Ode To A Named Sword

I have never been a big fan of naming "stuff" whether it be tools or toys. I believe in naming dogs. I also believe in naming other personal pets. But my whole life I never really understood some of my friends' obsession with naming their guns, trucks, or other inanimate objects. I never had very many of those that stayed around long enough to develop an overly "personal" attachment to them. Sure, I still have the first deer rifle I received as a 12th birthday present. I still have the first 12 ga. shotgun I was given for my 14th birthday. But I only used them a few times a year and really never thought about them much the rest of the time. So here I find myself at age 44, developing a "personal relationship" with of all things...a sword.

It just seems ridiculous. And to top it all off, I named it something so simple-minded as "Gennie", I guess because I'm kind of a simple-minded individual.

Gennie started life as a discount-priced Generation 2 12th Century Norman sword. When I got it (still a little hard referring to it as "she" or "her") I was not overly impressed, since I really didn't know anything about medieval swords. The fit and finish were nice. But it seemed a little long and awkward to me. I already owned a Chinese saber and really liked the way it cut things, since the center of percussion was about 5-6 inches behind the point. And I was educated on cutting by years of using the machete as an everyday working tool.

About this time I stumbled onto Bill Tsafa's Tire Pell website. This inspired me to build my own rather crude tire pell. I whacked away a bit with the 12th Century Norman. It had a little vibration when I made contact too far out on the blade. I was relatively happy with it. But what did I know?


WARNING: This next part should be skipped by all of you "sword guys" who are easily upset by tales of swords being abused.


Late one evening (possibly after having a couple of beers, I can't remember) I decided this Norman sword was just too long for me, as I only stand 5' 6". And since I HAD a hacksaw, and I was home alone with no adult supervision, I proceeded to remove about 5 1/2 inches from this sword's 34.5 inch blade. So of course, the famed Generation 2 warranty flew right out the garage door and off into the night, looking for someone with a higher degree of sanity.



Now before you all start shouting "Blasphemy! Off with his head!" I have to state that I have a bit of past experience with metal objects and the correction of damage to same. I have been engaged in the building of custom firearms and the correction of other people's mistakes with same for about 15 years. So I felt I could probably exercise enough skill with a belt sander, a file and various other cutting tools to retaper and reprofile this blunt metal object before me. So onward I marched...

Well, I experimented with various point designs. I studied a gaggle of different sword points, always looking for what I felt would be that perfect shape configuration for this sword. As I proceeded down this road of exploration I began to see this sharp pointy object as more than a thing. It began to develop a character in my mind.

I finally settled on a point much like this, and dutifully went to work shaping this point.



I mostly liked this point, and after a nice sharpening and the development of a decent appleseed edge this sword cut as well as anything I have ever experienced. But the penetration on thrusts was exactly as designed, which is to say "underwhelming."

After one particularly vigorous session on the tire pell, some friends and I were sawing up a few tires for another target-building project and a pesky strand of rubber was holding two sections of tire tread together. Not to be deterred, I placed the offending strand on top of a 2-foot-long piece of 4x4 and cleanly severed it with an expert "chop" with the last 4 inches of the shortened Norman sword. Unbeknownst to me, the reason for the tenacity of the two tread sections was...anyone...yes, a half dozen strands of the steel belt. The Gen 2 sword had cut them like butter. However, physics can't be denied and the result was about 3 nice little nicks in the edge.

The offending nicks were located about 4 inches back from the tip of the blade. After due consideration, I decided this was to be the inspiration for another slight modification to this durable little sword. I did a little more research and settled on a slightly more pointy version of the tip this sword originally possessed. So I scribed the tip profile I wanted with a Sharpie and it was back to the belt sander. This time it was much easier to get the profile I wanted. The next step was to re-edge the primary angle. This was accomplished with the blade clamped in a padded vise. While it was in the vise, I used a file to add a bit of distal taper and bring the point back to a pleasing "spear" point configuration. Next it went onto my leather covered sharping/polishing area for an hour or two to put on the finishing touches to the very slight distal taper and to bring the edge to a level of sharpness that will just grab the hairs on your arm (and cut a few) in the "is this a sharp knife" test.

Not content with this abuse, I decided the guard needed to be curved instead of straight. I wrapped the upper blade with tape to protect it and placed pieces of tape on the top and bottom edges of the guard, then clamped the sword edge-on in a vise. I used a hammer to bend both points of the guard into a slight curve around the rounded contours of the vise jaws.

Here's a picture of Gennie after getting her new tip (far right) at rest with her siblings. The curvature of the guard is not complete. In fact, it's very rough. But it will be improved.



At the next opportunity, this little sword was used in an afternoon of soda bottle cutting and it proved to be well up to the task. I was able to cleanly cut up to three inline 20 ounce soda bottles, and three inline 24 ounce Gatorade bottles. In all cases, the top halves came flying off and the bottom halves kind of floundered around the table then fell off to land at my feet. This seemed to be a good indication of a clean cut without the targets experiencing any blunt trauma. This is good cutting performance to my uneducated mind, so I am happy with it.

Next it was over to the tire pell for some heavy cutting and thrusting. Just like before, this fast handling sword flew into the pell and made deep cuts into the rubber tread. But unlike before, armed with it's new tip, it was a terror on the sidewalls. It was able to cleanly thrust clear through one side and embed the tip into the offside of the tire.



During this session I also learned a valuable lesson on cuts to the inside of the tire. If your sword is sharp and cuts really well (like mine) DON'T DO IT. I did a snap cut diagonally into the inside rim of a tire and cut deeply into the steel belting in the rim. This severed about 8-10 steel belt threads, and unfortunately left 4-5 little nicks on Gennie's edge. No matter. That's what this little cutie is for. The nicks mostly came out with the next sharpening and polishing as you can see here.



So I am really happy with this sword. I never thought I'd do something as silly as give a sword a name. But somehow this one seems to have earned it. Just about the only thing left to do is change the configuration of the guard to something like this.



I will probably get around to doing that in another week or two.

So...during this whole procession of events I developed a strong fondness for this sword. I didn't plan on naming her. But it just worked out that way. She's taken everything I could dish out and kept going strong. And it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway. That Gen 2 peened hilt, handle and guard is still as rock-solid as the day I took it out of the box. And I have no reason to believe it won't stay that way as long as I use this little darling of a sword.

As a result of all I've been able to do with this sword, I decided to order another Gen 2 sword from Arms of Valor. This time I'm going with a Crusader Sword, as I already bought a Crusader dagger (before the 12th Century Norman Dagger was available). I am looking forward to the arrival of the new sword with great anticipation. But don't worry Clyde, I don't have such radical plans for this one. ;D