Hi folks,

I have a question here for anyone who knows about bladesmithing: about a year ago I received a long awaited custom sword that I commissioned from a reputable smith. After spending some time with the blade, I really feel that there are elements of its construction that aren’t quite practical. The biggest of these is that it’s simply too forward-heavy. The smith decided to make a very thick blade, and though there is a distal taper, it isn’t pronounced enough to make the sword easy to wield in one hand.

My question is - is it feasible that an experienced smith would be able to grind stock off the blade to improve the balance without serious risk to the sword? The sword is fully constructed with a peened pommel, so disassembly is not an option.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Increasing the distal taper is definitely doable without removing the hilt, I've done so for a couple of customers. Though usually it's not difficult to remove the hilt, even if peened, and then re-peen it afterward. The times I've had to grind with the hilt intact were when some anomaly in the hilt construction made it impossible to remove.

Hope that helps,
Alan

The answer to your question is 'yes', it is not that difficult at all. I am doing that very thing right now with an $80 Deepeeka shashka, knocking it down from 900g to 700-800g.

I've been using a 1x30 belt sander with a 40 grit zirconia belt . It removes material slowly enough to prevent mistakes but quickly enough to prevent exhaustion, I just have to remember to cool the blade in water regularly. It has taken about 2 hours to remove ~90g.