Unboxing a handmade Dacian falx from Romania 

For when you gotta kill Romans at 7 but harvest grain at 9

Smith: So do you want a sword or a sickle Dacian: Y E S

Did you see those warriors from Romania? They had curved swords. *Curved.* *SWORDS.*

All swords will mess you up, but that thing looks like it WANTS to mess you up.

The Romans said that these weapons were known to go through their helmets, and even break the body underneath the armor. I want to see if this is true.

Damn man, I am Romanian, and I am proud to see my ancestors weapons portrayed so nicely, I look forward to future tests

When you google "Dacian Falx" on google image one of the first picture is of Skallgrim.

Dacian falx: Very few Romanians know that their ancestors created the scariest sword of antiquity and beyond. Originally a simple sickle derived from Thracian rhomphaia Falx was created exclusively for the Dacian sword and known only in the Dacian area. It had long, curved blade, sharpened on the concave side and usually with a wooden handle, presenting some specimens discovered ditches to drain blood. Dacian knife called sicca and was similar in form Falx. All neighboring populations quickly learned the Dacian sword to fear, because in the hands of a fighter tried it cut anything, thanks to its unique shape. Weapons, armor, shields, humans, horses - nothing withstand a blow of falx. Cutting itself was made through a combined movement of striking and depressing, amplified by using both hands. In addition, due to sharp tip curved down his sword easily penetrate helmets and armor. The Gauls were using the falx to make its way through the heart of the armor units or charges made by riders, which became possible due to the length Falx. Because they needed space to use their weapons more effectively, Dacian fighting in small formations, grouped in a triangle pointing forward. Because light can produce grave wounds, Falx generated so much fear among Roman legionaries, that the Empire blacksmiths have created a new type of helmet equipped with two thick metal strips arranged transversely to withstand the devastating blows. After partial conquest of Dacia, the Romans paid for falx its equivalent weight in gold.

So the Dacian had curved swords... CURVED SWORDS!

4:34 "You get the point." I see what you did there, Skall.

These swords where use to penetrate the Romans Helmets ...with what was inside. These were considered such a great weapon, that the price was the sword's weight in gold. Dacia ( Romania ) has the bigest gold deposits in entire Europe ...so I am not sure how much was back than :) . After many battles with the dacians and many brains splashed all over the place ,t he romans upgraded their helmets with steel rods to reinforce them agains the falx attack. Cheers from Romania !

Dacian Falx, probably the most efficient cutting sword per pound EVER.

that looks amazing! the color of the grip and the metal looks very ornate, but it also looks applicable and not like a wall piece. it's one of my new favorites.

That's not a box! False advertisement!

Dacian falx, or reversed katana, 1200 years before any katana was ever forged :). Romans were so scared of this that eventually started welding a cross pattern on their helmets.

beautiful weapon

That parcel shape doesn't comply with RU-vid's terms ans services no money for you.

"I didn't have to cut in this video" > spends the first 2 minutes cutting. :)

What a gorgeous weapon. I really am rather enthralled by that piece. Thanks for showing this.

blocking that weapon must have been a real pain

When I saw the thumbnail I thought he was reviewing saints row dildo bat...

You need to test this on a zombie head!

got that carthus curved sword to +10 skal?

The Falx The dreaded Dacian "war scythe" is the iconic weapon of these peoples - and few other weapons ever instilled such anxiety in Rome's gritty legionaries as this vicious blade. The falx came in many sizes - there was a hand version not much bigger than a dagger; others were nearly as big as the men wielding them. This weapon crucially represented a samurai sword turned inside-out. It curved sharply at the tip, forming a sort of "beak" at the end which could be used to puncture helmets, armor, and shields - not to mention unguarded flesh. The Dacian warrior appears to have wielded the falx almost like a huge medieval broadsword - lifting it above his head before swinging it down onto his enemy. In loose formations Dacians also wielded the falx in broad, sweeping strokes that could slash a man's legs out from under him. Archaeology and Roman testimony indicate that the falx - though an important weapon - was not a prestigious one - it was wielded to terrible effect by nobleman and commoner alike. A partially Germanic tribe living near the Dacians, the Basternae, were especially famed for their dreadful skill wielding the falx, but all Dacian tribes produced this weapon. s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/34/d3/26/34d326c73166d6f3ab8493424e9c97f9.jpg

