Question on repairing a Hanwei Practical single-hand sword -- myArmoury.com

Chad Orrin

There is a peddler's fair where I live in California every Memorial and Labor Day weekend, so my wife and I took a stroll, and I stumbled upon a Hanwei Practical Single-hand sword (SH2046, to be exact). It must have irritated a former owner, because they had ground down the ridges of the fuller down the entire length of the blade on both sides, and someone had tried to sharpen it, VERY poorly. However, it was not warped at all, handle and pommel are good, and I got it for $10, so after checking it out I bought it to use as a beater.

The only thing that I would like to fix is the guard, which is pretty loose, and the leather washer between the guard and blade just has a shred left. I am inexperienced in repairing a sword, but as this is beat to heck anyway, I'm not worried about ruining it. Any advice anyone could give me would be much appreciated.

I can give more details on request, I just don't know what is important enough to include.

Tom King · Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 12:24 am Post subject:

Put the blade tip down and vice it close to the cross guard, then hammer the hell out of the peen. This sword has a tendency to get loose because the grips seem to compress rather quickly from vibration and hits to the cross guard. You won't be able to get it back to perfect this way, but you can get most of the rattle out of the hilt.

Chad Orrin · Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 9:38 am Post subject:

Thanks Tom, I'll give it a shot!

Jimi Edmonds · Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 11:39 am Post subject:

Be sure to give the peen a good hit in the centre, so it wedges the tang, forceing the pommel to tighten the hilt, do this and check the looseness of the crossguard, if you give it a series of wacks it may just cause the hilt to bouce loose again, if it doesn't work at all check the over hang of tang out of the pommel, if theres a lot [more than say 5mm] you got tomuch hanging out and it wont really help your tightening process. If this is the case grind some off leaving enough to do the trick, 3mm or so should be enough.
If the grip its self is moving and is the main problem [typical of Hanwei practicals] you may have to take it all apart and fix that, though I havn't yet done that without destroying the grip! Unless you drill a hole in the grip both sides and pump in some epoxy or the likes....

Michael B. · Industry Professional

I would advise to be cautious hammering. Some of the practical blades looked peened but are in fact threaded with a bolt. Put the sword in the vice, protect the little knob on the pommel and twist. They use an adhesive at times to tighten it, but if it's threaded you'll find out. If it is, it's a pretty easy job taking it apart, repairing and replacing as needed. While you are inside the sword check out the tang and make sure no cracks are appearing. I've had a couple hanwei swords fail me because they welded a piece of all thread to the blade tang with a weaker steel. Had to bring it to a bladesmith for him to forge a new tang.
Good luck.

Scott Woodruff · Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 2:42 pm Post subject:

As far as I know, the Hanwei Practical line are all peened. Beware, when I re-peened my HP pommel, the end of the tang cracked a bit, due to the high hardness of the tang. It may be necessary to completely take the hilt apart and heat the end of the tang to red heat to anneal it or even peen it hot if you can. My HP made a great cutter, the heat-treat on the blades is one area where they apparently did not cut any corners.

Chad Orrin · Posted: Mon 28 May, 2012 8:19 pm Post subject:

Thanks all for the help!

The handle is in great shape, as is the pommel, it's only the guard that is loose, and of course the ground-down blade. I don't have the knowledge, experience or equipment to heat the tang or anything else, so I am going to try the hammer method. If nothing else, I might be able to just cut the handle off and make a new one.

John McDonald · Posted: Tue 29 May, 2012 1:09 am Post subject:

I have just finished putting a new handle on my Hanwei Practical Single-hand sword and the handle was glued to the tang.I have heard from others that they have experienced the same problem.Hope this helps.

Boyd C-F · Posted: Tue 29 May, 2012 1:55 am Post subject:

I rehandled my Hanwei practical 1.5 hander. The handle was glued on using resin. It took a while to remove but I was able to get a better handle and a tighter guard as a result.

Cheers

Boyd