The River Pirates of Tiencienwey.
Jun 27, 2014 21:59:02 GMT
Post by Uhlan on Jun 27, 2014 21:59:02 GMT
The River Pirates of Tiencienwey.
One of them sure would have liked to own this cutlass and that yelman is something else too.
It looks a lot like this Dao, blade wise that is.
To a Chinese, pirate or not, it would not have looked too outlandish. Just a Dao with Jian fittings and a kind of gwai lo' ish scabbard.
Well, as a pirate, one has to make do with what one can scrape together.
The build process.
Relative to its size, this one was a much more problematic build than the Scottish Jian.
( viewtopic.php?f=12&t=21956 ).
The heavy blade lost the basket as a counter weight, so something had to be done to pull back that POB.
All I had were the left over guard, grip and pommel to make this happen.
Luckily the guard has a beautiful fit over the scabbard mouth of the Windlass scabbard.
like they were made for each other.
Another problem was the fit of the Windlass tang into the Sea Dragon Jian parts. Everything was way too wide.
But solutions were found and this was done:
1. Cleaned parts and tang with acetone, inside and out.
2. Stuck guard on tang, lined up 100% and secured. Did not forget the brass plate that sits in the guard to take the stress away from the cast alloy.
3. Closed gaps inside the guard, between blade, the brass guard plate and actual guard, with modelling wax.
4. Found those left over strips of lead from another project and made tiny pieces.
5. Filled the guard to the brim with lead and took care of the grip socket. It needs to be clear for the grip to go in there.
6. Mixed some epoxy and filled her up.
7. After setting repeated with newly made grip. ( Under and upper parts of the old Jian grip bonded together and filed a bit. This was pure laziness. The ends of the Jian grip were recessed to fit into guard and pommel sockets. The fit was perfect, so I just cut a piece out of the middle).
8. After setting repeated with the pommel.
9. Removed the wax from the inside of the guard.
10. Closet and sanded the seam in the middle of the grip. Covered it with an antique silver ornament from the cover of a Ball Book.
Ladies used to write down the order in which various suitors had asked for a dance in such booklets.
The little booklet was not repairable anyway. The use of the ornament lends a nice macabre or romantic (Whatever happened to the Lady? Ransom? Slavery? Romance in Tiencienwey? ) twist to the story.
The Chinese made pommel has metric threads inside and because I had made the grip a little longer , there was just enough room to screw and glue a little piece of an old bolt in there to make a false peen. It sits right on top of the tang.
All this filling took some 220 grams of lead and a good load of epoxy, so I estimate the extra weight to be around 250 grams.
This cutlass handles quite nicely thank you very much and it has a good, healthy sound when struck.
The ensemble will not get loose in a thousand years and no pins through the grip are required.
Of course it was blade heavy to begin with and though all of the above helped, this is not exactly a nimble sidearm for the faint of muscle.
Then again it is not a cumbersome club too. Lets just say, there is a heft to it and as some would say: authority.
Wielded by the appropriate person, it is one mean, very sharp, fast, close quarter chopper and it will cause grave bodily harm to any person standing in its way.
Excellent!
The scabbard.
1: Removed the steel fittings with the blow dryer.
2: Removed the green - blue paint with acetone and re painted it black.
3: Sweated a knob on the mouth piece, for a baldric or a frog. Ratted that one from the lid of the sugar bowl.
No ladies were hurt during this process.
4: Sanded, polished and plated the scabbard fittings, to fit them in better with the hilt parts. The iron was very bright.
5: Put the fittings back with some glue.
The numbers.
Weight : 1197 grams or 2 lib 10,223 ounces.
POB : 12,7 cm or 5".
Total length : 80 cm or 31,496".
Blade length : 63,6 cm or 25,03" .
Grip length : 10,5 cm or 4,13".
Hitting power: Awesome.
Summary.
All said and done, I am quite content with the outcome of this project.
Relative to size, it took more work than the Scottish Jian to get it right.
I like the idea that all left over pieces from that project were used.
The net result of the effort is a good, sound and serviceable weapon.
It feels good in handling and the looks are not bad either.
It kinda grows on you.
Next week I hope to present ,, A Jacobite Mourning Sword ''.
Cheers.