"Italian" Longsword Upgrade Project -- myArmoury.com

Michael B. · Industry Professional

Found this sword hanging out in a garage. I shall deem it a "sword like object". It was insanely overbuilt with a massive wood handle that was heavily epoxied on. Cas/Hanwei still makes a version of this sword called "The Mercenary" which appeIars to be a slightly better version than this old version. I lost my original notes on how heavy it was, but it was heavy with terrible balance. I've handled clubs that were more lively. The lovely part was that despite it's age, it was still had the original plastic and grease on the blade, it had never been unwrapped or cleaned up. After I removed the goop I found this lovely thing.

This of course, would not do....Time for surgery.

Michael B. · Industry Professional

I recognized what sword they were trying to duplicate. So, quick study in history!

http://s444.photobucket.com/user/mkbergstrom/...6&o=15

So after looking at some photos, decided to strip the weight, deepen the flutes, and do a rain guard.

Michael B. · Industry Professional

Once I stripped the handle off I found to my surprise that the tang was very substantial, no welded on all thread, and even though there WAS a weld, it was properly done and very strong. I recruited my sword smith friend for some of the metal work, and we were off to the races!
The fluting was first, this was very tricky since there are a lot of voids in the pommel and there was worry that we would punch through, we took the fluting as far as we dared.

Next up: The guard. The guard needed slimming down and reshaping to make it more of a gradual S shape and just reduce the overbuilt appearance of it, also did a nice little flaring at the end of each curve.

I carved the handle out of popular. Here's a test fit before leather. I gave up on a waisted grip this time around, it just proved too difficult to do for me at this time.

Boris Bedrosov · Industry Professional

Well, this upgrade sounds quite promising!

I'm waiting to see the result.

Michael B. · Industry Professional

So, once I finished up the leather work on the handle, I gave it all back to my friend who did a final polish and peened everything nice and tight together. I ended up with a sword, not a sword like object. POB is about 3-4 inches from guard and it's just sings now. Even though it's my heaviest sword, it's quite lively now and a very serious cutter. Oh, forgot to mention that the fullers were straightened and evened out and make just a hair shallower, whole sucker was also sharpened up. I'm currently working on a scabbard for it.

Dean F. Marino · Posted: Wed 06 Nov, 2013 1:08 pm Post subject:

Michael B. · Industry Professional

Thanks! The pommel was really quite heavy. There was a lot of material on both the guard, handle and pommel. I can't vouch about the model they currently sell though. There are a lot of rough spots on the leather work, I'm still relearning all of it and it was also my first rain guard. I may tweak it a little still and give it a slightly more finished edge. We'll see.

Matthew P. Adams · Posted: Fri 08 Nov, 2013 8:27 am Post subject:

Not to derail, but what is the origin of your second historical picture?

I have an ATrim 1592, done up with Durer type furniture, and it looks a lot like the sword in that second photo. I had thought I was making an amalgam, but it looks like my sword might be historical after all... ?

Thank You!