I saw this weapon when I used to play Rome total war, and honestly didn't think it was a really thing until today. Cheers Skallagrim awsome channel

international shipping restrictions probably the reason it wasn't fully sharpend

The Roman legionaries had to add the "manica" to Lorica Segmentata to protect themselves against this falx, undoubtedly effective weapon.

i'm from Romania and rlly enjoy ur videos good job

Going to Romanai in 2 months, I'll try to look for this guy. (The weapon maker)

How fortunate you are to have such a great piece sent to you. Looks like it feels good in the hands.

hello from Romania Bună din România

Careva roman pe aici? :D

For once, I'd like to see Skall open a package with a nearby blunt pair of scissors or an old pen like a normal person.

It got to Canada so fast because they thought it was a hockey stick. :) A lovely looking weapon.

As far as i can remember, this kind of weapon was the bane of roman troops before Dacia fell. It was said in the roman chronicles, that these blades could cleave through roman helmets and sever limbs with ease. Also, since the romans fought the dacians, they added iron bands the skull of their helmets to prevent their helms being split and added scale mail to their arms.

Fascinating. I'd really recommend you try a visit to Romania and visit the Armoury room in Peles Castle in Sinaia. Beautiful place overall.

So this it what t looks like. Read a Novel "Henry King The Rise of Empires." Dacian Flax squared with a scimitar.I could see why it won. That sword is a beast.

The dacs used to fight in groups of three, one between others two with big round shields and smaller swords. The falx is not an weapon for defense but an offensive one. The protection of this warrior was done by the two men with shields. Anyway the dacs were not afraid of death, they singing when were going to battle. Was a big honor to meet the Mighty God Zamolxe as a warrior.

I am subscribed for more than I can remember. Usually I just watch the video and thumb it up. But man. This time I can't help it. What a beautiful work of art. Great craftsmanship! And lo;ts of history behind that. For anyone who liked the weapon and has some interest on the subject and want to know more about the people, culture and such, you can search "Sergiu Nicolaescu - Dacii (1967) -HQ" It has english subtitles. Great director. Even greater actors. And is about the emperor Domitian who fought Decebal, and wanted to conquer Dacia in 87-88. PS. I also searched iamandiknife (Cristian Iamandi)and found a youtube channel. I think is a friend of his. And it has some tests on various tools, like Sica. It;s EDGE ADDICTION. Maybe someone finds this usefull, for those like me, who dont use facebook that much. Salut!

I love the joy he has when he gets a nice blade. It's great and his passion is inspiring!

You see those warriors from Romania?

Scary weapon Scary sounding snake as a flag Spooky spooky Dacians

Interesting fact, the Dacian falx was first used as a pruning tool for harvesting crops. It was only after the romans invaded that the Dacian's used it as a weapon. The falx was very effective at getting around shields, and it was the reason that roman soldiers had to put armor all over their midsection because the falx could reach around the shield and hit them

beautiful craftsmanship. the more authentic finish on the blade is gorgeous

Awesome, my wife's Romanian and it's nice to see them in the mix

its useless! it doesnt have a unscrewable pommel!

When you putt the falx on your left shoulder , you look like a true dacian !!! 😊😊😊😊😊

That looks like a gorgeous weapon. The art on the grip, the blade color, and texture. the notch in the grip for your hands. If I had that sword I would have a glass case made for it, which would probably always be empty because i would have it out all the time.

I'm betting he didn't sharpen it too much, because he was shipping it and didn't want it slashing the packaging while en route.

Make the handle green and it'll turn illegal... xD

so many weapons start off as farm implements. That is a beauty tho. Really seems authentic. No frills. Lethal

That looks AMAZING! Best looking falx I have ever seen.

When he opened it he was like a little kid on Cristmas. Magical :D

Im in love with the dacian falx, its just to beautiful

yeah that thing looks REAL. whoever made it is an incredible badass

That's exactly how I first imagined the Dothraki swords (the arakhs) from A Song of Ice and Fire (Game of Thrones)!

All the romanians are happy with this

What happens when someone with a sabre fights someone with a falx? Do they just look at each other and walk away once they realise what they're doing?

I don't know now why I feel so proud because I live in Romania =))

Our Dacian falx.. Great Dacians..

