Discontinued Windlass Cavalry Rapier
Mar 12, 2011 6:56:04 GMT
Post by Greg on Mar 12, 2011 6:56:04 GMT
Hey guys!
So a buddy of mine has an older Windlass Cavalry Rapier that he wanted a few inches taken off of. I offered my services to "test my metal" as it where. I've been looking for an excuse to shorten a blade and reprofile the tip.
Well, all that is done, the tip isn't a slender as it used to be, but it actually thrusts through bottles better. I'm assuming that it's due to a stiffer blade along with a more rigid point as well as sharpened edges around the tip (side effect from drawl filing). As far as thrusting into flesh, well, I suppose we'll never know.
Anyway, I had noticed as I was working on it that the guard was off center, or rather, had turned around the blade. I gave it a jiggle and it moved with some slight effort. Well, the hilt is peened assembly, so I thought "Ah! I'll just take the peening hammer to it, some light taps and it should be fixed."
No sir!
I started tapping and I was watching the metal spread out and then something fell outta the guard. So I take it out of the vice, check it over to make sure nothing has fallen apart, and then resumed tapping waiting for it to happen again.
Well, as it would turn out, the guard appeared to be held in place by epoxy of some sort. The peening had actually rattled all of that loose and now the guard moves with even less effort.
This is my diagnosis:
The pommel is keyed to the tang so that once peened it will not move. This would be fine and dandy if the guard were put on the same way, but the guard is a "one size fits all" guard where it relies on pressure from the rest of the hilt to stay in place. Windlass either did this by design to keep the bone handle from cracking, or it was a "whoops, how can we fix this."
Basically the purpose of this post is to ask if anyone else has had a similar thing happen. It would be swell if someone else had a Windlass Cavalry Rapier and had the exact same thing happen. My friend gave me the go ahead to "do what I must" to fix it.
I'm planning on grinding of the peen, perhaps do a backpeen on the guard, fill the grip with epoxy (because it was moving too) and then widening out the slot on the pommel. What this should hopefully accomplish is to make a slight "pressure" assembly where the pommel would be slightly pushing on the handle, which would slightly be pushing on the guard.
If anyone has any info to the contrary, I'd appreciate the input.
So a buddy of mine has an older Windlass Cavalry Rapier that he wanted a few inches taken off of. I offered my services to "test my metal" as it where. I've been looking for an excuse to shorten a blade and reprofile the tip.
Well, all that is done, the tip isn't a slender as it used to be, but it actually thrusts through bottles better. I'm assuming that it's due to a stiffer blade along with a more rigid point as well as sharpened edges around the tip (side effect from drawl filing). As far as thrusting into flesh, well, I suppose we'll never know.
Anyway, I had noticed as I was working on it that the guard was off center, or rather, had turned around the blade. I gave it a jiggle and it moved with some slight effort. Well, the hilt is peened assembly, so I thought "Ah! I'll just take the peening hammer to it, some light taps and it should be fixed."
No sir!
I started tapping and I was watching the metal spread out and then something fell outta the guard. So I take it out of the vice, check it over to make sure nothing has fallen apart, and then resumed tapping waiting for it to happen again.
Well, as it would turn out, the guard appeared to be held in place by epoxy of some sort. The peening had actually rattled all of that loose and now the guard moves with even less effort.
This is my diagnosis:
The pommel is keyed to the tang so that once peened it will not move. This would be fine and dandy if the guard were put on the same way, but the guard is a "one size fits all" guard where it relies on pressure from the rest of the hilt to stay in place. Windlass either did this by design to keep the bone handle from cracking, or it was a "whoops, how can we fix this."
Basically the purpose of this post is to ask if anyone else has had a similar thing happen. It would be swell if someone else had a Windlass Cavalry Rapier and had the exact same thing happen. My friend gave me the go ahead to "do what I must" to fix it.
I'm planning on grinding of the peen, perhaps do a backpeen on the guard, fill the grip with epoxy (because it was moving too) and then widening out the slot on the pommel. What this should hopefully accomplish is to make a slight "pressure" assembly where the pommel would be slightly pushing on the handle, which would slightly be pushing on the guard.
If anyone has any info to the contrary, I'd appreciate the input.
Not only do I know far more about swords then he wants me to, but I was in auto sales for 7+ years... so I like to play with em.
