Frequently Asked Questions

For you, we hope Kult of Athena comes to mean THE place to find a great assortment, great service, great value and a bastion of knowledge.

For us, we started with Athena. Athena is the ancient Greek Goddess of wisdom and battle. Compared to Ares the god of war, Athena represented battle with intelligence and wisdom, not war for war’s sake. A “Kult” or “Cult” was the name given to a God’s followers – and our name has nothing to do with racists. That makes Kult Of Athena the followers of the goddess Athena – an appropriate name for a company that sells and admires the beauty of form and function that swords of all eras and cultures represent. Plus, we liked the way it sounded more than something like GetSwords.com.

The history is fascinating and impressive, but…. No.

We try to offer the broadest range of historical swords, weapons, armor and shields available in one place. Our products are made by many different manufacturers from several different countries.

We are proud to have an in-house product development team that shares their knowledge and expertise with our manufacturing partners around the world, allowing us to develop product lines exclusive to Kult of Athena. These are lines like Balaur Arms, Devil’s Edge and Iron Tiger Forge. These “private labels” help us balance great quality with value.

To be clear, our swords, armor and shields are replicas, not antiques and we don’t make them. But, we do have highly skilled craftspeople in our quality control and sharpening workshops that make sure you receive the quality you expect.

We have a different philosophy than most competitor sites.

Many sacrifice an inspection for quality, better prices, and inferior products by offering every item a manufacturer offers and filling these by dropshipping or through third party providers.We focus on quality. We prefer to carefully select a broad assortment, stock it in our 16,000 square foot warehouse, inspect the item personally before it ships, and package it with our famous protective process and materials. The more brown paper, the better. That means that even with the very real disruption that covid has caused on the supply chain, we do everything we can to stay in stock – and do minimal dropshipping. Other competitors, dropshippers, and online marketplace sellers may sacrifice the ability to inspect and protect your purchase.

Please visit our stock status and shipping page to understand our stock-level status and shipment ties.

Probably!

We have access to thousands of items not listed on our website. Reach out to our customer service team with information on the piece and we will try to get it for you at the best price – and at the best quality.

Unfortunately we are not in the business of custom swords. For more info, please see above.

We’re asked this frequently! To put it simply, from day one we’re worked on a smaller mark-up then many dealers and competitors. Our team does more with less in order to keep prices down. We work hard to keep our prices low, and try to sell items for what they’re actually worth – instead of price gouging for the sake of profit.

There’s no catch! We sell the same name brand products as other dealers and get them all from the same places. All of our products are brand new (except our munitions grade or blemished items) and hand inspected before shipping, meaning you’ll get a better price and a guaranteed quality product when you shop with Kult of Athena.

We know from experience that most competitors don’t even bother looking at the items they sell you. They just order them in and ship them out; loose, broken, rusty or damaged. It takes a lot of time to quality check shipments, and while most dealers do not want to be bothered with it, we pride ourselves on delivering the best pieces, at the fairest price.

Sometimes you will see two or more swords that look the same but have very different prices.

These may be a Munitions Grade or Blemished product. These are items that did not make our highest standard of quality, and we feel we can’t charge you full-price (even if we bought it ourselves at full-price.)

They may also be cheaper versions of the same looking sword made by the same or different manufacturer. You may also occasionally see an official movie replica and a cheaper look-alike. The licensed replicas are the true collectibles where the look-alikes offer an option for people who want the style of the originals, but don’t need the authentic copy, or price.

Yes. Please see our Price Matching Policy.

We work hard to offer the lowest pricing when possible, and that means getting as close to our bottom line as possible. Therefore, we do not offer discount codes.

Our customer service team is highly knowledgeable and happy to help you.

Call us at +1 847-531-8664 or email us at orders@kultofathena.com.

Our support is generally available Monday through Friday from 8:30AM – 5:30PM, Central Time. We are closed weekends. We monitor our social media feeds but these are not the best way to get help.

You can check your inbox for a purchase confirmation and shipment notification.

You can also contact us.

Your wait time will be driven by our quality control methods, the stock status of an item, whether you have asked for a sharpening service, if you would like to split ship or bundle your purchases, and the shipping method selected.

See more detail about stock status and our shipping policies here.

We’re located about 40 miles from Chicago.

For mailing purposes or curbside pickup, our address is:
1485 Davis Rd
Unit A
Elgin, IL 60123
USA

No. In short, stores would force us to raise our prices. We don’t want to do that.

Yes! We will hold your order for pick up (and waive shipping charges) as long as you clearly state so in the special instructions at check out. Please wait for us to contact you to let you know that your order is ready before coming to get it. We’d hate you to travel a long way if your order is not ready.

No – a print catalog is expensive and would drive up the prices we charge. We are built to be as lean as possible in order to keep prices low. Please feel free to browse our online catalog for inspiration.

Absolutely. Millions of secure credit card transactions occur on the internet without a problem and Kult of Athena is no exception. When you place an order on our site, your information is encrypted and stored on a remote server. Your payment information is kept for the minimum time required. Access to your email address is granted only through a secure and password protected connection to retrieve it. Rest assured your identity and purchases are safe and secure.

We are a U.S. based company and work exclusively in U.S. dollars. If you are ordering by credit card from another country, the credit card company will take care of the foreign exchange automatically.

