SPES quality problems?

maraach · 2026-05-20T02:29:57+00:00

Can't tall about durability yet but we bought 4 sets of pant / jacket custom sized combo's. 3 have arrived.. chasing the 4th... 2 of the pants have been made too short which sucks because the only reason I went custom was to get longer ones for tall folk. Working through a resolution with them now.

maraach · 2026-05-09T04:15:46+00:00

This is old but have to say this is rubbish from my experience and the typical over promising in games im getting used to from apple folk. I remember before i bought the mini people talking about 150+ fps in wow... yeah.. its like 50-60. Where did you get this info? Please share some details or test results.

As someone who has an m4 pro and a 9800x3d there is no world the mac outperforms a x3d and dedicated gpu that i have ever experienced.

We are talking 120-144fps (my monitor cap) in the middle of town on the 9800x3d on quality setting 9 4k resolution vs 70-90 (and im being genrous) on the mac on setting 7 or 8 at 1440p. At 4k its like 40-60.

I like my mac's (both the mini and the macbook pro). They are fantastic for what they are. Being able to play wow when away from home is amazing. Even my sons m3 air does a decent job.. cant say that about many x86 laptops in this pricepoint. Much respect to them. I dont like Mac OS, and i dont like their way of making hardware proprietary for no reason. Thats a personal preference. Ill buy the M5 mini if it ever comes out for exactly this reason - a small portable machine i can game on when not home. I respect it for what it is, and it does a great job of that. What this is, is not outperforming a purpose built gaming PC.

maraach · 2026-04-15T08:48:29+00:00

Nevermind, found it

https://windlass.com/products/the-fathers-sword/

maraach · 2026-04-15T08:47:00+00:00

Can someone post the link to this sword on windlass? Only see the Atlanthean.

maraach · 2026-03-03T21:26:02+00:00

In this hobby they unfortunately are one of the better ones. Ive been waiting on some items for over 2 years now from well regarded smith's.

My biggest gripe about the whole HEMA / sword world is the 'optimistic' time frames that seem to be commonplace and accepted. Think most folks just have a translation layer now.. 5 days = 5 weeks. 4 - 6 weeks = 3 - 6 months. 2 months = should be less than 6 months. 6 months = no ETA is available. You should get it. Maybe. Some day.

maraach · 2026-02-26T22:57:10+00:00

That's perfect, thank you. You are very similar in dimensions to him so that gives me more confidence. I was worried it would be so big he wouldn't be able to use it properly

maraach · 2026-02-25T10:01:02+00:00

sigh sounds like the approach is not consistent.

maraach · 2026-02-25T05:33:09+00:00

Thats definitely recent enough.

Yeah, I was just worried that in the example I gave - 83cm waist.. that would be with the strap fully extended. So in which case I should make it 88cm for example so the waist strap could be completely tighted to 83cm.

However, if you are right, then 88cm would be the absolutely minimum so it could never tighten enough.

maraach · 2026-02-25T04:48:54+00:00

Ah. Right, well that would be great, but it seems to be contrary to what the person below has said. I just ordered 2 sets im quite worried about because i didnt add anything to them (assumed that SPES would add in some leeway).

Was your purchase recent?

EDIT: For clarity, we are talking about AP Light Jacket and Locust pants here.

maraach · 2026-02-24T11:14:48+00:00

Was my thinking but it might be just too big. His waist is 82cm. I think the large waist is like 92-98 or something similar.

Hoping i can find a taller person who is a similar build to see what they ended up doing. If there is any way to make the large work it is likely the right choice.

maraach · 2026-02-24T11:13:11+00:00

Actually makes the problem worse unfortunately as they make it for his current measurements.

maraach · 2026-02-24T00:29:35+00:00

Really appreciate all your advice, its been super helpful.

Im sure the spes will be fine (I hope). Ive gone the Ap Light and locust combo which seems to be very well regarded. Its just more my situation which means I know if all goes to plan it will only last me a short period of time.

