Home Project: Hanwei Basket Hilt Broadsword -- myArmoury.com

Henrik Bjoern Boegh

Some years ago I bought one of the practical basket hilts made by Hanwei. I used it along with one of the backswords from the same maker to sparr with. After some time I figured that since the basket on the broadsword was more befitting to my taste and the broadsword blade being awfully heavy compared to the backsword I decided to swap the hilts with each other.
And after having used that for some time I decided it was just too heavy still. And I decided I wanted it to be quick and more flexible...

So, I dismounted it again. Ground away a lot of weight from the blade, making it more more slender over the back and sides and gave it more of a profiled edge. Then I took some different files and started widening the two excisting fullers and adding a shorter third one. Also a short one at the ricasso just for the look of it. I wanted this thing to look and feel more historically accurate. Then I sanded the blade time and again...

At the same time I decided I wanted to take some weight off the hilt. This I did first by taking away that unpleasing disk where the basket meets the pommel. I cut it off using my dremel. Then I filed the joining points of the bars down. I then decided I didn't like the way the additional rear guard looked. The way it was joined to the rearguard was too smooth for my taste, so I cut it off and filed and sanded down the rear guard and the crossguard where it had been. Another good thing about this was that I got rid of the wrist guard that I wasn't too fond of because it wasn't flat enough and not curled up like on so many originals. One feature that's on Hanweis practical version of the broadsword that isn't on the sharp version is those strange triangles that has been welded to the top of the crossbar. I've seen a feature similar to this on some of the 16th/17th century early basket hilts but never on an 18th century one, so I decided it had to go. I cut off as much of it as I could and smothed the rest down with a file and sanded it.

I wanted the basket to be one fitted only for a right handed person, so I beat the basket into a different shape, mainly with a rubber mallet. The two forward guards stood too much out from the hilt for my taste so I beat them closer to the blade. And I am very fond of the type of wristguard seen om many Scottish basket hilts that lean s towards the wrist, so I bent it with the same mallet.
Next thing was adding some fluting to the bars of the hilt. This took many many hours and gave me some blisters along the way. I mostly did this with smaller pen files and later the type of round files you'd use to sharpen your chainsaw.
I didn't like that the two saltire panels were so simple and unadorned, so I added a St. Andrews cross there as well as flutes to make square. I did a lot more file work, but can't really think of it all now...

I made a new handle for it, using some cherry I had plenty of and bought some ray skin that I sanded down a bit so that it became more comfortable to handle. I also added a simle brass wire around the grip. The ferrules on the grip are the original Hanwei ones, I just added a lot of decorative filing with two thin flutes going around them.
I also added some flutes on the pommel that I had reshaped a bit.

I almost forgot! Yes, the basket was covered in a black paint originally... I didn't like this, so I used a paint remover on it. But I wasn't happy with having a basket hilt made up of an alloy that doesn't rust... So I had to do something. I am very fond of blackened or browned basket hilts... I was told on the Sword Forum that I could use Birchwood Casey Plum Brown barrel finish might work. And yes, it did. Eventually. I had to use quite a bit of heat to get it to stick. When it had rested about 24 hours I put the basket and pommel into my oven at the kitchen and heated it up to about 250C. When I took it out I had a lump of beeswax that I coated both basket and pommel with.

The blade isn't entirely finished. I've done some machine engraving on it only by freehand after pictures of the Jacobite blades. I decied to go for the Prosperity to Schotland and No Union type rather than the rhyming blade as there were more pictures available that were easy to see approximately how the inscriptions were.

I've already cut the leather for a scabbard for it and I've got two frog hooks/sword lockets from Smiling Fox Forge that I'll attach to it. My plan is also to make a baldric with two frogs/loops kind of like the portrait of Lord George Murray.

I hope you like it.

Cheers,
Henrik

PS. I'll get some more photos once the scabbard is done.

Stephen Wheatley · Posted: Mon 18 Apr, 2011 9:24 am Post subject: GOOD WORK

Great stuff again Henrik, almost a new sword you've made there.

Lin Robinson · Posted: Mon 18 Apr, 2011 7:14 pm Post subject:

Henrik...

