[Chip F.]

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!

[Alan Schiff]

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

[Ian Hutchison]

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.