Rework my Windlass Narnia
May 30, 2007 18:01:36 GMT
Post by Brendan Olszowy on May 30, 2007 18:01:36 GMT
I have had my Windlass made Master Replia's Narnia sword now for a year. It comes from the factory looking very pretty and is part of a limited edition run and is numbered with a certificate etc.
But I'm a pretty hands on kind of guy and got to 'improving' it pretty much straight away.
First came sharpening. It comes with a fine but dull edge. Some brief filing with a smooth file is all it takes to put a keen edge on it, followed by some stoning to smoothen it. I worked down each side of the blade til it was all sharp sparing a 6" ricasso at the base.
Any blade with "DEATH" etched into it has got to be cool.
Pommel:
In the evenings i improved the lions head pommel (Aslan). The castings as standard give a good impression but not very detailed. I had my diamond needle file sharpening the stumpy teeth, removing unnecessary castings in the mouth , and chiseling definition to his face.
I thought the gold plate was overly garish so I sanded it with 1200 to the silver nickel underneath leaving only the gold in the grooves, and the exposed brass from my filing.
When I first started to cut with this sword the middle ring on the handle would move about, due to being only anchored by one nail on one side. So I cut it off.
I found the grip too narrow having reasonably large hands, so I wanded to rewrap it to thicken it. I like the look of cord wrap so I opened forum for some suggestions.
Regripping:
I was tossing up whether to antique the sword or keep it glitzy. I decided on a red satin finish cord I found at a craft shop. Keeping it red is in suit with the Narnian colour scheme.
I did a dry run wrapping over the leather but decided to cut off the leather to avoid the ridge down the centre.
I put on three risers - one on each end and one between hands.
I then decided to ditch the riser at the pommel end, as i was worried that the epoxy wasnt a strong enough grip with nothing behind it to support the weight of the blow - fearing danger.
I wrapped the whole handle in white nylon cord to build up thickness. When I got to the pommel end I realised I could get the gold ring over the cord, so I epoxied that in place. I then Ripped off the riser at the cross end and put some red cord on and epoxied gold ring over it to anchor the cord.
Wrap it up in red and there you have it.
I thought Id include some shots of the tang, thread, and shoulder for anyone looking at getting one of these. You can see there are no wlelds and the whole thing is ground from one piece.
But I'm a pretty hands on kind of guy and got to 'improving' it pretty much straight away.
First came sharpening. It comes with a fine but dull edge. Some brief filing with a smooth file is all it takes to put a keen edge on it, followed by some stoning to smoothen it. I worked down each side of the blade til it was all sharp sparing a 6" ricasso at the base.
Any blade with "DEATH" etched into it has got to be cool.
Pommel:
In the evenings i improved the lions head pommel (Aslan). The castings as standard give a good impression but not very detailed. I had my diamond needle file sharpening the stumpy teeth, removing unnecessary castings in the mouth , and chiseling definition to his face.
I thought the gold plate was overly garish so I sanded it with 1200 to the silver nickel underneath leaving only the gold in the grooves, and the exposed brass from my filing.
When I first started to cut with this sword the middle ring on the handle would move about, due to being only anchored by one nail on one side. So I cut it off.
I found the grip too narrow having reasonably large hands, so I wanded to rewrap it to thicken it. I like the look of cord wrap so I opened forum for some suggestions.
Regripping:
I was tossing up whether to antique the sword or keep it glitzy. I decided on a red satin finish cord I found at a craft shop. Keeping it red is in suit with the Narnian colour scheme.
I did a dry run wrapping over the leather but decided to cut off the leather to avoid the ridge down the centre.
I put on three risers - one on each end and one between hands.
I then decided to ditch the riser at the pommel end, as i was worried that the epoxy wasnt a strong enough grip with nothing behind it to support the weight of the blow - fearing danger.
I wrapped the whole handle in white nylon cord to build up thickness. When I got to the pommel end I realised I could get the gold ring over the cord, so I epoxied that in place. I then Ripped off the riser at the cross end and put some red cord on and epoxied gold ring over it to anchor the cord.
Wrap it up in red and there you have it.
I thought Id include some shots of the tang, thread, and shoulder for anyone looking at getting one of these. You can see there are no wlelds and the whole thing is ground from one piece.