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Post by tinker60 on Jan 10, 2021 5:06:04 GMT
Ok, I’ll admit it, as soon as I handled the Hanwei Medieval Knights Bastard in the shop, the blood rushed to my (complete newbie’s first sword purchase) lizard-brain and I just HAD to have it. Plus I justified the purchase rationally by telling myself it was the biggest baddest mofo of a sword I could afford. As a bonus, I seemed to be able to cut with it fairly well (as judged by the bottom half of most water bottles remaining on the stand after the cut, and sometimes even staying after the second cut) It wasn’t until I joined a club and used Feders that my precious purchase felt relatively axe-like with its 3lb 10 1/2oz and 5.5” PoB. And I finally understood what was special about a ‘Knights’ sword – primarily for hewing from horseback where greater weight and longer PoB would be advantageous. These same features unfortunately becoming a disadvantage when un-horsed, unless you’re either big, and/or have muscle in your s#!t, neither of which category I fall into at 5’7” and 140lbs… So seeing as I (sadly) don’t have nor plan to get a horse, I reshaped my sword for use on foot. I’ve dramatically increased both profile and distal taper and shortened the blade by 2” which suits my short stature (which is another way of saying the tip doesn’t drag on the ground when the sword is belted, and I can draw and replace it from the scabbard without hooking my thumb under the cross-guard…) It now weighs 3lb 5oz with a 3” PoB, handles much like my Feder where most of my muscle memory is learned, and still cuts just as well. I am now totally in love with my sword 😊 edit - can anyone make any guesses about what Oakshott Type if any, this now might be? XVIa is my closest uneducated guess...
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Post by illustry on Jan 10, 2021 15:23:35 GMT
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Post by joe_meadmaker on Jan 10, 2021 21:45:57 GMT
Excellent job. That looks great!
Out of curiosity, do you have any estimate on how much time you put into reshaping the blade?
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Post by tinker60 on Jan 11, 2021 11:44:33 GMT
Thanks Gents, I didn't think it was possible for this sword to look any cooler, but I'm very pleasantly surprised to be wrong Good question... my horizontal belt sander has trouble pulling the skin off rice pudding and I had to lift the blade slightly to take the weight off for 2/3 of the blade which made things reeaall slowww... As far as I can recall it took, one weekend, three (or four?) half'ish days, and a few hours here and there 'finishing' (dicking around polishing out those little marks I didn't notice before) So somewhere around 30 hours? I reckon I could have more than halved that if I could put ANY pressure on the belt sander. Although for a first time, it was probably good that I was forced to take it slow. Plus it was a very meditative time, so no complaints (after the b!t@hing about 'this cheap POS' before I came to acceptance... ) Oh, couple things I forgot to mention - I cut the guard down by 2 bumps off each end because I kept just hitting myself in the back of the head when I was swinging it to warm up. And the other tool used was a water-filled 1m length of 100mm PVC drain pipe with a cap glued on one end, for cooling. Even with light pressure the sword still got too hot to handle. I made sure not to let it get stupid hot and mess with the temper, so I was dipping it maybe every 10 minutes? I think if I could have applied pressure it would have been every 2 minutes. This is one exercise I can wholly recommend to anyone who is at least a bit handy (and in need of patience training). Speaking of hands, my work gloves have duct tape on top of leather fingers cut from other gloves to patch slices, on top of more duct tape and are now too stiff for anything but this job, and there's still gaps I got cut through at the end! My sword has been well blooded although unfortunately with mine... So I would highly recommend steel wire gloves, especially on the vertical belt sander where you end up with long feathered edges just waiting to slice your fingers as you slide that long blade through your hands to keep the pressure on the belt constant... But what the heck, it ain't fun if it can't hurt
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Post by pellius on Jan 11, 2021 12:00:40 GMT
Wow. Nice work.
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Post by tinker60 on Mar 30, 2021 10:52:50 GMT
After trying a club-mate’s feder, I decided I liked its square-sectioned, and waisted grip. And I’ve always loved wire wrapped grips for their aesthetics and practicality. So I stripped the factory leather(which had started to come apart at the seam...) as well as the string wrapping, and reshaped and re-covered the grip to my liking. Stripped and marked out. I moved the high-point over an inch closer to the guard as it always felt too far back Roughed out Sanded Wrapped in jute and PVA wood glue. The ridge on the high-point is a strip of leather, skived at each end, held with contact The leather wrap, cut to shape, skived all around, and painted generously with PVA wood glue Leather wrap applied. The jute (same as used to wrap the wood) is to hold the leather in place, as well as create grooves for the wire to lay in Half way through applying a temporary leather and strapping tape wrap to hold the edges of the leather down while the glue dries, and to really push the jute into the finished leather wrapping Unwrapped and oiled (the same Lanox MX4 used for blades) And finally the wire wrap (and freshly oiled). The wire is two pairs of 28ga Kanthal (FeCrAl vaping wire), one pair twisted clockwise, the other twisted counter-clockwise, annealed with a butane blow-torch, then laid beside each other. The ends are secured in holes with toothpicks, and then some 24 hour Araldite let soak through the first and last inch of braiding into the leather (after a thorough clean with wax and grease remover) , then wiped off. Time will tell how effectively they're fixed... Now I REALLY love this sword. The new shape feels SO good in the hand, and the wire adds grip without feeling at all harsh. The sword feels decidedly more nimble, and more secure, especially when sweaty. I made a few mistakes but overall, I'm very happy with my first attempt
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Post by paulmuaddib on Apr 16, 2021 19:51:12 GMT
I haven’t been on this sub board for a long time and I’m not a euro guy but damn that’s nice. Really like the job you did with the grip. And the euros I tend to like have a spatula tip but I really like what you did with that profile. So pointy! Great job.
