just slowly starting to put together the peices for a composite hilt (the prettiest kind of sword :D ) i already have the blade and am capable (i believe) of making the organic hilt, with possibly a cocked hat made in antler.
the problem is, i've never actually created a hilt, ive done a few knife handles in different ways, but recently heard that not fixing the upper guard before attaching the grip could lead to compression and warping the hilt,
and hot peening was the way to go, but with an organic hilt i would burn the components! any assistance would be greatly appreciated with pictures of its construction and other hilts coming.[/img]

if your tang is annealed or if you are able to do it without ruining HT you should be able to peen it cold. Just remember to leave very short lenght to peen - 1,5 mm for example.
If your file take the tang end, i would say its possible

This post is possibly not necessary, but keep in mind that the peen is over the upper guard and that the pommel is placed over the peen, so that the peen is no longer visible. On a lot of migration age swords, the peen actually looks like a small steel pommel, but this would never be visible.

The pommel might also conceal small burns from the hot peening.

Fixing the upper guard before peening seems difficult to me, as is fitting the handle after peening...

paul i do have to agree, i had been looking on albion's webpage and thats how they do it according to them,and i've heard they're good (not actually handled one yet.)
what do people think would be good as layers in the guards?

If you make the pommel of antler, then you could choose the same as sandwich material.

But wood would also be nice.

the problemwith antler in the sandwich is that it is very hard to get a peice thick.straight AND long enough to do that with without it being a very rare commodity to a boneworker such as myself the celulose formation in the center is a constant issue. I wish it was all solid!
The opportunities to do a wide variety of things (for profit) with such a peice are too various such as comb making, which will fetch a high price.

anybody know hhere to get different coloured slices of horn?