Sword Construction Data Base

DSA Feanor
This was my first customization project. I think this might be helpful to you all. I've followed an instruction on disassemble DSA sword from this thread. Everything was accurate except my sword wasn't peened at all. The tang is really ugly. Tang width is about 7-8 mm and then taper down to 6 mm in threaded section. Tang thickness is around 5-6 mm.




Here's my 2nd attempt of assemble this sword.

Cold Steel English Backsword.

The discussion about the construction and other issues with this sword can be follwed here:

sbg-sword-forum.forums.net/thread/48467/cold-steel-2016-mortuary-sword

See it as an important primer in case you should wish to own the sword.

At page 6 you will find these findings too. Read the discussion please and find out the many things that are not in order with this Mortuary. That said, it is not a bad sword, but it needs your urgent attention to certain details like tang play, guard play etc, etc.
The pommel nut construction is okay when other issues are fixed first.
See Findlithui's comments too.

1.CS clearly designed a construction a la Darkwood Armoury. DA uses this same type of nut to make swapping blades, bated to live and vice versa, easy. That said, DA tangs tend to be quite beefy and are made with extreem care, as they must be, to make this type of construction safe. What I found here does not, or barely, cut it.


The pommel nut. The thinnest part is threaded on the inside. It takes barely 9 turns to remove this nut. The middle part sits in the pommel. That fit is quite good.


As you can see here, the entire hilt assembly just shoved right off. Once the pommel nut is gone, anything is possible.


See that piece of wood sticking out of the guard? The grip is made for a 6mm blade cq tang and they just shimmed it. A bit. With a measely shim like this the grip will start to roll in no time if the sword is used for cutting. Once the shim and the grip have dried out that grip will be lose even when the sword just sits in the rack. This is a big nono and could cause trouble for CS in the future. Clearly ALL parts are made to accomodate a 6mm blade.


The tang pass through in the guard and

the mouth piece are made to fit a 6mm blade. Both have the same width.


The tang goes from 4+mm at the shoulder to 4mm AT THE THINNEST POINT. It then swells to 5mm at the start of the threads. Half way into the threads it swells to 5.5mm and the last bit, the bit that counts is 6mm. NEVER SEEN THIS HAPPEN BEFORE. This is weird.



Here you can just see the head of the threaded part of the tang. Yes, that is how deep it sits in the pommel.

What I do not get is that CS clearly immitated DA with this construction, while there is no need to use it and the grip is not secured at all. Before this the CS construction was so that the grip ALWAYS was held in place on the tang with a nut on a metal washer. This fitted into the pommel and the pommel had the master nut to hold everything in place extra tight. That way, whatever happened, the blade would always be stuck in the grip. While the DA nut is good and safe for people that know swords and know about the DA construction, they just turn the screw when the assembly starts to rattle during sparring and stuff, most inexperienced buyers and that may be what? 80%? , of this sword do not know anything at all, will not hear or feel the signs nor heed them and so could wind up with blades shooting out off the too lose grips and God knows what will happen next.

I find it my duty to report this sword, as it constructed and right out of the box, as unsafe.

Cheers.

Windlass Munich Town Guard:

Blade above ricasso: 43 mm broad

done

Thank you for a most interesting contribution. It looks like this sabre is A okay construction wise. I am quite sure the stamp on the tang reads Cold . Steel .

Cheers.

Welp. Weakest part of the blade failed. Albions and Regenyei look even better for the money now.

Thank you for the extra images. I hope there where no injuries.

I have looked into this and after a good mornings search I could not find anything about these blades breaking. On the contrary, the blunts, with or without fullers, seem to hold up well under the most extreme conditions. If this issue was a constant, I should expect a lot of posts about this. The more so because these blades are often used in full contact combat.
When the Hanwei Practical rapier blades broke all over the place some years ago, the rapier fighting community was up in arms with many a thread about that problem. With good results I might add, as Hanwei fixed the temper problem directly.
The combat community seems to regard the Hanwei / Tinker blades as entree level low cost blades worth every penny. The only recurring gripe I could detect was that they would like them to have harder edges, like 57 HRC. The way they are tempered now they get chewed up quite fast. Skalagrim on Youtube is full of praise, as are many more:

www.youtube.com/results?search_query=hanwei+tinker+longsword+review

Though I am not an expert, I have to conclude your accident is a one off and not a problem inherent to the Hanwei / Tinker line of fullered blades. Contrary to what you suggest, the problem may be that in your case the tang at that point was too hard. Not drawn back enough.
I hope you will contact Hanwei / Tinker and ask them to look into this. And send you a new blade of course.

Cheers.

Just got a scale so I've edited my existing posts to correct overall weights and added guard and pommel weights.

Hey guys! 

So, I will have a post about this sword on savagesteel.blogspot.com, but I felt this information would also be useful here. 

I bought the Hanwei Godfred Damascus Viking Sword, kultofathena.com/product.asp?item=PC1010, years ago. I did some light cutting with it on some brush, and the pommel snapped right off of the peen.

I decided, before I sent it out to Wes Beem at Lonely Forge to have it fixed, to deconstruct the handle (which was tough as nails and VERY well put together, mostly) and show you what it looks like beneath the surface. Enjoy!