So.....What are your suggestions?

I won a a Jody Samson sword tonight and I intend to restore it to its intended glory.

Extensive work on the blade is needed and I am going to do a hybred polish to get that done. Plus fabrication of fittings.

I am going to keep the foundation pure but everything else is open to speculation.

From the Ebay Listing
Sword has cutlass profile, 32" overall length, blade is 26 1/2"

Jody traded this ( and some other of his blades) to a friend of his that worked at sword and stone back in the 90's. was hand ground by Jody and he included hardware like guard ect. He did basic shaping of guard and hardware and his buddy did some trim work on guard so it is included with blade since Jody did have hand in it (it is rough work needs some finish work to complete)

Blade was made and hardened and polished by Jody, but needs some work, light patina has set in on blade and guard, looks to be light surface to me and should come out with proper polish on wheel. Blade does not have sharpe edge on it (it is ready to be edged if you would like)

the wood handle was added later and not done by Jody.

Again sword needs finish work but Rare chance to get Samson sword on the cheap.

Note: this is not a movie prop. it is hand ground steel from Jody, hardened, polished and ready for edge. just needs some love to get her there.


Ebay link below.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jody-Samson-Cutlass-S...&rt=nc

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I haven't seen this type of sword before. It doesn't look fanciful like most Jody Samson swords.

Well the sky's the limit, you are pretty lucky. If it were mine I might echo the Seaward or the Martian (John Carter of Mars) cutlass since those would be somewhat faithful to Jody Samson's design and ethos. I would probably work with Christian Fletcher, Brian at DBK or Yeshua's Sword, since they are all familiar with this kind of work and I don't think you could go wrong with any of them. Ben Potter has done some great stuff with cutlasses also. Wouldn't a large scale of his Mariner's Knife be awesome. http://www.seekyee.com/Bladesmithing/available/available.htm

You already know them all I'm sure but here is the jody samson page for other people I guess: http://jodysamson.com/limited-edition-swords.htm

Martian Longsword and Seaward at the bottom of the page. Yours looks most like the Flaming Jack Cutlass at top.

Seems like a cool project whichever way you go. And there's a lot of freedom too, exciting.

I might make one suggestion-- perhaps refine the form of the handle as you are able to. As is, it looks a bit simple and crude for a JS piece.

A suggestion might be to take a faux-ivory or faux-bone type of plastic and carve it into an interesting shape. Alternatively, a lovely tropical hardwood might do well.

Adding a very gentle curve to the handle would also help its looks a bit too. If you don't want to bend the tang, it would be possible to use a straight slot through a curved handle, as long as you line it up carefully and accept that there will be some compromises in handle strength.

In my opinion a Jody Samson sword deserves a lovely scabbard from the likes of Christian Fletcher or Brian Kunz... ;) if you don't employ them, then at least feel free to draw inspiration from their work.