Select Sezzle as your payment method during checkout.
New Sezzle customers will need to create a Sezzle account, returning Sezzle customers will need to login.
Sezzle will do a soft credit check for approval of the transaction – this will not affect your credit score.
As little as 25% is due at the time of the purchase, with the remaining amount spread out over equal installments (typically three), each two weeks apart.
Sezzle automates the remaining payments through whichever payment method is on file.
No interest or processing fees are charged to you – as long as you pay everything off on time, you only pay for what you ordered!

Yes, your order must be a minimum of $50 to use Sezzle as a payment option.

Sezzle will not have an impact on your credit – they do not perform hard credit checks. Instead, they perform “soft checks” by reviewing your credit score as part of their risk check.

Your security is of utmost importance to us too! Sezzle undergos quarterly scans and yearly audits to ensure your data is safely stored in our systems – and to maintain compliance at the highest level in the Payment Card Industry (PCI): PCI Level 1.

To use Sezzle, you must be 18 years or older* and have a valid phone number based out of either the United States or Canada.

You will also need to have an email address as well as a payment method ready at checkout – we accept all major debit and credit cards, and you can also link a bank account directly. At this time, prepaid cards are not able to be used to place orders, but you can use them to pay off existing orders.

*You must be 19 years or older in Alabama, or if you are a ward of the state and live in Nebraska.

You can either sign up and get your account set up directly through the Sezzle website, or you can sign up as you check out at a merchant’s site! Either option will walk you through the same signup process.

To get signed up, you will need to have a working phone number based out of the US or Canada, as well as a payment method (debit/credit card or bank account) to link to your account.

To get signed up, click here, or to get started shopping, check out our Store Directory here!

You still have the option of paying full price using our normal payment methods.

We try to offer all applicants a simple payment plan through Sezzle, but unfortunately, we’re not always able to approve every order. Our system assesses every order individually, taking into account your available funds, outstanding orders, and the total cost of the order you’re trying to place. If you’re not approved for any reason, we’ll notify you right away.Here are a few reasons you may have been denied:

• Insufficient funds. Typically, we check to make sure you have at least 25% of the total order cost available at the time you place an order.
• Too new to Sezzle. The longer you use Sezzle, the better your chances of getting approved. Usually, we’re less restrictive after the first six weeks.
• Outstanding balance(s). The amount you owe on previous orders and the number of open orders on your account both impact your chances of being approved by Sezzle. Paying off your outstanding balances can improve your chances of getting approved.
• Order value. Reducing the total cost of your order, or splitting it into two or three smaller transactions, can improve your chances of getting approved.
• Payments linked to your account. Adding another debit or credit card to your Sezzle account helps us understand your repayment ability, which can help get you approved.
• Keep in mind: Just because you’re not approved today, doesn’t mean you won’t be tomorrow. Every order is unique – so keep using Sezzle!

Swords marked as “Battle Ready” are made to a higher standard than your average display weapons using carbon steel. They are functional weapons designed to cut and not just be hung on a wall.

Our battle ready swords are not indestructible; they should not be used for blade to blade combat, see more info below.

Swords listed as “Sport Combat” (or “Stage Combat”) are specifically designed for combat reenactment, stage and film fights, and other activities where they will be hit edge to edge together. Sport combat swords feature extra strong tangs and thick blades with thick edges and typically weigh more than a “Battle Ready” item. These swords are not made to be sharpened and can withstand a fair amount of usage.

No sword is indestructible, and “Sport Combat” swords are no exception.

We pride ourselves on quality and when items arrive that don’t meet our quality standards (but can not really be considered defective or “Blow Out” items) we classify them as Blemished.

These factory blemished models will have small cosmetic defects but no issues that affect its function.

Examples include: small surface scratches, scabbard dents or cracks, minor blade pitting, etc.

Larger issues like blade chips, cracks, warps or anything else that will affect performance are classified as Munitions Grade, not blemished.

Please note that we do not keep track of every specific minor blemish and aren’t able to convey that over the phone or email. We offer these items at a discount for those who are interested in function, enjoy a deal, and have some flexibility on where the blemish might be.

Items with a $0.00 price crossed out indicate the item is no longer available in a non blemished version.

Returns and exchanges are not accepted on purchases of blemished items.

Because we personally inspect all the swords we ship out, we come across items that do not meet our high standards. Items classified as “Munitions Grade” typically have various bends, warps or twists in the blades making them poorly suited for sharpening and cutting. They are not blemished, so they look great (except maybe for a minor warp). They are still a great choice for collecting, costuming and re-enacting.

We do not get these items at any extra discount and most dealers would just sell these as normal. However, we do not feel they are at the quality level we expect, so we are offering them up to you at further discounted prices.

Please note that we do not keep track of what classified an object as munitions grade, and aren’t able to convey that over the phone or email. We offer these items at a discount for those who enjoy a deal, are happy with a quality looking piece, and are ok that these do not meet high expectations of performance.

Items with a $0.00 price crossed out indicate the item is no longer available in a regular version.

Returns and exchanges are not accepted on purchases of munitions grade items.

For more info on sword terminology, see our glossary!

We offer dealer pricing on the following brands: Universal Swords, Deepeeka, Lord of Battles, and Baladay Dancing Swords. If you are interested in dealer pricing, please sign up for a wholesaler account.