[Allen Johnson]

My CASI/Hanwei Practical Broadsword has developed some movement in the grip. Any ideas on how to tighten that up? Thanks all.

[Tom King]

there really isn't much you can do. They did something weird with the construction and the grip actually goes into the guard (there is a pocket) which is why heavy use chews up the hidden part of the grip, making the guard loose. The only upside is despite the disconcerting looseness, they still perform admirable as rebated beater sword. Besides replacing the grip, you kind of just have to live with it.

[Allen Johnson]

I guess you get what you pay for. Thanks Tom.

[Isaac H.]

Hope is not all lost. My Hanwei hand and half has the same issue. I was able to tighten mine (until more beating loosened it again,of course) ,by simply peening the pommel a bit more. Also, I believe a bit more permanent of a fix would be to wedge a very thin wood or metal shim between the pommel and grip on both sides. I used this technique to tighten up my Hanwei Dark Sentinel ,and it worked very nicely.Of course,if you have a leather wrap ,it will need to be peeled up slightly to perform the opperation. Honestly,though,as Tom said, the sword functions just fine as-is. But if it's bothering you,then best wishes on correcting the issue

[Tom King]

To piggyback off of Isaac, the easiest fix I've found is to take some fishing line and put a wrap around the throat of the grip, trying to get it into the gap where the chewed up grip segment is; you can also shim it from the above with some metal splints, since the guard is not pressfit and has that slight gap