Short and simple: I took the Windlass Five Lobed Viking and wrapped twisted brass/steel wire around the hilt/pommel, filed the crossguard a bit, and superglued two nail heads on the pommel to make it look like it is two piece. Sorry for poor picture quality.


Before and After...

Questions, comments, insults?

Colt, very nice. I have one of these swords and have been planning on doing a wire grip on it as well. I'm glad you shared this. It makes me want to work on mine. Yours looks great. The nail heads is an interesting addition. I never woould have thought of that.

Nice. It's a nice solid little sword isn't it? And now yours looks a lot better. I used to have one and tried something similar, put wire on the grip and tried to put some wire in the gap above the 'upper guard', but failed at the latter. How did you manage this?

Nice work. It's too bad Windlass offered this one for such a short time, it has great weight and balance.

Thanks. I do like this sword. I'm a little weak to effectively wield it in combat, but against the ever threatening water bottle it is my best cutter.

As for how I did it, the wire along the pommel is held in place by large amounts of super glue. Not historical I know, but it worked. The wire on the hilt itself is also glued down heavily, with some more slathered over it once wrapped to stop rust. It is surprisingly time consuming to wrap and glue at the same time.


Edit: And I would love to see what everyone else has done to their Five Lobed. The more the merrier.

David: Nice to know what one has and glad for Colt that he has a much better quality sword.

I'm not really disappointed and the blade is ponderous and unbalanced on the brass hilted " cheapo " version. ;) :lol:

It cost me so little that it's not really a buying mistake but just something cheap picked up at a sporting goods trade show at a production knife table.

Sort of has a low sentimental value and great to put into someone's hand right after they where holding one of my Albions or other high end swords to demonstrate the differences in handling between a good sword and a sharpened crowbar. ;) :lol:

Jean, here is a review I did of this sword a few years ago, and a pumpkin cutting show-down against some similar windlass products (that I also no longer own). -JD

http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=14442

I suspect you might be referring to this one Jean: http://www.trueswords.com/viking-spirit-sword-p-770.html
I also own this "sword" and it doesn't compare to the Windlass one. In addition to the bad balance, it seems to be untempered and developed cracks in use.

Both it and the Windlass in question have wood handles, though it is indeed fake leather on the former. Something I didn't mention, but Jean asks about, is that I did remove the leather and woodrasp the hilt to a more oval cross-section before putting on the wire. The factory hilt is more of a rectangle with rounded corners in cross-section and has a tapering triangle appearance I didn't care for. (Also, I took a black Sharpie to the hilt before the wire, so gaps wouldn't show up as much.)