Scorpion Swords & Knives Recent Experiences?

A

AlongTheRazorsEdge

Joined
Jul 8, 2021
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Howdy ya'll

I've seen members posts that mention having blades from Scorpion Swords & Knives but they are approx. 10+ years ago. Does anyone have any recent experience with Scorpion Swords & Knives? Specifically with their sword length blades, concerning heat treat and temper?

Speaking of heat treat and temper, for those that know; what are your thoughts on Scorpions posted heat treat/temper process on 1095? Below is their process as posted on their site..

"We Heat Harden our steel, which involves heating the steel to approximately 1500 degrees, until it becomes non magnetic then quenching it in oil. The 2nd step is Heat Tempering, which consists of heating the steel to 500 degrees for 2 hours, and letting it air cool. This makes for a Rockwell Hardness of approximately 59."

I'm interested in a few of their designs. I realize that they are not top of the line blades and are relatively inexpensive; which is attractive to me, as anything I would buy from them would be in the "beater" category and used hard. I know they've been around for awhile but there are very few reviews or talk about them.

Thank you for any feed back!
 
With the number of videos, one should get an idea what to expect, even with longer blades. If the interest is to use an example to use as a "beater" Those videos show what damage to expect.

I guess if you feel froggy, jump? There is no accounting for tastes but the maker is available to communicate with. Any warranty would be his guarantee. You can't expect others to vouch for his ad copy. Yes, there have been complaints and some searching will find them.

Stuff happens with most manufacturers/producers. Chris posts to SBG all the time.

Cheers
GC
 
horseclover said:
With the number of videos, one should get an idea what to expect, even with longer blades. If the interest is to use an example to use as a "beater" Those videos show what damage to expect.

I guess if you feel froggy, jump? There is no accounting for tastes but the maker is available to communicate with. Any warranty would be his guarantee. You can't expect others to vouch for his ad copy. Yes, there have been complaints and some searching will find them.

Stuff happens with most manufacturers/producers. Chris posts to SBG all the time.

Cheers
GC
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Hi Horseclover,

I've seen many of the test videos and the durability in hard use appears to be there going by those videos..but I have also seen some complaints, which were more recent. Of course every company pops out a lemon once in awhile (especially at this price point), hopefully it/they are isolated incidents and not trends. I didn't really want to bring this up but those complaints seem to be fairly recent (2020/2021). The complaints were basically soft sections along the length of the (sword length) blade, presumably (by commenters) to be due to the piece being too long for the heat treat oven being used. There was also criticism of the published heat treat/tempering procedure and it possibly not being appropriate for 1095. I don't know, I have extremely limited knowledge on the subject beyond the basic principals. Which is why I ask.

Overall, there is not many non sponsored/affiliated reviews that I can find either here, SBG or anywhere else, despite having been operating for a decade and a half (roughly from my understanding). Searching their business name here results in 0 reviews, just mentions of ownership, for sale ads and product spotlights by Scorpion Swords themselves. Theres also nothing recent, around or after the time they were having supposed heat treat issues.

They appear to be batch water jetted from 1095 sheet and ground with an angle grinder, then heat treated and tempered. They certainly aren't muesem pieces, high end or even optimally constructed but could be fun to use as an approximation that won't make you lose your mind if damaged etc. Given that, I'm not expecting a whole lot but I would be expecting the level of durability displayed in the videos and was wondering if anyone here found that to be representative of the actual product delivered.
 
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I have not owned or used one.

But I can say I would not choose 1095 for a sword length blade that I intended to abuse.

5160, or several other steels would me my choice by a significant margin over 1095. I love my 1095 users, don't get me wrong...but not in a sword I intended to use.
 
As long as you don't have unrealistic expectations of what a sword is capable of I suspect you'll be fine.
 
Bigfattyt said:
I have not owned or used one.

But I can say I would not choose 1095 for a sword length blade that I intended to abuse.

5160, or several other steels would me my choice by a significant margin over 1095. I love my 1095 users, don't get me wrong...but not in a sword I intended to use.
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I never looked to see if 5160 is availible in sheet/plate, I really have no idea, but I could see it being possible that maybe 1095 is easier to aquire and/or work with in sheet/plate form to construct these blades with and that's why it's used. That likely is also why they are so thick and heavy, 3/16" is probably a standard thickness. They are basically making these using stock removal method so pretty basic, using common materials and sheet/plate thicknesses likely make production faster and cheaper at the expense of optimal design and performance. What I'm looking at from them is more in the short sword/long knife category. I think this is why TOPS knives are pretty much all overbuilt and heavy as well, although I'm pretty confident that TOPS has the equipment and/or resources to pretty much ensure consistent quality heat treat/temper.