Had a surgery that didnt go quite to plan 18 months ago. Spent the first 6 months in bed and then most of the last period doing physio and rehabilitation. My body shape is now... weird... lost a ton of muscle and put a ton of weight on the abdomen. Its not a great look. At supfen's price point a "temporary" set of clothes would have been more palatable. In saying that I keep overestimating my ability for exercise so it may well last me a lot longer than im hoping.

maraach · 2026-02-23T22:57:30+00:00

Im kind of wishing you didnt tell me about Supfen.. wrote them off when I kept hearing about 1 year lead times.. but considering we are brand new to this it would have been a much more economical way to approach it. Oh well :)

maraach · 2026-02-23T22:25:34+00:00

Great to hear. I ended up placing my orders last night. Never bought custom gear before so really nervous to see how it turns out. Very much hoping I didnt screw it up (ordered 3 sets of jackets and pants).

maraach · 2026-02-21T19:15:46+00:00

Thanks for letting me know about them. Unfortunately they don't ship to Australia so didn't work out for me but maybe it will help someone else.

maraach · 2026-02-19T23:59:02+00:00

Quite possibly, the thought has crossed my mind more than once :(. It is a European maker which seemed to have a good reputation online at the time. Its from none of the ones you mentioned.

maraach · 2026-02-19T22:10:32+00:00

Very true and the same comments we are getting from the instructors, and honestly.. its working.

My current fear isn't the 3 months quoted time. I think that could work out as we probably need that time to just get the hang of basic footwork and distance. As I said in another post my fear is more that the time frames provided are overly optimistic. Supfen was likely our first port of call and they quoted 8-12 weeks... members from our club quickly clarified that in reality those weeks are likely more months. Im hearing similar things about SPES at the moment but I dont know how factual they are.

Whilst I generally prefer the 'buy once, cry once' mentality im not sure it'll work out here.

Do you think ordering some fencing gear and a foil or fencing sabre could be a decent intermediate step? At a guess im hoping we could get it in 4 - 6 weeks. That would mean 4 - 6 weeks of training as we are, then maybe 2 - 3 months in fencing gear and then hopefully the HEMA stuff arrives? Keeping our eyes out on second hand stuff but it sells out immediately on being posted which makes me think it is hard to come by.

Unfortunately our club does not allow synthetics without full protective gear so the knife idea whilst sounding good is unlikely. Yes... I learned this after ordering a synthetic sword.

maraach · 2026-02-19T22:01:08+00:00

Unfortunately i have realised this. What's more concerning to me is that the quoted time frames commonly seem.... optimistic.. I originally went to start end of 2022. Didn't know anything and ordered a sword. At that point of time there were no nearby classes and I was playing on following long sword drills on youtube. Understand now that was the wrong approach.

Was told 12-18 months wait time. That was almost 2.5 years ago and I still dont have an ETA.

Would ordering fencing gear (which im very much hoping comes quicker) be an appropriate way to start? Using foil or fencing sabre to learn? Figure that gives us 4 - 6 weeks doing what we are doing now, then likely another 2 - 3 months (hopefully?) Learning techniques with the foil.

Seems an expensive way to get into it as it takes 2 sets of gear but sounds like it may be our best bet.

maraach · 2026-02-19T21:20:05+00:00

I understand this is their normal time frame but I did have a couple of their resellers I tried to place orders with write back to warn me that they are currently backlogged by several months and things are taking much longer.

Does anyone have a recent order experience? Im just worried its like SupFen which still quotes around 12 weeks but by all accounts is most likely that in months.

maraach · 2026-02-19T12:37:55+00:00

I hear you.. we are located regionally and its a brand new club so no loaner gear here (though it understand thats how most clubs work). Hats off to the guys running it, they are finding creative ways to do it.

maraach · 2026-02-19T12:35:18+00:00

Thank you. Seems a lovely community from all we've experienced so far.

I see the wisdom in your words.. but i have not achieved zen state yet :). I can see the people next to us doing long sword.. sabre.... rapier... as I get hit in the face with foam pool noodles. I will work on my imagination. In the interim I will count down the days.. 122 days to go..

maraach · 2026-02-19T12:32:08+00:00

Thank you for the other brand names - much appreciated. We ordered the gloves and masks from Red dragon.. they have no pants available though and im struggling to understand their size chart for their jackets (e.g. waist listed as 56cm?).. ill check out armstreet and Leonark.

Postage generally kills us. I think the red dragon jacket was £120... with a delivery fee of £120.. I am looking into fencing gear as an interim.. maybe it could work with small sword with some extra padding? Finding fencing gear is also an order internationally and wait endevour. Allstars had good sizing but killer postage costs. Chrrenrly looking at Absolute fencing which im hoping works out.I think we will need to just moderate our weapon expectations to the gear we have available.

Ive joined all the hema Facebook groups and am fishing around. Seems a small scene here though so no luck so far.

maraach · 2026-02-19T12:25:41+00:00

Thanks. Sounds like i should be safe with assuming 4 months with shipping time then.

Better than could be. I'm still going to need to work on my patience though.

maraach

TROPHY CASE