Some newbie help -- medieval sword hilt and edge
Jul 31, 2013 18:33:43 GMT
Post by kaseijin on Jul 31, 2013 18:33:43 GMT
Looking for some help on a few things, so this is sort of a grab-bag post. Not sure if I should post this here or in the beginner's forum... mods, feel free to move, if needed.
I recently purchased my first ever sword from VA (one of the Crusader/Castile hybrids that Sonny offered at the start of summer), and pretty much love it; it is a beautiful sword. When it shipped, the crossguard was a little cocked, leaving one shoulder of the blade exposed — so I disassembled the hilt, flipped the cross around and got it to fit, and re-assembled. When I did, I found that the pommel would wiggle a bit. It's slotted, so it did not wiggle enough to go maybe more than 10 degrees in either direction…but wiggle, it did. Further, when swung, I could now feel the grip sway. My assumption is that the extra mm or so gained by re-seating the cross prevented me from having good compression on the hilt. It appears that this is down to the hex nut — the nut can be tightened as far as it can go, but stop juuuuuuuuuust short of pushing the pommel down onto the grip.
I was wondering if anybody had any tips for fixing this? What I've done so far (that seems to work) is to make a washer of sorts out of a loop of heavy gauge wire, and drop that into the top of the pommel after the pommel is slotted (around the tang threads). This allows the nut to push the pommel down by that much more, and everything feels tight again. But is this okay? Is it safe? Is there a better solution? If it makes any difference at all, I had Sonny fit the sword with a Kriegshwert style pommel rather than the crusader cross pommel…but I would imagine that this would not make much difference. Still, details help when seeking assistance.
The next thing I have questions about is sharpening. There is so much information out there regarding how to sharpen a sword, and so many people who are emphatic about various sharpening methods and minutia, that it borders on religion. It's a bit daunting to a fresh newbie. How sharp is sharp enough? I can cut through plastic water bottles…but not cleanly, and they bat a little bit. Is that sharpness or technique? Some of both? How do I tell? If I need to sharpen it more, how is best to do that? How do I know if I'm doing it right? Lots of questions about this. I've read all of the threads, and I've watched videos…and I've spent several hours "sharpening" the blade and seemingly getting nowhere. I've tried sandpaper up to 2000 grit, and I've tried diamond hones.
I've also explored taking the sword to the local professional sharpist, but I didn't really get a good feeling. They wanted to charge $100 to sharpen it using a belt sander, and didn't really understand the point of maintaining a convex edge. I passed. Does anybody know someone in the Austin, Tx area that sharpens swords properly?
I recently purchased my first ever sword from VA (one of the Crusader/Castile hybrids that Sonny offered at the start of summer), and pretty much love it; it is a beautiful sword. When it shipped, the crossguard was a little cocked, leaving one shoulder of the blade exposed — so I disassembled the hilt, flipped the cross around and got it to fit, and re-assembled. When I did, I found that the pommel would wiggle a bit. It's slotted, so it did not wiggle enough to go maybe more than 10 degrees in either direction…but wiggle, it did. Further, when swung, I could now feel the grip sway. My assumption is that the extra mm or so gained by re-seating the cross prevented me from having good compression on the hilt. It appears that this is down to the hex nut — the nut can be tightened as far as it can go, but stop juuuuuuuuuust short of pushing the pommel down onto the grip.
I was wondering if anybody had any tips for fixing this? What I've done so far (that seems to work) is to make a washer of sorts out of a loop of heavy gauge wire, and drop that into the top of the pommel after the pommel is slotted (around the tang threads). This allows the nut to push the pommel down by that much more, and everything feels tight again. But is this okay? Is it safe? Is there a better solution? If it makes any difference at all, I had Sonny fit the sword with a Kriegshwert style pommel rather than the crusader cross pommel…but I would imagine that this would not make much difference. Still, details help when seeking assistance.
The next thing I have questions about is sharpening. There is so much information out there regarding how to sharpen a sword, and so many people who are emphatic about various sharpening methods and minutia, that it borders on religion. It's a bit daunting to a fresh newbie. How sharp is sharp enough? I can cut through plastic water bottles…but not cleanly, and they bat a little bit. Is that sharpness or technique? Some of both? How do I tell? If I need to sharpen it more, how is best to do that? How do I know if I'm doing it right? Lots of questions about this. I've read all of the threads, and I've watched videos…and I've spent several hours "sharpening" the blade and seemingly getting nowhere. I've tried sandpaper up to 2000 grit, and I've tried diamond hones.
I've also explored taking the sword to the local professional sharpist, but I didn't really get a good feeling. They wanted to charge $100 to sharpen it using a belt sander, and didn't really understand the point of maintaining a convex edge. I passed. Does anybody know someone in the Austin, Tx area that sharpens swords properly?