*_CURVED SWOARDS INTENSIFIES!_*

Finally a good sword from one of the mightiest rivals of Roman Empire, the Dacians, who were laughing in front of their death.

dude its beautiful! one of the prettiest i have seen in the channel! props to the Blacksmith who made it!

It is like a massive can opener! Never knew about this sword until this video and it looks great!

I am from Romania...This makes me so proud! Romania has a great history. This is nice!

Romans: yOu CaNt hUrT uS, wE hAvE aRmOuR Dacians: *laughs in falx*

I saw the title of your video and before lwatching it I knew who did this sword. I met Iamandi on mount Olympus in Greece almost 2 years ago. A very friendly and nice person. So glad you got one of his masterpieces!

Clearly the maker takes a lot of pride in his work.

Forget the sword, review the bubble wrap!

An excellent melee weapon. Not beautifull but strong and efective. Could be even longer, depending on the size and strength of the owner. Against a wall of shields they used to hit downwards (vertical or slant), aiming for de helmet and shoulders of the oponent. The falx was strong enought to cut a roman shield and to perforate the helmet or the shoulders armor, with one good strike, killing the oponent or wounding him badly. Even if helmet/ shoulders not reached, the falx was pulled back like a hook, leaving the oponent without shield. After the Dacian Wars you will see Roman helmets with two crossed metall pieces on top, specially for weapons like falx. The southern brach of thracians, south of Balkan mountains, used a longer variant, "ROMPHAIA" (up to 1.80m long), with a little different shape of the blade.

I like that you did this video ! I fell honored because I am from Romania

Really looks impressive as shipped, but will enjoy watching the testing after your touching up the edge. Kudos to the smith.

That is a gorgeous weapon

I love how Skall NEVER is satisfied with the edge haha :D.

i am a proud dacians illustrator, and that's an awesome piece of falx !

Hi there Skall,thank you for testing this awesome made weapon,and giving it a thumbs up. It would be great if you could go and have a chop or two with it...test it against a shield maybe...to show how the curvature of the blade works... There aren't a lot of great videos about this kind of weapon;even less showing them in action! And,i'm pretty certain that if you put you mind and arm to use with it,we'll have the best video available. Cheers from Romania.

could you mail me that bubble wrap?! Pleeeeeeeeeez!

The thumbnail makes it look like he's holding a package from Bad Dragon

I bought a pair of shoes from Foot Locker and it took almost 1 month to have them shipped from US to Romania. You got so lucky.

That sword is awesome! Came with a pretty good wrapping job - added bonus of 2 and a half minutes of unwrapping, lol.

maybe a Japanese trader saw this and put the edge on the wrong side

Dacians was a great warriors...

Sweet sword! Love the blade shape and the overall look

Raddest unboxing ever! Very cool that a blacksmith viewer made a sword for you like this :)

i love two handed single edged sword idk why. well just single edged swords in general i guess. nice sword man, i actually asked if youd get one a couple of years ago haha. great to see you finally got one of quality.

Relatively short two-handed sword with no guard. Seems like a weird weapon of choice for the time. Do you know why they went with this design?

this dude rocks. i love swords and this guy is all about it

That is a wicked looking blade! I want one now.

That blade looks about as sturdy as a hardened steel rod. Damn

respect from an brotherhood of Daco-Getae-Tracian blood.... Deceneu is in my soul!!!!

Seeing my mother's country featured on Skallagrim

I can feel the hand forged majic from here. That looks like something to be handed down over generations to come.

Proud of my country , and yea Im a DACIAN!

I'm romanian and I say that we still have lots of blacksmiths that still crafting swords,muskets and crossbows

Everyone finds their own thing in RU-vid to become famous skallgrim has made it into the best weapon reviews

Very nice work! A beautiful weapon !