Great work, as usual. The blade looks a lot like the backsword blade on the Hanwei Stirling Hilt of a few years ago. Is that it? I would really like to see some more of the basket from different angles. Will you post photos please? Really nice work. Congratulations on a fine job.

David Wilson · Posted: Mon 18 Apr, 2011 8:08 pm Post subject:

Impressive redux!!! It does look like an entirely different sword (and a great improvement at that)!

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Tue 19 Apr, 2011 9:02 am Post subject:

Cheers, lads! I'll post more pictures when the scabbard is done as well. :-) Next week hopefully.

Lin, the blade is from the Hounslow backsword. Hanweis standard practical backsword blade.
I intend to use if for reenactment so I've left it unsharp, and I have to get some gold paint of some sort to get the engravings on the blade looking more like the gilt on originals.

The weight of the entire thing last time I checked was at 1178g (a bit more than 2.5 pounds). And the balance lies around 3.5 to 4" from the crossguard, last time I checked. I'll get more info up when all is done Happy

Cheers,
Henrik

Tom Carr · Posted: Thu 25 Aug, 2011 1:10 pm Post subject:

Outstanding project you have going Henrik. How is it coming along? I would love to see the final work. A quick question if I may. How is the pommel attached on the Practical Baskethilts and how does one diassemble it? Any help or links to show the process would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

Josh Maxwell · Posted: Thu 25 Aug, 2011 6:38 pm Post subject:

Wow, I really like how the browning looks in contrast to the handle underneath. Well done sir.

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Fri 26 Aug, 2011 6:36 am Post subject:

Perry L. Goss · Posted: Fri 26 Aug, 2011 7:47 am Post subject:

Henrik:

Stellar project. So...I have ground some blades [small sections of already completed blades], but...just how much trouble was it?

And...inform me on the fullers. That is one task that I just do not have the patience for. I would like to, have started, but never finished a belt sanding rig to do just fullers alone. I just do not have the tools and equipment. All my friends who can do so it is such an impossition on their time, I hate to ask for it.

But there has to be a better way to take out a lot of material precisely without killing your hands, arm and shoulder in working fullers. And othere than hot forging them in. To fire up a coke forge in some areas is just not practical or..."legal" On Don Fogg's side Peter J. has a series of photos on putting in fullers. He starts with a grinder then goes to files, then sandpaper. I do not have that amount of time, nor shoulder strength.

But! There has to be a way to form a rubber wheel such that a half moon grove can be sanded into a blade of appropriate size using high speed belt sanding equipment with good quality belts. I have talked to machinists about using router bits of correct shape, but...am kind of apprehensive about that method! Worried

Nice topic.

PS: if you can do this you can do# 03969 # 12!

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Fri 30 Aug, 2013 4:41 am Post subject:

It's been a long time since I got to do anything on this sword. Along with some dirk projects that are taking more time than they should I finally got this scabbard completed.

And now I need to get back to finishing Gabrieles dirk set!

Cheers,
Henrik

Stephen Wheatley · Posted: Fri 30 Aug, 2013 7:13 am Post subject:

Really stunning work Henrik, are you planning to ''jack'' the scabbard? Should look great with beeswax impregnated!

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Fri 30 Aug, 2013 7:46 am Post subject:

Thanks Stephen! I was going to polish it with black polish first and then dub it. But beeswax is also a good method...

Cheers,
Henrik

Lin Robinson · Posted: Fri 30 Aug, 2013 6:08 pm Post subject:

Henrik...

It looks even better than the first time I saw it. Great work!

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Sun 01 Sep, 2013 3:21 am Post subject:

Lin, thanks!

Perry, sorry I never got around to answering your question. It was a lot of hard manual labour. So arms, hands and shoulders all had to bear the brunt.

Making fullers should be possible with an angle grinder or a dremel tool. I've had a try out with the angle grinder and that works well, but you need to do things really slow so as to not ruin the temper. I think there was a thread where Kirk had made or widened a fuller with a dremel tool, but my memory might be wrong... http://www.myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=6924&highlight=

Cheers,
Henrik

Henrik Bjoern Boegh · Posted: Sun 08 Sep, 2013 2:27 am Post subject:

I think I'm finally done with it...

Cheers,
Henrik