the dd1501 danish long sword review

Willium

I am the lucky owner of a sharp DD1501 and a fencing version of the above.

I got them from the Armoury via Lee Reeves

Physical description:
The blades are described in this web site. http://www.leesarmoury.com/

(Actually no they even look better).

Performance:
The blade is sharpened all the way. However, it is much sharper towards the tip. The tip of the blade is quite acute and become very smoothly pointy.
For me that smooth transition, cutting wise this is the best feature of this blade.

The steel and the finishing are of top quality and it is a very flexible blade.

Cuts
I have not measured the length of each cut. I do not believe it means anything on its own since it is heavily dependent on your technique at the time and the material you are using.
If I were to produce a proper cutting, I would need to test cut several blades at the same time.

Nonetheless, this is how the blade behaved.
Soft target: (meat on bone, raw chicken, and soda bottle and milk or fruit tetra pack)
they were either hanging or were put on a table for a horizontal cut.

Two handed cut: (strike of wrath type)
No vibrations each cut was clean and crisp.
No baseball bat effect even on empty bottle.

One handed cut
some vibration of the blade if you strike to closed to the hilt (only the blade and the pommel really vibrate, your hand is oddly kind of left alone).
Tip cuts are still very effective even on empty bottle (though I sent a few flying troughs the countryside otherwise unarmed)

Half-swording cuts:
As per two handed cuts, (I did them without gloves, there was nothing to stop the blade so my little fingers were safe)

Draw cuts (two handed).
I had to change the set up as draw cuts works only if there is a certain amount of resistance. In the beginning, I had the target stuck to the table.
That being said, even with an empty and free 1.5 soft plastic bottle of ****, it work provided that you can apply the right amount of pressure and are quick enough, but it is much more difficult to execute (4 successful proper cut on 12-13 tries). (I started with the middle blade on the bottle. Fee empty rolling bottle does not like the little chop that you give when putting the blade on).

Result were much more convincing that I would have expected for draw cuts in general. I never tried draw cutting wit any other weapons so...
I did not felt or saw any difference between pulling or pushing however adding body movement makes a huge difference.
As you all guessed light free object are much more difficult to draw cut However if you something that oppose your force. I found it is a viable option.

I repeated the cutting on free hanging wooden broomstick (half-swording was done with thick gloves and did not do draw cutting) and found the same result.
Clean crisp cut all the time (well almost).
I found half Half-swording cuts less neat. It is more a cut break thing

In any case, I found that the cutting performance for this blade is good when cutting with the upper part of the blade (i.e. before the blade starts the angle to make the tip). However, it is truly impressive when you are cutting close to the tip (about the last 10-5 cm) where all the cuts felt like hot knife through butter.
The sword feel light and you can really accelerated that tip very quickly. Cuts are effortless, easy to recover and very gently our hands. The blade is easy to control
There was no notable damage to the edge.

Thrusting is as good as the blade lets you presume.

The fencing version albeit a tad smaller :-) and behave exactly like the sharp.
It is very close to the sharp's weight and is balanced likewise.
The edges are about 1.5 to 1 mm.

I will not say it enough it is a very nimble blade. Few friends who tried it found the handle not thick enough. Personally I don’t, I use a wide grip and only one or two fingers and the thumb of the front hand when no deflecting/paring striking and I like to ease of you have moving your hands around the handle.

The only "bad point" of the training blade would be that the edges were square (so I rounded them).
It is the same steel as the sharp. So be careful when training with a re-enactment type blade. Basically it is a fencing blade not a re-enactment one. That being said avoid edge to edge parry (with a re-enactment blade

The cherry on the cake was that having the swords done and delivered was a nice and painless affair.
Lee and Angus are very reasonable persons and you can actually discuss with them and exchange ideas, If they think some are not good they will tell you and even tell you why.

My conclusion is I think they are very good blades and even if you were considering a fencing blade, I would advise to go for a sharp manufacturer and ask for a training blade.