Windlass de-flexing - I improved mine... fluke?
Apr 16, 2010 8:28:06 GMT
Post by muerteblack on Apr 16, 2010 8:28:06 GMT
I own a Windlass Sword of Roven, and although the "whippiness" has not been as bad as some horror stories of windlass blades I've heard, and, as some of you may have seen from my cutting videos, has not exactly posed a problem for me for making effective cuts. However, it is still very... erm.... flexible, even for a long euro sword. The blade would sag slightly when I held it sideways, and I could get the middle of the blade to bow way out and flex heavily just by barely touching it and pressing in if I would secure the point on the ground somewhere.
However, on an unrelated maintenance project to tighten the pommel and shim it (since it was rattling), I of course unscrewed and removed the pommel and took a peek under the hood. I noticed that not only was the pommel's hole too big around for the tang, so was the wood grip. Windlass had epoxied the wood core of the grip to the tang, but it was spotty at best. It must have been stuck on in some places, but for the most part, there was a huge gap around the tang between it and the wood core. As a result, the tang had a huge amount of free play inside the wood core.
While it was still disassembled, I flexed the blade more, and noticed the tang wobbling around inside the wood core as I did that. So I got an idea. I took a bottle of Gorilla Glue, and filled the interior of the gap so the tang had no more free room inside the wood core, shimmed the pommel, glued THAT whole assembly onto the tang, glued the threaded portion, then tightened the nut on the end as much as I could.
I waited the recommended time to set, then I inspected the sword again. Since the glue had (as it had warned) expanded quite a bit, there had been some excess leakage around any gaps. After cutting away the excess with a knife, I then tested the hilt. The whole hilt assembly was now permanently fixed together and felt completely solid. I couldn't shift or move anything even with all my effort.
However, I made a second discovery. I also noticed that when I held the sword outward, the blade no longer sagged. I placed the tip on the floor and tried to flex the blade. It now took a bit of force to bend. It was actually stiffer now that the tang couldn't wobble around! The blade is no longer whippy at all for me, even though it is Windlass and is a 38" long blade.
Was my experience a complete fluke or is there something to this?
However, on an unrelated maintenance project to tighten the pommel and shim it (since it was rattling), I of course unscrewed and removed the pommel and took a peek under the hood. I noticed that not only was the pommel's hole too big around for the tang, so was the wood grip. Windlass had epoxied the wood core of the grip to the tang, but it was spotty at best. It must have been stuck on in some places, but for the most part, there was a huge gap around the tang between it and the wood core. As a result, the tang had a huge amount of free play inside the wood core.
While it was still disassembled, I flexed the blade more, and noticed the tang wobbling around inside the wood core as I did that. So I got an idea. I took a bottle of Gorilla Glue, and filled the interior of the gap so the tang had no more free room inside the wood core, shimmed the pommel, glued THAT whole assembly onto the tang, glued the threaded portion, then tightened the nut on the end as much as I could.
I waited the recommended time to set, then I inspected the sword again. Since the glue had (as it had warned) expanded quite a bit, there had been some excess leakage around any gaps. After cutting away the excess with a knife, I then tested the hilt. The whole hilt assembly was now permanently fixed together and felt completely solid. I couldn't shift or move anything even with all my effort.
However, I made a second discovery. I also noticed that when I held the sword outward, the blade no longer sagged. I placed the tip on the floor and tried to flex the blade. It now took a bit of force to bend. It was actually stiffer now that the tang couldn't wobble around! The blade is no longer whippy at all for me, even though it is Windlass and is a 38" long blade.
Was my experience a complete fluke or is there something to this?