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Post by joe_meadmaker on Apr 17, 2021 2:26:45 GMT
Bravo sir! That looks absolutely amazing!
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Post by tinker60 on Apr 30, 2021 1:48:39 GMT
I haven’t been on this sub board for a long time and I’m not a euro guy but damn that’s nice. Really like the job you did with the grip. And the euros I tend to like have a spatula tip but I really like what you did with that profile. So pointy! Great job. Bravo sir! That looks absolutely amazing! Aww shucks... Thanks Gents... edit - here's a link to my custom Leon Paul Razer feder - link
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Post by tinker60 on Feb 7, 2022 11:32:33 GMT
Here's part of how Hanwei can make swords so cheap. Don't get me wrong, I've cut plenty of saplings and wet rolled newspaper, often hitting the dowel in the middle of the newspaper when it gets short, and bashed the s#!t out of my pell and the blade shows no sign of wear or fatigue (as 'tested' by regularly bending it probably further than I "should" to see if it will break - I'd rather it fail playing at home than the first time I might have to use it for real...) so the blade seems tough as nails. It's the fittings which let it down. Here's a pic with the grip removed
The pommel and guard are plainly mass-produced with a too big hole and can slide up and down the tang...(unlike e.g. Albion who hand finish the holes to within an inch of the final placement then hammer the fittings down the tang so they're wedged in place, then the tops of the guards are peened onto the blade for more security) The recesses you can see are made to secure mass-produced grips. Whack the guard on, slide the grip on top, cold peen the pommel to hold it all in place (compression assembly - exactly like Albion stopped doing after their first generation), until the not-stabilised wood which looks suspiciously like pine deforms with work/drying/humidity and the guard comes loose...
And here's how they stop the loose-fitting pommel rattling
There were four of these shims, one on each face of the tang. Also note the lack of attention to finishing the pommel casting. These are the things you pay for in a good quality sword. Lucky I like to tinker After reading how Albion secure their hilts, and not having a welder or wanting to weld the holes up and re-filing them for a super-tight fit, I have some ideas about how to make mine "permanent". Will keep you posted
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LeMal
Member
Posts: 1,085
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Post by LeMal on Feb 9, 2022 22:19:07 GMT
Great job!
It's amazing how many "substandard" production swords can be made pretty darn sweet by simply adjusting the profile taper, or similar tweaks (shortening them, etc.)!
“The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.”
― Michelangelo
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LeMal
Member
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Post by LeMal on Feb 9, 2022 22:36:33 GMT
"Look at that crappy, cheap production sword!" "What's crappy about it?" "It's overbuilt!" "Have you tried, like, just removing some material?" tenor.com/bi903.gif
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2022 2:00:46 GMT
Great job! It's amazing how many "substandard" production swords can be made pretty darn sweet by simply adjusting the profile taper, or similar tweaks (shortening them, etc.)! “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” ― Michelangelo I find this is true in many cases, unless the steel is not thick enough where it needs to be. Provided the manufacturer start with a thick bar of steel, I can whittle it down a la Michelangelo. The manufacturers of sandpaper are the real victors here.
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LeMal
Member
Posts: 1,085
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Post by LeMal on Feb 10, 2022 2:31:29 GMT
Great job! It's amazing how many "substandard" production swords can be made pretty darn sweet by simply adjusting the profile taper, or similar tweaks (shortening them, etc.)! “The sculpture is already complete within the marble block, before I start my work. It is already there, I just have to chisel away the superfluous material.” ― Michelangelo I find this is true in many cases, unless the steel is not thick enough where it needs to be. Provided the manufacturer start with a thick bar of steel, I can whittle it down a la Michelangelo. The manufacturers of sandpaper are the real victors here. Even if they're UNDERbuilt, starting stock thickness-wise... that's where in many cases I've found just turning it into a shorter sword can do wonders. 😁
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LeMal
Member
Posts: 1,085
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Post by LeMal on Feb 10, 2022 2:35:25 GMT
Or adding what I like to call "artificial distal taper" on the longsword length and above. 😏
Hey, if you're going to do any halfswording with it? Any halfswording at all? Yeeeah, adding scales and a ricasso wrap above the crossguard can do some wonders too.
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