SimplyMinded said:
As long as you don't have unrealistic expectations of what a sword is capable of I suspect you'll be fine.
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No car hoods, steel drums, or concrete. No pry bar use etc. ( : Just something to have fun with, that's more durable than a wall hanger with brass plated pot metal. I am by no means a professional swordsman, or even remotely close lol. I think their pricing is reasonable for something that is not mass produced overseas and a way to get my feet wet with swords, larger knives etc. without the huge investment. They do have some designs which are not readily availible elsewhere, at least not in this price range.
 
AlongTheRazorsEdge said:
No car hoods, steel drums, or concrete. No pry bar use etc. ( : Just something to have fun with, that's more durable than a wall hanger with brass plated pot metal. I am by no means a professional swordsman, or even remotely close lol. I think their pricing is reasonable for something that is not mass produced overseas and a way to get my feet wet with swords, larger knives etc. without the huge investment. They do have some designs which are not readily availible elsewhere, at least not in this price range.
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They'll be fine for that unless somebody dramatically screwed up at the factory. Old melons, water bottles, rolled up cardboard/tatami, UPS shipping tubes and such should be good to go. Swords have gotten a lot better in the last 20 years or so, even cheaper ones. I have a 1045 katana that was about $60 on sale that handles cutting the stuff I mentioned easily.
 
I own a Dark Ninjato (version 1) that I ordered from them around this time last year. I believe it took around 8 weeks for me to receive delivery.

Overall, the fit and finish is very well done for the price. Very solid construction, nice and straight, symmetrical. I have never done any kind of abusing testing or cutting with the sword, however I have done the bend test a few times and the steel seems just fine.

Two negative points- (1.) The sheaths are horrible, and sadly could be massively improved with little to no extra cost to the maker. (2.) Not so great edge. It's a good clean working edge but won't cut paper.

They have been making swords for a very long time, and there are countless videos on Youtube of the abuse their 1095 can withstand. I have no real worries myself.

Some of the recent negativity seems to come from the Daywalker sword they produced. Apparently, one that wasn't heat treated properly slipped through, and the customer uploaded a video about it. Search for "Scorpion Swords and Knives" and it's like the first video that pops up. From my understanding, Chris Palmer sent him another sword. The customer promised to upload an update video. In typical fashion, this was never done, and the failure video remains front and center.

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another sword from them.
 
DayofReckoning said:
I own a Dark Ninjato (version 1) that I ordered from them around this time last year. I believe it took around 8 weeks for me to receive delivery.

Overall, the fit and finish is very well done for the price. Very solid construction, nice and straight, symmetrical. I have never done any kind of abusing testing or cutting with the sword, however I have done the bend test a few times and the steel seems just fine.

Two negative points- (1.) The sheaths are horrible, and sadly could be massively improved with little to no extra cost to the maker. (2.) Not so great edge. It's a good clean working edge but won't cut paper.

They have been making swords for a very long time, and there are countless videos on Youtube of the abuse their 1095 can withstand. I have no real worries myself.

Some of the recent negativity seems to come from the Daywalker sword they produced. Apparently, one that wasn't heat treated properly slipped through, and the customer uploaded a video about it. Search for "Scorpion Swords and Knives" and it's like the first video that pops up. From my understanding, Chris Palmer sent him another sword. The customer promised to upload an update video. In typical fashion, this was never done, and the failure video remains front and center.

Personally, I wouldn't hesitate to purchase another sword from them.
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Awesome, thank you for sharing your experience! I'm mostly looking at some of their shorter designs (shorter than the Dark Ninjato), but if they can get that right than they should have no problem with a shorter blade. It's not suprising that they don't cut paper well, considering the grind to stock thickness ratio (if that makes sense?). They appear to be much thicker and heavier than ideal (similar to TOPS), I'm guessing due to ease of manufacture (production efficiency and cost).

True, there are often complaints with no follow through by the complaintants. I did see that thread regarding the bent sword and it did appear as though Scorpion Swords was intending to replace it. Posters (including competitors) jumped all over it, picking apart everything.

I understand they are not multi thousand dollar pieces made by generational master swordsmiths and I don't expect them to be. Who knows, I might get into higher end long blades after trying out an affordable one that is not tourist grade pot metal at least.
 
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SimplyMinded said:
They'll be fine for that unless somebody dramatically screwed up at the factory. Old melons, water bottles, rolled up cardboard/tatami, UPS shipping tubes and such should be good to go. Swords have gotten a lot better in the last 20 years or so, even cheaper ones. I have a 1045 katana that was about $60 on sale that handles cutting the stuff I mentioned easily.
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Those are the types of targets I would use it on. I think I'm going to give them a shot.
 
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