked almost everything.
That is only half true. I am honest about what I dislike about things but on the grand scale, I would be happy to own anything there. A thing can have problems and still be a treasure.
Definitely interesting, I do wonder if those "quality inspections" always happen though. I have received a couple that were a bit wonky & paid full price. Luckily this time they were cheap enough & I just needed them as reference pieces really, so it didn't matter as much but still it the principle. Riveted handle scales ought not move side to side when one swings it. 😂😂😂
My Balaur Arms Alexandria was not seated right, or somethin' went wrong with the fitting process, the blade is not aligned with the crossguard and handle, sitting angled into the corner of the cross.
Everything else about it has been great, shame that it messes with the cutting so much.
I personally really enjoyed this video. Not only do I get to see how Donna Earth and nice the people working at KOA are let's see how much they care about their respective jobs makes me very happy as a weapon enthusiast and as a consumer.
Awesome surprise that Mr Jensen did not break out into song singing these are a few of my favorite things... Definitely kid in a candy store moment for sure. I also think it'll be really cool to see some things made by the sharpening expert there I feel that would be really cool.
a missed opportunity indeed.
@Matthew_Jensen that's okay you can always put it on your to-do list lol
The scary part is that I literally just received a kindjal from them and am awaiting a Dragon King katana any day. They have a 30% off sale on some stuff right now. It’d be awesome if you could tour the country’s sword manufacturers warehouses, call it the “Critiques Roadshow,” and you could give different offerings from each manufacturer little mini-reviews before you decided whether you wanted to give them a full review @home or not.
Oh, my lord! They let Matthew handle some swords. Guys, don't you know, he'll start hitting them against trees and all sorts of things until they break?!
It’s great too see where my boxes come from
I am very impressed with the quality control.
Cool video for sure. Probably not for everyone but a nice insight into the mixing for swords and business.
Oh Darn! Wish I knew you were in town. I would have loved to meet you.
Maybe next time
Now all the paper makes sense...
It’s a good strategy.
This is why I also love KoA
Hey hey! Pretty fun!
So this is how it would feel to be a child lost in a candy story...
Next you'll visit RVA Katana
You got to meet the famous paper machine!
Sir Paper da Rapper.
Wondering, does KoA make custom orders from Albion? or are the swords perhaps rejects or non-payments from Albion customers that are then bought by KoA to resell?
How do I order that Gladius so they don't have to unpack it?
If I order a sword from an online store Kult Of Athena is my first choice,however I tend to avoid them for most other items or "small order" stuff since the shipping kills it i.e. an $11 arming cap after shipping is $31 so,yeah nope.
Other than that I've been nothing but happy buying from them.
interesting.. I am guessing using UPS as a default the shipping is probably high.
Curious if they would put the blowout/garage sale stuff on the site for diyers like myself Always love to get broken stuff because there is always something that is useable.
They may need to review the descriptions of some of their items a little bit better. I don't know how widespread it is, but I noticed on one Shin Gunto from India for about $200 the description of the item says it's made out of HIGH carbon steel. But when you look at the specifications it says the steel us EN9 which is a MEDIUM carbon steel with the carbon content in the 0.50's range. So roughly equivalent to 1055.
Though some people debate if 1060 it's not technically a medium carbon steel, but at least with that there's room for the benefit of the doubt, but not when something is clearly in the 0.50 range.
Most of my items that I have bought from Kult of Athena have had a lot of quality control issues where some blades arrived warped, rusty, and some scabbards did not fit the blades at all and even though paying full price for these items it always seemed like they did not care for the quality of certain things especially if I paid extra for very sharp blades and get dull blades.
What kind of blades did you buy that came with these issues?
@@Matthew_Jensen There were a few Swords, the ones that were warped were Devil's Edge Celtic Sword, Deepeeka English Half-Basket Hangar and Devil's Edge Single Edge Qama. The blades that came rusted and unsharpened even with paying more for the sharpening services were Devil's Edge High Roller (Rusted) and Kult of Athena Viking Bone-Handled folding utility knife which came with the blade cracked and end of the blade missing. Now I know some of these blade were in the price range between $20-$145 dollars but they stated in the video that they are strict about quality and they would not allow any issues to be shipped out but they did.
I don't even buy swords. I just buy boxes of packing paper, and they keep sending free swords
Right off the bad the quality control from Kult of Athena is sketchy at best. I have purchased a few swords from them at the “standard” level (meaning what they call their highest quality) and received a sword with the blade twisted 30 degrees to the left. Their sharpening service is not great and they put a bad secondary bevel on the blade.
I wonder if they sold a higher end sharpening service if people would pay for it. I think the service is often $30 or something like that. If the service was $300, but gave you a really clean bevel would that be better?
@@Matthew_Jensen Really depends.
I had a local guy I used to take my knives and swords to for sharpening before he retired (and I learned to do it myself) and he put an excellent edge on them all and it was never *that* expensive.
He did my longswords for like $90-100 depending on length. Katana and shorter swords for about $60.
That is to say I wouldn't pay $300 for a sharpening job. Simply put you could buy a $15 accusharp and put a servicable edge on your swords in 20 minutes time that would only need some stropping to clean up the burrs and it'll do for most use-cases.
Beyond that a decent whetstone set would also be cheaper, and UA-cam tutorials are free.
If you know a guy it is hard to compete with that. There are some people who just like sharpening things and will do it well for a song. I would imagine it is hard to offer this service as a business. Sharpening offered for $30 does not give a lot of time to do a good job. When I try to sharpen it takes me hours to get an edge that will cut noodles well. That is on a sword that comes with a decent profile. I know I am slow but you get the idea.
@@Matthew_Jensen I hear you. Noodles are deceptively hard targets to cut even with a sharp edge because they're so light and floppy. Probably why I prefer water bottles.
Everything is always out of stock.
😳 Hello, can You talk slower ?😳
You can set the play speed lower just fyi