Blade 1, Hilts
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Discourse on hilt
design and failures
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I broke my sword.I was quite proud of my "Battle Ready" sword for several years. I carried it often, and had little doubt that it would stand up to whatever task I set about.That proved not to be the case, the small doubt that I *did* have about my carry sword was predicated on the fact that I had no idea how the hilts were constructed. I had believed the sales blurb about the sword having a "full tang" construction. I suppose one would have to agree that it was in fact a "full tang" hilt,
OH, except for the small part that holds the whole thing together. Umm, what was I missing here?
Soooo, it's pretty obvious what happened here, the folks who made this sword built it pretty much like every other *historically accurate* Battle Ready Sword, and EVERY one has the same damn silly ass flaw. I've done a LOT of looking at swords, mostly browsing
the net, but I've had plenty of steel to heft, and
compare.
FIRSTLY, consider that what you may have seen in
movies, on television, or in print concerning the
usage of a sword is a dramatization of probably
fictional accounts. The writers, producers, directors,
actors and props all conspiring to make a sword battle
scene as climactic and exciting as possible. I hope you have a sense of the reality you might face
in sword combat, but wait, there is MORE!! I am presenting the use of the sword, as a finesse
weapon, rather than a mere sharp cudgel. It is
important to undertand this distinction so as to
better understand why swords in those times of their
actual use were constructed the way that they were,
and why that construction was adequate for that usage. There is a LOT more to be said, for instance I have
not mentioned the use of a sword in a *battle*, rather
concentrating on individual combat. In a battle of
course the situation is so very different, and very
many broken swords on known battlefields attest to the
differences. I am mentioning the composite handle construction,
rather harping on it actually because that is in fact
the damn silly flaw that *historically accurate*
swords offered today all have in common.
Here is an example of the cheapest stainless sword construction I have ever seen, on a $20 katana, note the slot cut in the end. That slot is there to help support a 1/4" threaded rod that is welded on as the "tang".
Above: rod welded into slot as "tang". After the tang is welded, a guard of brass was bored with a 1/4" slot, and fitted over the tang. Then a wood dowel was bored out, and fitted over tang, this was capped with a thin brass spacer, then it was all held together with a brass "nut" at the end. See below: assembled unit. Note that after assembly, there is no way, short of
disassembling the hilts to know how poorly this sword
was constructed. If you have not figured out where the sword will fail, perhaps you should take up tiddly winks, and never touch an edged weapon! This hilt composition was never used on "real" swords, that should be fairly obvious. This next composition example was on a $40 dollar stainless double edge sword that is one step up from the cheap Katana above. It should not be necessary to repeat the warning above, let me be clear, unless you know by disassembling the hilts that the tang is not a welded rod, NEVER swing a blade at anything for any reason. If the blade separates from the hilts, YOU are responsible for any and all damage done by that loose blade. The welded rod hilts WILL fall apart by merely swinging them. I have seen it happen. Above: Another welded rod tang. These are sometimes advertised as "half tang" blades, these are really no better than the examples given above. I have seen these on $40-$140 blades, some of the more expensive ones were carbon steel blades. It makes no difference what quality the "blade" itself is, we are discussing the hilts! This next example is what I consider the MOST
dangerous hilt composition I have ever encountered. In
fact this is the hilt design that was used on a $300+
officers sword that I was using to cut back blackberry
bushes when I was too young and dumb to care. When the
blade separated from the hilts I was in a backswing
and the blade sailed about 30 feet and landed safely
in a pigpen. The hilt example above is called a "full tang". BEWARE!! I consider the term "full tang" decribing the above as deceptive. However it is technically accurate. the tang extends the full length of the handle, and the welded rod is only used to attach the pommel. Again I caution you, unless you have actually seen the hilt disassembled, you must assume that it is welded rod, even if the manufacturer has advertised the assembly as "full tang"! "Historically Accurate" hilt compositionsThis is the most common "Battle Ready" "Full Tang"
hilt design that I have seen. Essentially the same as
my sword hilts that failed while chopping firewood. I
was very lucky that the failure occurred while I was
withdrawing the blade rather than on a full swing.
There were multiple children, women and non combatant
folks around. This could have been a deadly incident.
The folks who have experience with my blades know that
my edges are reworked by me, so that I can keep a
razor edge on at least one portion of the blade,
generally one full edge on a double edge blade. The above is an example of the older brother of the
previous. Before the advent of screw technology, the
end of the tang was fitted into a hole cast or bored
into the pommel, then the end of the tang was peened
over to secure and tighten the pommel, thereby
affixing the hilt assembly. I'm going to skip the captured wedge design of the
Japanese styles, I'll mention them again, in a moment
though. Note that I am talking about "battle" not mere combat, again single up combat without armor is much more of a finesse usage of the sword. In battle however, armour is common, as is sheilding of some sort, and the weapons in use generally become more edged and pointed cudgels, swung and thrust wildly with as much force as one can muster, for as long as possible. There is no regard for turning the edge, or holding back a stroke to lessen the possibility of damage to the blade or hilts. Of course there is no reason to think that a riveted scale hilt would perform any worse in single up combat than any other hilt design. I can assure you that after having seen and felt hilt failures on the field, knowing beyond ANY doubt that my grip will remain in FULL control of my blade under ANY circumstance short of total blade failure, allows me to perform in combat much better than I have ever been able to in the past. I have never seen a Katana with the captured wedge hilt design disassembled, however I can envision how such a system might work, and it is rather impressive, with such an extremely limited possibility of failure that I would almost, I say "almost", accept a blade with that hilt composition. Above: After my $20 Katana fell apart in Live Steel
combat, I bought a cheap stainless blade for about
$40. The hilts began falling apart in the first few
minutes of live steel combat. I went home and using
parts from the defunct katana, a grinder and some
ingenuity, managed to support the welded rod well
enough that this configuration lasted almost 2 years
under weekly Live Steel combat, before the blade
wobble and hilt looseness told me without doubt that
it was time to put it away. I am reasonably happy with this blade. The edge is still pretty rough, I had no way to hold the blade while grinding the new edge bevels, so I ran the grinder one handed while holding the blade with the other hand. The handle scales are Mahogany, the rivets are 1/8" steel welding rod. Yep, the blade is painted red. As I said, this was my Live Steel blade. After I "fixed" the hilts for Live Steel use, I painted the blade black, don't ask me why, I just did it. Then I decided I didn't like that, so I painted red over top of the black. I used red so that when I was doing Live Steel, my opponent could ALWAYS see my blade, and wonder why the hell it was red, heh, heh heh! The blade length is 20 inches plus a fraction, the
handle is six plus inches, Mahogany, the total length
is just about 26 1/4 inches. This sword is just a bit
blade heavy, balancing at 5 1/4 inches from hilts. I
was prepared to install a hand guard and pommel,
however when it came time to get started on those, I
could not locate the brass pieces I was thinking of
using. I am fairly sure that with guard and pommel
installed as I had planned the blade would balance
closer to 2 or 3 inches out from hilts, which would
have made for a better "sword" balance. I am quite happy with this sword and scabbard, I still intend to rebuild my carbon battle blade, but I doubt that it will become my everyday carry weapon. |
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