Now, that's just beautiful! I want! Please try not to yell at me too hard, for posting this: These are just my thoughts and educated-guesses, from my own perspective. I'm not saying I'm right, and I'm probably wrong! I would imagine that the design for the falx was chosen, for many of the same reasons as the design of the kukri--it's a relatively fast weapon to produce, sturdily, it's not so big that it gets too much in the way of your other fighters, in large groups, and the design just naturally lends itself to quick yet devastatingly powerful, damaging, attacks, without requiring a whole lot of extra training, skill, or muscle. I suspect the lack of a hilt probably had to do more with the idea of it being a battlefield-weapon. If it were being used more, in personal combat, or against enemies who were using longer swords, then hilts and guards and etc. would probably have started showing up? In the meantime, the Dacians had the one-handed, but similarly-shaped Sica, which I would guess they used and carried much more ubiquitously, and probably got a lot more utility, out of? I don't think I would sharpen it, because I think that Skallagrim's suggestion, about the Roman armour, was completely accurate. I think that the Falx was, in it's day, more like a...bazooka, say, than a small-sword. It was an "anti-tank" weapon, specifically against the Roman armoured soldier "tanks", and that was it's purpose. Could you kill wolves, or sheep-stealing bandits, with it? Sure. You're just not going to put that much effort, and that much iron, into something that wasn't practical for anything other than splitting Roman helmets, unless you have access to a hell of a lot more population and infrastructure than ancient Dacia did--Although, they admittedly did amazingly well. Are there far better weapons, for duels and one-on-one combat? Absolutely--the one-handed Dacian Sica, for instance, would have been considerably more maneuverable, more versatile for the skilled wielder to use and improvise with, and better, for close-in knife work. I also conjecture that this was, possibly, a weapon that performed better and better, offensively, when wielded by larger and larger groups. What I mean is, that it would have been, over-all, more effective, when you've got 20 random guys wielding these things, than one random guy, or a hundred guys, vs 20, "man-for-man", in large part, because it was an easy weapon for pretty much anybody to pick up and intuitively use, and, because of it's two-handedness, you wouldn't need great slabs of muscle to drive it. I think this would have also been amazingly-effective against smaller groups of calvalry. It would not only be great against armoured riders, it would also have made really short work of wounded, terrified, potentially very destructive and chaotic, horses, once their riders were down (including ones from your own side), which I think would have been a not-insignificant factor, for the calvalry-using, calvalry-fighting Dacians. The downside of the weapon is, of course, the difficulty of protecting the wielder, without a shield. Something like this, made from high-quality steel--even still lacking a hilt or guards--would probably be pretty close to ideal, wielded by a knight in full plate (great for hacking apart peasants all day, but still quite capable, when dealing with the occasional snotty noble)--but, the less protection the warrior has, the more casualties your side takes, the more you start to lose all those group advantages. If you could get in close, though, to a confused enemy, maybe under the cover of heavy foliage, or even at night (and ancient Dacia must have been damned dark, at night!), then the opposite may have been true: One Dacian guy, in the right place and at the right time, could have hacked apart a lot of Roman guys, in a very brief amount of time, with one of these. (Not to connect everything Romanian to Dracula, or anything, but: I actually wonder if these weapons--which just happen to look so much like animal fangs--might possibly have had anything at all to do with the formation of the "vampire" myth? One "superhumanly strong"--because of the blade design, someone using one of these might seem to be stronger than they actually were--yet ordinary looking guy, tears apart a bunch of young, inexperienced, "virgin" foreign soldiers, in the dead of night, and maybe it happens more than once, over a hundred years or more? Yeah, in combination with other events, I could possibly see some "mythic" potential, there. It's just a silly idle thought...Or is it?) One thing, about the armour-question: Since Romania/Dacia is such a heavily-forested region, Roman tactics for dealing with less armoured folk may have been overall less effective, since Dacian warriors could have been using trees for cover, whenever possible, and making surprise "hit-and-run" ambushes and strikes, against the Roman presence. This two-handed design would have been ideal for that, too, because of it's slim profile (no hilt, to catch on any branches, or to make any extra noise--and you can make more of them, faster, without worrying about fiddling with hilt, guard, pommel.), and relative lightness and speed. I don't know how often that happened, but in the sense of guerilla-tactics at least, it would have been an effective "defensive" weapon, at that time, and probably even today, in the right terrain and situations. Some historians have connected ancient Dacia to the King Arthur myth--and, pretty compellingly, at that--so, this may have even been the original image of 'Excalibur'. Thanks to all who read this far--And again, these are just my guesses!

I immediately fell in love with this style of sword! I must know how it was used so I can create a character who wields one.

That... is a scary looking weapon. Damned good job.

Haha, spent all day typing an essay pertaining to the Dacian Wars and Rome and this was the first thing I saw when I got to youtube. Interesting to see what they were using, that wasn't a part of my research. Nice video and props to the guy who made the falx!