Yesterday was very fruitful.
Apart some good work on the khanjar from the "Yushman Project" (this will be shown very soon in the appropriate thread), I fitted the guard and the pommel of the sword.

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There are some extremely minor fittings left, but as a whole - this is it.
As I gradually come to the end, I like this sword more and more - both as an object of art and purely as an instrument of war.
I hope you like it too.

This sword is going to look REALLY GOOD

It already does, and it's not even finished! Really impressed with the great pommel. The curves and ridges aren't easy to do, but they really make a difference on the finished piece

I really like it! especially as it has you´ve used of my favourite pommel designs. One technical question: what was used to make those diagonal ridges? A small Dremel tool?

I used my Dremel tool with the flexible shaft, 1/2" sanding drum and 1/2" 120-grit sanding band.
It's good to know that you must work with new sanding bands, as the work is done mostly with the edge (not the surface) of the band, so the edge relatively quickly becomes useless.

After the work with the Dremel tool was done, I re-worked the ridges with a square file

This is really coming on beautifully, thanks for documenting it. Its like a 'miracle of birth' thing on National Geographic!

And finally, the guard and pommel were finished - sanded and polished.

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I decided to blacken the guard and the pommel, thus taking the risk to be criticized far and wide for this inaccuracy - as you could see on the zornhau web-page, there aren't any traces of oxidation on the original sword.

After the blackening

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And some more pictures:
* the guard

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** the pommel

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My first attempt to mount the guard on the sword was a failure, but after some minor re-matching, today everything went just perfect.

* the guard

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Note that after hot mount, I used a chisel for additional anchoring of the guard.


** the pommel

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Tomorrow is the day for riveting of the tang.

Impressive work in every sense of the word, as I usually expect when seeing anything you work on. :D :cool:

As always, excellent and extremely impressive work Boris (as Jean said, you've set your own standards to such levels that I'm not so surprised anymore either). This is the kind of things that motivates me to re start on old projects after along day at work, instead of wasting the evening in front of the television...so thanks for that!

Thanks for documenting your progress and looking forward to see this sword complete.

hey that's real chemical bluing not just paint on stuff isn't it Boris?

it looks great i just can't wait to see everything finished.

Me riveting the tang

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and the result, after some filing, sanding and additional blackening

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It's quite different from the original, but the decision was mine - you could feel free to cast stones on me, if you don't like it :D :cool:

Dean,
This cutting could be really pain in the a** :confused: , but in any way is not easy.

It's quite hard to work with this round object. The lines for the cut are hard to be got straight, during the cutting itself the wood wants to roll almost constantly.
As I don't want to clamp it in the vice (or I'll get a lot of bits and dents from the jaws), I open the vice just a little bit - the grip goes between the jaws, but just partially and stays there relatively firmly. In this way I still have bits and dents, but acceptable, and mainly - I could get the grip in position I could work on it.
The cut is made not with ordinary carpenter's saw, but with some saw with tiny teeth - usually with hack-saw. I hold the saw in one hand (the right for me), with the other - the grip.

The saw kerf issues always exist, but I could minimize them if working carefully. If they get un-acceptable, it's easy to sand the scales a little bit. In any way, after gluing, cord and leather, nothing of the wood will be visible.

Unlike Lando Calrissian (who's deal got worse all the time), I think this is looking better with every step towards completion

Well, originally this picture

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should be a part from the previous post. But in any way, it's OK here too.

The scales of the grip were chiseled to fit the tang

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Some posing for the camera

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and the scales were glued with epoxy. After several hours I wrapped the whole grip with hemp cord, glued again with epoxy.

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That is a truly STUNNING grip shape - all the more so because of the careful handwork involved. I'm really looking forward to the leather wrap :).

Boris: Early on in this project, I think I said it was excellent. I WAS WRONG! It's beyond that. Your skill, your artistry, your vision awe me. You saw something in your mind and then made it, out of bar stock. Huzzah, sir. Huzzah!