Quite some time ago, I purchased two Hanwei Banshees for the purpose of customizing their hilts. I stripped the swords down to bare blades, and bent the tangs to a recurve shape, then sent them off to Scott Byler to do new hilts for them.

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After removing the hilt... [ Download ]

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The Banshee in its original form... [ Download ]

More pics:

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Spot heating the tang to soften it for bending. The towel is soaked in ice water to keep from ruining the temper in the blade shoulders...

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With newly curved tang...

I sent Scott some diagrams of my design ideas, and ended up creating mock-ups of the fittings out of Sculpey to send to Scott...

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Photoshop cut & paste of my idea...

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Close up of the hilt design...

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Diagram detailing necessary tang modifications...

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Pommel design...

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The Sculpey mock-ups I made...

After debating whether I wanted the fittings in steel or bronze, Scott agreed to try casting them in bronze. He used my Sculpey fittings to make molds to cast wax versions of the fittings, then used the lost-wax method to cast the bronze. After some trial and error, he finally came up with some fittings that he was happy enough with to use. He had to shorten the tangs, mount the fittings, create handles, seal them, and polish it all up.
In the end, he wasn't completely happy with how they turned out, but I'll happily tell you Scott is his own worst critic. He was worried about some minor pitting that showed up while polishing the fittings, but what little there is certainly doesn't mar the effect of the finished product. As I want the color of the bronze to deepen a bit, to look just slightly antiqued, the little bit of pitting that is there will actually enhance the look in my opinion.

On to the pics...
You'll notice the two handles are of different colors of wood. I made sure Scott knew I was going to cover the grips with leather, so the esthetics of the wood didn't matter. I haven't yet covered them, but wanted to show them anyway...

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Needless to say, I am completely happy with the job Scott did. I think they turned out fantastic! I will still cover the grips with leather, and let the bronze age to a nice deep color, but I love the swords!
Sometime down the road, I would also like to get some nice scabbards made for them, but that'll have to wait a bit...

A few more pics...

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Congratulations. It looks like you got just what you wanted. They look solid.

What was the inspiration for the strange pointy guards?

Congratulations. They are absolutely gorgeous. They look superb.

VERY nice! I love seeing people take on interesting projects.

Thanks for sharing!
Those grips look sleek, interesting and comfortable to the hand.

Very cool upgrade! I much prefer the new design hilts to the original. I look forward to seeing your leather wraps.