Discussion Cost of a great sword(guts sword from berserk)

During LCD for The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary I became curious to know how much a great sword would cost to produce both in modern times and in medievalist times

 

depends on if you're asking a realistic greatsword or a fantasy ultra greatsword like in that novel

 

It depends on the size, kind and manufacturing method

 

Maybe can help, don't know. Modern blacksmith dwarf here
https://www.youtube.com/user/michaelcthulhu/featured

 

Took over a year to make, or modify, Guts' Dragonslayer, didn't it, how much would that be if you're only paying for the labor hours?

 

exactly 10

 

That question has already been aske a few times, the price range about 5.000US$ to 40.000US$ depending on the quality, if you want one that could actually be used in fighting you will want one from 15.000 UP

 

Actually, if you were to make it as thick as it appears to be in the manga/anime/movie/whatever, you could easily get away with lower grade steels, as ANYTHING that thick would need no temper. It would be heavy as all hell, nearly impossible to 'break' in a way that can't be banged back into shape, and even if it lost it's edge would still crush anything it hit. This is doubly so if the person could wield the 300+ pound monstrosity like it was a sword actually meant for a man to wield.

If you price some decently hard sheet/plate steel larger than you need, cut the shape out, cut it's blade in, weld on thick pipe or round stock as a handle and rivet+wrap some leather, you could probably get a cheap one for under $2k US. Pricier would probably be around $4k. More if you want it to be accurate to depiction, as that is some real thick stuff.

Ancient times, though? If you have to ask how much it costs, you can't afford it. That is a LOT of steel, which cost a lot more back then, and the labor/tool cost would be absurdly high.

 

Here is the making of a replica of the sword Guts used in the band of the falcon period.

 

quality matters. i think i spent around $125 for a rapier-ish sword that looks great, but the blade's soldered wonky and can barely even get the sheath past the guard. woulda noticed sooner if they didn't keep it behind a counter and then peacebound the damn thing before they even let me hold it.

 

I've seen a full set of armor on sale for tens of thousands of NOK. That's like a few thousand euros. It was made of some sort of steel, no idea what the quality was.

It's all really pricy, man.

 

The Man-at-Arms version is made to be wielded by mere mortals like us, and isn't very useful in actual combat. We're looking for something that can hold up, when a guy that can throw small cars one-handed, uses them in actual combat.

 

Theoretically, you could take a parapet (or a window ledge, window sill, depending on translation), and call it a greatsword. As this type of greatsword, also can be called ultra greatsword, or heavy sword, and it doesn't even really need an edge.
Anything that's roughly "greatsword-shaped" can be called a greatsword, and work. Take the parapet I mentioned as an example. Usually, it's made from tough concrete with metal skeleton. Such a thing just needs a metal handle, which would also act as the spine of the sword, going all the wat through.
Against humans? More than enough. This has also the benefit of being easy to replace, costing 50-250$, depending on materials and stuff.
If it was made from marble, or any stone, then not so much.
As for a metal one? As long as it's as thick as the dragonslayer (I'm guessing 2.5-3 cm), even ordinary iron would be fine. Also, such a sword can only be made with a mold, thus limiting your options. And there is no way to forge this thing, or heat treat.
You could also theoretically make it from brass or cast-iron (inferior to normal iron I think, and should be cheaper). The benefit of that is that you could just steal a statue from a park or somewhere, and cut it into pieces, melt, and cast into a sword

 

And though we're talking about ultra greatswords, and all's fun and good, but no human could wield a weapon like this. And not being strong enough is not even the biggest reason. Even if you could lift half-a-ton, which would enable you to wield such a monster of a sword, you wouldn't be able to wield it, as it's a few times as heavy as you, and inertia and gravity would be your biggest enemies, not anyone else, and they would most likely be what defeats you.
Also, if you watched the videos of MichealCthulu, who makes such huge weapons, notice how he swings them when he uses them anyway other than vertically - he has to make big swings to build up momentum, and inertia pulls him after the sword.

 

That's why I called it a replica not a fully fonctionnal version, and it's not the dragon slayer that he use to kill the demons after the prequel...
But it's a good start to see how hard it could be.

 

Some people above wrote some BS.
Let's agree on one thing - sword must be suitable to be effectively wielded by humans (because you ask modern and medieval prices, we assume similar world/culture/physics that affect production methods and thus price)

A great sword is also known as zweihänder, being pretty much largest routinely used sword in history (odachi and Chinese horse-splitters are rather exceptional pieces). The length is below man's height, so close to 140-170 cm, with weight being around 2-3kg. What is important is the length, as it is really difficult to heat treat such long piece (getting temperature even - otherwise we get ruined metal lattice structure, warping etc shit), thus demanding quite high level of skill and technology.

Due to these demands, the effect of quality and thus prices was all over the place. According to some statistics, in medieval England swords (without mentioning the type) could cost between 2 pence and 2000 pounds (that's medieval price - 2000 pounds back then was A LOT). An average archer got 6 pence a week. And such mad price differences continued until industrial revolution.
So if we assume that a great sword user was a landsknecht-tyoe mercenary dude that had an armour and stuff, his sword would be "professional gear" or on the level of modern pro sports equipment - in comparative price range of nice new sports car. Like "if you really, really need it, you can afford it".

Modern stuff is easier - Albion Swords (my favourites, I like Peter Johansson's works of art) sell "museum quality", totally functional hand-crafted landsknecht swords for 1650 USD.

So yeah, modern tools and easily available high-quality steel has dropped the prices by tens of times.

 

Damn, and here I was thinking it would be a thread about how Gut's sword would cost you your spine if you ever tried to wield it. lol

 

I'll probably die lol somehow like this?
https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&s...YQwqsBCE4wCw&usg=AOvVaw1auDZqnRGJl8Ml-ZoXmIa-

 

Like in the novel

 

There's group striking in real life, that can recreate (technically) what we do with machinery now. So making a huge ass sword like that isn't totally fantasy, but since the story does have magic, you can probably get it tempered too.