Hello
Any advice on how to tighten a round pommel nut without scratching it up? Where can I get some toothless
vice grips?


Thanks in advance

You can get away with regular channel locks. Just put some rubber in between the tool and the nut. That will give you the friction you need to turn it and won't bite into the pommel nut. If you don't have those, but have access to a vice, put the nut into the vice and use the cross for leverage. To avoid the vice biting into the metal, you could use rubber again, or even some scrap leather. The consistent pressure from the vice keeps the leather from spinning around the nut like it would if you used the channel locks/leather combo. Hope this helps. :)

- JM

Josh Hemmingway used to stock smoothed out vice grips back in the All Saints ATrim days of the round nuts. Tinker and Tinker Toys with Gus used to have a hole drilled crosswise through them.

I believe it was Patrick Kelly shone a light bulb over our heads at one point in mentioning some cutting pliers have a round cut out that are just about the right size to tightly grab the nuts. I still have a couple of Trim swords and just use padded pliers, whatever is handy.

One could also file opposing flats and then use a small adjustable spanner.

A shop vice of some sort would work as well.

Cheers

GC