myArmoury.com - Gun blued Windlass 15th c. longsword hilt

Posts: 1,001 Location: Roanoke,Va

Sat 22 Mar, 2008 5:04 pm

Gun blued Windlass 15th c. longsword hilt

Spurred by recent threads about antiquing and such...I put my latest acquisition (Windlass 15th c. longsword )under the brush.

Using BIrchwood-Caseys gun blue formula this is effect of 2 treatings on the pommel and guard

I may do my CAS / Hanwei practical H&H now....just for the heck...

Cheers

Auf Wiedersehen

Bill

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Dave Smith

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Posts: 30

Sat 22 Mar, 2008 5:22 pm

Re: Gun blued Windlass 15th c. longsword hilt

William Goodwin wrote:

I may do my CAS / Hanwei practical H&H now....just for the heck...

I recently tried birchwood-casey on a paul chen longsword (although they market it as a bastard sword) and it wouldn't take. It seems that paul chen uses stainless steel on some, if not all, of his hilt fittings.

On another note, that looks pretty nice! Thanks for showing us how it turned out. :D

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D. Austin

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Posts: 208 Location: Melbourne, Australia

Sat 22 Mar, 2008 6:25 pm

I believe that the practical hand and a half has a nickel silver finish on the fittings. It doesn't look like stainless to me but nor does it appear to be a mild steel. If you're really keen, you could probably sand the outer layer off and see what you find below.

I'm sure someone more knowledgeable on this particular product could tell us what it's made of.

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GG Osborne

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Posts: 487

Sat 22 Mar, 2008 6:50 pm

I have a Hanwei basket hilt and it is non-magnetic...at least some sort of alloy if not SS that would probably make a hash out of bluing or russeting. BTW, I have just completed russeting two basket hilts using the same manufacturer's Plum Brown and both turned out very, very nice. Used a propage torch for clean heat.

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Jonathan Hopkins

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Posts: 1,377

Sat 22 Mar, 2008 7:26 pm

It looks brilliant, Bill! Is it fairly easy to do? I am contemplating bluing the basket on my Darkwood.

Do you plan to do anything else with the hilt? Maybe a nice Albion-style leather wrap? :D

Jonathan

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Bren O

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Posts: 26 Location: Western Australia

Sun 23 Mar, 2008 12:58 am

Hey Jonathan. You've probably seen these.

Here's the same sword grip redone by Maz at SBG Forum.
[ Linked Image ]
[ Linked Image ]
This inspired me to do a cross between an Albion style leather grip with half wire wrap in the style of that sword (links below). I went with Green to suit the Ivy / Celtic etching I did. The wire is a twist of green and steel.

Mine is a Hanwei H&H - and "NO", theres no way to blue / antique the Hanwei parts short of disassembling them and popping them in the forge, which isn't entirely out of the question...
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/brennyo2/IMG_4055.jpg
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/brennyo2/IMG_4062.jpg
http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/brennyo2/IMG_4059.jpg

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William Goodwin

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Posts: 1,001 Location: Roanoke,Va

Sun 23 Mar, 2008 4:51 am

Jonathan Hopkins wrote:

It looks brilliant, Bill! Is it fairly easy to do? I am contemplating bluing the basket on my Darkwood.

Do you plan to do anything else with the hilt? Maybe a nice Albion-style leather wrap? :D

Jonathan

Thanks Jonathan...no hard at all...

Clean the area's to be blue down really good with "00" steel wool...wipe down with clean cloth.

Apply the blueing agent with a 1/2" craft / paint brush with half the bristle length clipped off to make a stiffer brush.
Take your time and gently rub onto surfaces. Let set for two minutes (directions on bottle say 1 min. but I like to let set a bit longer).

Clean off with a clean, damp rag and dry off. Check the effect...if you'd like a deeper finish..apply more coats in the same fashion When desired look is acheived...light wipe down wipe "000" steel wool and then I take my old, oily wipe down sock and go over it once...just to make it shine a bit and then......"Bob's your uncle".....

No further changes...like the look of the blued hardware and the black grip w/ silver wire.

Glad they did not lacquer the hilt parts of this...made for an easier application.
When I did my type 2 Schiavona a couple years back took a bit longer and the effect was much different....more of a browning effect.

Bill

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Lin Robinson

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Posts: 1,241 Location: NC

Sun 23 Mar, 2008 5:05 am

GG Osborne wrote:

I have a Hanwei basket hilt and it is non-magnetic...at least some sort of alloy if not SS that would probably make a hash out of bluing or russeting. BTW, I have just completed russeting two basket hilts using the same manufacturer's Plum Brown and both turned out very, very nice. Used a propage torch for clean heat.

The Hanwei basket hilts are made of brushed stainless, at least that is what they told me when they first offered them. It won't take any sort of bluing or browning.

I have used Laurel Mountain Forge browning and degreaser solution on several rifle barrels with good results. The nice thing about that product is you do not have to heat the metal and you can handle it some between applications without ill effect, although I do try to avoid that as much as possible.

Got my Krolick rilfe last week and it is a really nice piece.

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