Who says women should be the only ones intitled to change their minds ;-)

Over Thanksgiving holiday, after much thought on the matter, I decided to remove the shiny black paint on hilt of my Eljay ribbon basket.
Using a wire wheel brush on my grinder I stripped off the paint, burnished it up, and finished it off with fine steel wool & oil.
It now has a nice gun grey finish and should patinate quite nicely ....

The following pics are not the best but should give you a pretty good idea of how she's currently looking !

Happy Holidays, Mac

Hi Mac,

I really like the new look; it turned out great!

Alex

With reference to that last picture, Mac, :eek: I promise that I won't go anywhere near the wood stove :eek:

(oh, yeah - the ribbon hilt looks great, just as long as it doesn't have any of my blood on it!)

Very cool sword, nice engraving on the blade near the guard.

And I agree with Steeve: Let's back away ...... Slooooooooowly and not make any sudden moves. :p :lol:

Looks good Mac,
But i think the others have the second pic confused cos i'm sure that'l be the pic the daughter shows the boyfriend before the inlaw visit in the future :D ;)

For baskethilts, Eljay really is The Man.

I like that a lot better. Neat!

This is really making me long for my ProtoMortuary by Eljay that should be finished soon.

Mac, like you said yourself, that is going to look soooo good when it has a bit of patina. Who can resist a good ribbon hilt that looks like it has seen a few fights?

Good job there Mac. Now let nature take it's course and get that good old look to it.


Cheers,

Bill

Hi Mac,

I actually think it looks better now than with the paint. The details in Eljays work seems somewhat more visible... I hope to
see some pictures after you've let it patinate.

Cheers,
Henrik

Mac,

You did a great job! The black looked nice, but the natural really looks great. But then again, I think the only way you could ruin the looks of an Eljay hilt would be with a hacksaw.

Thanks, guys !

I probably should have mentioned that I did leave the inside of the hilt black !

A.) It looks good and contrasts nicely with the burnished exterior.
B.) It was a heck of alot easier than trying to get in there with a wire wheel ;-)

I also did not fuss with trying to get the paint off in between all the cutouts of the hilts design, as I just didn't think it necessary !

I'm quite pleased with the results and feel that it gives this piece more of an "antique look" .

Cheers, Mac

My god...that sword is...beautiful.

It would also look really nice with some flat black pinstriping along the edges and grooves, in the same style as the blade engraving.

But it still looks amazing. :D

Hi Mac,

I think that japanning looks best when there's some gold
leaf floral painting added to it. Flat black just doesn't look
gaudy enough for a peacock gael such as yerself. And besides,
the silvered, cleaver look is much better for when the aforementioned
teenage men come by to see your daughter. :^)

Alex

If you want a truly gaudy look, than I would suggest using gold (as suggested by our friend Mr. McKracken) augmented with very thin lines of black or a similarly dark colour, the contrast would make the gold stand out that much more on hilt.

Of course the bare metal gives it that more threatening utilitarian look.

-It's not my sword, so I will stop commenting on how to paint it :p