Got a free Dao. Project sword?
Apr 28, 2010 17:42:23 GMT
Post by Deleted on Apr 28, 2010 17:42:23 GMT
Hey guys!
I got a free Dao from a friend. He got it off ebay a few years ago and has never really done anything with it. It was marketed as hand forged and functional.
the scabbard has some writing on one side, and a dragon on the other.
mr-nobones.com/images/dao/IMG_7348.jpg
mr-nobones.com/images/dao/IMG_7349.jpg
The handle and scabbard are made out of the same yellowish, light wood. Does not seem very strong. The handle came with a badly glued on leather wrap that was very very loose. All the metal hardware is brass. The pommel is hollow brass. All the hardware is very cheap and ill-fitting. The pommel was held on by a washer and nut, when removed it revealed another set of washers and nut holding the handle on. The handle has quite a bit of play on the tang.
The blade however does seem to be decent grade steel, though I have no idea how hardened it is. You can see hammer marks on the flat of the blade, and once the hardware is off you can see that the tang seems hand-worked as well. The tang seems to be one solid piece, not welded on, and the threading appears to be machined on to the metal of the tang. No visible weld marks that I can see.
You can see the curious bend to the threaded portion.
The blade is sharpened with a secondary bevel, and is fairly sharp. It has a very pleasing ring to it if you strike the blade, and it passes a hand flex test easily (I didn't flex to any extreme angle but it flexes and springs back to true).
The blade has some chinese characters and what I assume to be a forge mark (?) stamped on one side of the blade and a dragon on the other.
Here's a pic of the whole blade bare.
So, I possibly have a candidate for a beater project sword here, yeah? I've trained with practice dao since I was a teen but never got to cut with one.
Are there any resources online to buy better hardware that could be used/modified to be used on this sword? I realize there's also a lot of DIY people on here, any suggestions to that end are appreciated as well. I'm not an experienced wood or metalworker nor do I have access to extensive tools but I'm fairly handy and can follow instructions well.
If you'd like to see the other pics of the sword I didn't post, here's a link to the directory.
mr-nobones.com/images/dao/
I got a free Dao from a friend. He got it off ebay a few years ago and has never really done anything with it. It was marketed as hand forged and functional.
the scabbard has some writing on one side, and a dragon on the other.
mr-nobones.com/images/dao/IMG_7348.jpg
mr-nobones.com/images/dao/IMG_7349.jpg
The handle and scabbard are made out of the same yellowish, light wood. Does not seem very strong. The handle came with a badly glued on leather wrap that was very very loose. All the metal hardware is brass. The pommel is hollow brass. All the hardware is very cheap and ill-fitting. The pommel was held on by a washer and nut, when removed it revealed another set of washers and nut holding the handle on. The handle has quite a bit of play on the tang.
The blade however does seem to be decent grade steel, though I have no idea how hardened it is. You can see hammer marks on the flat of the blade, and once the hardware is off you can see that the tang seems hand-worked as well. The tang seems to be one solid piece, not welded on, and the threading appears to be machined on to the metal of the tang. No visible weld marks that I can see.
You can see the curious bend to the threaded portion.
The blade is sharpened with a secondary bevel, and is fairly sharp. It has a very pleasing ring to it if you strike the blade, and it passes a hand flex test easily (I didn't flex to any extreme angle but it flexes and springs back to true).
The blade has some chinese characters and what I assume to be a forge mark (?) stamped on one side of the blade and a dragon on the other.
Here's a pic of the whole blade bare.
So, I possibly have a candidate for a beater project sword here, yeah? I've trained with practice dao since I was a teen but never got to cut with one.
Are there any resources online to buy better hardware that could be used/modified to be used on this sword? I realize there's also a lot of DIY people on here, any suggestions to that end are appreciated as well. I'm not an experienced wood or metalworker nor do I have access to extensive tools but I'm fairly handy and can follow instructions well.
If you'd like to see the other pics of the sword I didn't post, here's a link to the directory.
mr-nobones.com/images/dao/
