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Post by 28shadow on Jul 9, 2017 18:22:11 GMT
You can say I've been bitten by the customizing bug and I'd like to try my hand further at customizing rapiers. Is there a source for decent guards? I already have a blade, pommel, and grip in mind to use, just need the guard. Thanks in advance!
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harrybeck
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Post by harrybeck on Jul 9, 2017 18:39:33 GMT
Dark wood has numerous guards and will build whatever you want. I have a number of their products, both live and fencing blunts.
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Post by Afoo on Jul 9, 2017 21:50:41 GMT
I got some from armourclass out of Scotland. They sell swords as a whole but if you email them they are willing to sell just the hilts. I have a post about to t somewhere. Wait is long and selection a bit limited, but their stuff is good and are willing to accommodate.
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Post by crisock on Jul 9, 2017 23:41:41 GMT
I'd check out Castille Armoury. They have a lot of guards to choose from and if you send them an e-mail they can make the guard fit what ever blade you choose. They have fantastic customer service and will be able to help you find the guard you want.
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Post by 28shadow on Jul 10, 2017 1:39:37 GMT
Is there any merit to taking windlass/deepeeka and other low end swords and tearing them apart for the components?
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Post by Afoo on Jul 10, 2017 4:15:10 GMT
Is there any merit to taking windlass/deepeeka and other low end swords and tearing them apart for the components? If you see a hilt you like, sure. I find that for most of the low-end designs, it is the hilt that bothers me the most, either being too small, or being made of too thin stock. That being said, if you tear down a low end sword, you can probably find someone to whom you can sell the leftover bits. I myself am ordering another custom hilt from armour class, and would need a Munich town guard blade at some point in time... Here is my thread on franken-rapiers. In this case I started off with a Windlass town guard, a Hanwei practical blade, and a WIndlass generic rapier. I ordered a custom 3-ring swept hilt guard from armour class, as well as their English Rapier guard. Again, they sell complete swords but they will do just the guard if you ask nicely. On the top is the Munich blade + grips married to the Armour Class swept-hilt. The middle is the Munich guard on the Hanwei blade, and the bottom is the armour class English rapier guard married to the WIndlass rapier blade. The guards themselves worked out to be around 100-120 pounds each. They also threw in a set of grips (albeit plain wood) and pommels, which makes it nice for customizing (you provide the thread dimensions for the pommel if you have your own blade) A practical consideration a well is that ordering the guards themselves saves BIG money on shipping and customs, which is a huge factor for orders coming in from across the pond. ~ Outside of Armour Class, I do not have much experience with getting custom sword parts. Darkwood has been recommended, but their stuff looks more expensive. They also look much better than the Armour Class stuff, so you get what you pay for. I asked Wulflund (another known manufacturer) and they will NOT sell individual components. I recently bought stuff from Armory Marek - not sure if they will do custom hilts or not, but the experience was not great so I would not recommend them; they are nice enough and responsive, but their English is not good which makes communication hard - an especially big issue if you are trying to get a hilt custom fit to a specific set of dimensions. Jesse Belsky is another custom maker - I have been watching them for a while. They will do custom orders, and they also have a large selection in-stock. From what I can see on their website, they start off with standard mass-produced blades (Hanwei bare blades, canabalized CS blades etc), and then build the hilt and furniture around them which opens up a lot of customization possibilities. For some of their items for sale they even state "If you like this hilt and are interested in having it mounted with a different blade, please contact me directly." so that is encouraging. Their stuff ranges from pretty basic to extremely fancy, though it is also priced to match.
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Post by 28shadow on Jul 10, 2017 4:26:14 GMT
Is there any merit to taking windlass/deepeeka and other low end swords and tearing them apart for the components? If you see a hilt you like, sure. I find that for most of the low-end designs, it is the hilt that bothers me the most, either being too small, or being made of too thin stock. ..... Jesse Belsky is another custom maker - I have been watching them for a while.... Yeah, I like most of his stuff. What I'm looking more for is to just piece together my own "franken rapiers". I sort of did so when I stuffed a hanwei practical blade into an old Windlass hilt, and I've recently learned Darkwood Armory's pommels are threaded the same as Hanwei, so that opens up a few interesting ideas for customization or rehilting. I also want to try my hand at making grips myself, starting off with just some wood prototypes. I have a few ideas I think I'm going to play around with, starting with canibalizing lower end pieces that look OK and fitting a Hanwei blade into whatever it is I like. harrybeck: I took a look at Darkwood, and holy smokes those are strong looking guards. I'm sure they can take hits better than all the rest. This is the Hanwei/Windlass play date I already orchestrated. (No, that's not a Hanwei Practical hilt I just smashed the quillons down on, it's an old Windlass Brass Nickel Plated rapier hilt I smashed the quillons down on )
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Post by Afoo on Jul 10, 2017 5:49:35 GMT
The thing is that the Windlass rapier blades themselves seem reasonably good - not sure you would see significant improvements swapping it out for the hanwei.
If you find a hanwei pappenheimer though that may be a good candidate - swap out its whimsy stock blade with something more robust?
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harrybeck
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Post by harrybeck on Jul 10, 2017 6:19:17 GMT
When i had mine made i was extremely active in period style fencing and had a live sharp rapier and main gauche, and a fencing rapier and parry dagger made with identical fittings, en suite as it were.
This way I could wear and cut with the same gear I used to fence with. I've also bought a couple of custom helmets of that period, roughly 1580-1595
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Post by 28shadow on Jul 10, 2017 6:25:37 GMT
The thing is that the Windlass rapier blades themselves seem reasonably good - not sure you would see significant improvements swapping it out for the hanwei. If you find a hanwei pappenheimer though that may be a good candidate - swap out its whimsy stock blade with something more robust? This is mainly me just wanting to play around and mess with fittings. Also I'm planning on these being stage fighting blades, not sharp/display pieces. The Windlass rapier blades I've handled have been too thin/whippy to really work well in that context.
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Post by 28shadow on Jul 10, 2017 6:27:02 GMT
When i had mine made i was extremely active in period style fencing and had a live sharp rapier and main gauche, and a fencing rapier and parry dagger made with identical fittings, en suite as it were. This way I could wear and cut with the same gear I used to fence with. I've also bought a couple of custom helmets of that period, roughly 1580-1595 That's really cool! SCA stuff I'm guessing? I've been wanting to get into SCA rapier/cut and thrust for a while but have yet to find the time.
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harrybeck
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Post by harrybeck on Jul 10, 2017 6:35:19 GMT
Yup, I was a member from 1980 when I was in the army and taken numerous tourney wins in rapier and heavy armored.
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